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Books > Biography > Film, television, music, theatre
Dana Gillespie, the award-winning first lady of the Blues has
enjoyed an incredible life and career. Now, she has chronicled her
exploits, and as anyone who knows Dana would expect, it is
intelligent, insightful, outrageous, and funny. Detailing high
points, low points and everything in-between, the book covers,
amongst many other things, liaisons with David Bowie, Bob Dylan,
Keith Moon, and the cream of 1960's rock royalty; Recording with
Jimmy Page and Elton John; Performing as Mary Magdalene in the
original London production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and as the
Acid Queen in Tommy; Acting in films directed by Nicholas Roeg, Ken
Russell and Mai Zetterling; Performing Shakespeare with Sir John
Gielgud and Arthur Lowe; Topping the pop charts across Europe;
Performing to an audience of one million people in India; And... oh
yes... Being British junior waterski champion for 4 years!
With Barry Flanagan is a vivid account of a friendship that evolved
into a working relationship when Richard McNeff became 'spontaneous
fixer' (Flanagan's description) of the sculptor's show held in June
1992 at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Ibiza, where they were
both living. McNeff was to gain a privileged insight into the
sculptor's singular personality and eccentric working methods,
learning to decipher his memorably surreal turns of phrase and to
parry his fascinating, if at times unsettling, pranksteresque
quirks . In September 1992 Flanagan and McNeff took the show to
Majorca, resulting a lively visit to the celebrated Spanish artist
Miquel Barcelo. The following year McNeff was involved in
Flanagan's print- making venture in Barcelona and in his Madrid
retrospective. Flanagan rescued him from a rough landing in England
in 1994 by commissioning a tour of stone quarries there.
Subsequently McNeff ran into a fourteen- year-old profoundly deaf
girl who turned out to be his unknown daughter. She had a talent
for art and the superbly generous sculptor was instrumental in
helping with her studies. Late in 2008 Barry was diagnosed with
motor neurone disease. By June 2009 he was wheelchair- bound. Two
months later he died, and McNeff read the lesson at his funeral.
Fleshed out with biographical detail, much of it supplied by the
sculptor himself, supplemented by photographs and details of the
work, this touching memoir is the first retrospective of a major
Welsh-born artist. With Barry Flanagan captures the spirit of this
remarkable Merlinesque figure in a moving portrait that reveals a
true original.
WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON DEBUT FOOD BOOK AWARD 2021 WINNER
OF 2021 LAKELAND BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Extraordinary. Vivid,
irreverent, heartbreaking.' NIGEL SLATER 'So funny and so
delicious. I could eat it.' DAWN O'PORTER 'Delicious.' THE OBSERVER
From an early age, Grace Dent was hungry. As a little girl growing
up in Currock, Carlisle, she yearned to be something bigger, to go
somewhere better. Hungry traces her story from growing up eating
beige food to becoming one of Britain's best-loved food writers.
It's also everyone's story - from cheese and pineapple hedgehogs
and treats with your nan, to the exquisite joy of a chip butty
covered in vinegar and too much salt in the school canteen on a
grey day. And the Cadbury's Fruit & Nut from a hospital vending
machine that tells a loved one you really care. Grace's snapshot of
how we have lived, laughed and eaten over the past 40 years reveals
the central role food plays in either bringing us together or
driving us apart - from toasting a large glass of warm Merlot to
grimly polishing off a wilted salad. Heartfelt, witty and joyous,
Hungry shows us what we've always known to be true. Food, friends
and family are the indispensable ingredients of a life well lived.
This second updated edition of Notes from a Jazz Life includes
Digby Fairweather's career since the year 2000 as a jazz cornetist,
band leader, educator and broadcaster, working with George Melly
and leading his band the Half-Dozen. The book has much to offer to
people who are even marginally interested in jazz in all its wide
variety of forms as well as providing insights for regular jazz
readers. The author provides revealing reflections on the personal
life and career of a musician and, with a wealth of warm, hilarious
anecdotes, he writes honestly about all the challenges,
frustrations and rich rewards of being part of the jazz world.
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