Category Archives: Biography
Gail Crowther – Marilyn and her Books – The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe
The bookish Bombshell Marilyn Monroe would have been one hundred years old on 1st June this year. It is impossible to think of Marilyn old. She was just 36 when she died in LA in 1962. She is frozen in … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, History
Tagged Books, Haigh, Marylin, Munroe, Tim
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Anthony Gottlieb – Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy in the Age of Airplanes
Yes, but does it matter? There is an old joke: Why is it hard to move a philosophy department into a different building? Answer: because philosophers are reluctant to abandon their premises. [This is Tim’s own joke [ED]] And then … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, History, Philosophy
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Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush
Is this what a “Pop icon” is? Kate Bush burst onto the scene in 1978 with Wuthering Heights, a wildly unlikely and ethereal single. The record industry and radio DJs were bemused, but the record-listening public were instantly smitten. I … Continue reading
Alwyn Turner – A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars
Don’t mention the war! Alwyn Turner is our finest cultural and social historian. His focus is typically on the lived experience of the people, rather than the Sunday papers’ idea of culture or the minutiae of the Westminster Village. He … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Alwyn, BritIN, Nation, ShellShocked, Turner
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Steve Richards – Tony Blair: The Prime Minsters Series
He was not arrogant enough! Tony Blair is one of the defining politicians of post-war Britain, but he failed to transform the country on the same scale as, say, Margaret Thatcher. For his enemies he was a warmonger and a … Continue reading
Peter Doggett – Surf’s Up – Brian Wilson And The Beach Boys
“There are dozens of Beach Boys!” Jack Reiley (Beach Boys manager 1970 to 1973) said: “The Beatles were focussed, strategic, professionally and well-led during the years of their mounting ascendency. During that period, the Beach Boys were divided, unprofessional and … Continue reading
Tom Doyle – Ringo: A Fab Life
In the 70’s, he was a happy drunk … by the 80’s, he was just miserable! It is 1962. Ritchie Starkey – better known by his stage name of Ringo Starr – is widely acknowledged as the best drummer in … Continue reading
Mark Blake – Shine On – The Definitive Oral History Of Pink Floyd
Syd Barrett was probably not really an acid casualty! Peter Jenner (Floyd’s first manager): “Syd’s behaviour was avant-garde and I thought avant-garde was good. Of course in hindsight, we should have taken a break, but none of us knew what … Continue reading
John Cassidy – Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World
Capitalism and government go hand in hand – one feeding the other Some people think of economic history as a trifle dry, but how can you resist a book that includes quotes like these: “The love of money (as a … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History
Tagged Capitalism, Economics
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Ian Leslie – John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs
They created each other Does the world actually need another Beatles book? There are Mongolian peasants in one-yak villages far outside Ulan Bator who could tell you how John and Paul met at the Woolton Church fete in July 1957, … Continue reading
Simon Hart – Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip
Strap in, this is going to be quite a ride! 31 October 2023. “Amongst today’s HR joys is the report from Emma that a departmental SpAd (Special Adviser) went to an orgy over the weekend and ended up taking a … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, History, Humour, Politics
Tagged Hancock, Hart, Simon, Ungvernable
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Philip Norman: George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle
Was George Harrison really the “Economy Beatle”? Philip Norman wrote Shout!, the first grown-up biography of The Beatles, shortly before John Lennon was murdered. People told him he was crazy, that The Fabs were yesterday’s news, that everybody already knew … Continue reading
Sarah Ogilvie – The Dictionary People – The Unsung Heroes Who Created The Oxford English Dictionary
A goldmine of nutters, obsessives, murderers, vicars and, above all, readers! In a time before the internet, the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary was the Wickipedia of its day, crowdsourcing its contributions from thousands of readers across the world. … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, History
Tagged Dictionary, English, History, Ogilvie, Oxford, Philology, Sarah, Words
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Cathi Unsworth – Season Of The Witch: The Book Of Goth
Margaret Thatcher and Goth Culture It was the Age of Thatcher, and beyond the playgrounds of the red-braces wide boys and the Sloane Square privileged, it was grim. Unemployment was a weapon in the class war. The Yorkshire Ripper ran … Continue reading
Steve Richards – The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success And Failure From Butler to Corbyn
Steve Richards – Atlantic Books – £10.99 Steve Richards’ last book was an entertaining and penetrating discussion of the last ten Prime Ministers (or at any rate, the last ten at the time of publication – we’ve had a couple … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Prime Minister, Richards, Steve, The
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Howard Jacobson – Mother’s Boy: A Writer’s Beginnings
Howard Jacobson – Jonathan Cape – £18.99 It is striking that one of our finest novelists didn’t publish his first novel until he was nearly forty, and characteristically, he was ticking off literature’s late starters as he passed them by. … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Humour
Tagged Biography, Boy, Howard, Jacobson, jewish, Jewishness, Mothers
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Nicholas Wapshott – Samuelson Friedman: The Battle Over the Free Market
Nicholas Wapshott – W. w. Norton – £22.95 Not many academic economists are household names. But when I was young, Milton Friedman was. The high-priest of Monetarism and intellectual descendant of Friedrich Hayek, his theories were much admired by right-wing … Continue reading
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Adrian MacKinder – Stan Lee – How Marvel Changed The World!
Adrian MacKinder – Pen & Sword White Owl £19.99 $29.99 Face Front, True Believers! This is the story of the man who gave the world the Marvel Universe, who bestrode the comic-book industry like a colossus, and who said “Face … Continue reading
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Philip Norman – Wild Thing: The short, spellbinding life of Jimi Hendrix
Philip Norman – Weidenfeld and Nicolson – £20 It is generally accepted that Jimi Hendrix is the most important guitarist in the history of rock music. In just four years he revolutionised everybody’s idea of what an electric guitar was … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Music
Tagged Guitar, Hero, Jimi Hendrix, Megastar
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Helen Lewis – Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights
Helen Lewis – Jonathan Cape £13.59 Well-behaved women don’t make history, and we need to be a bit grown up about our approach to feminism. That is the starting point of the new book from Helen Lewis. Lewis is a … Continue reading
Steve Richards – The Prime Ministers: Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to May
Steve Richards – Atlantic Books £20 You have to wonder why the office of Prime Minister is so coveted. While many politicians aspire to Number Ten, more or less all the Prime Ministers in this book spent at least some … Continue reading
Mike Isaac – Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber
Mike Isaac – Norton: £19.99 It is not unusual in Silicon Valley for head office to lay on dinner for the employees. The cost is nugatory in these fabulously money-rich tech companies and it encourages people to work past quitting … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics
Tagged Android, Apple, Cab, iPhone, Mike Isaac, Taxi, Uber
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Ray Connolly – Being John Lennon
“Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? We will tell you. It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’. Thank … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Music
Tagged John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ray Connolly, The Beatles, Yoko Ono
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Tom Kirkham – Pop Life
2016 was a bad year. Globally, it was the year of Brexit and was rounded off with a Trump! It was bad for pop music too: David Bowie had died in January. And then it seemed the heroes were rushing … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Humour, Music
Tagged bipolar, David Bowie, depression, George Martin, gig, gigs, Lemmy, Leonard Cohen, Mental health, music
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Toby Litt – Wrestliana
When we visit Toby Litt in his office at Birkbeck University of London he tells us that all the books in the building have had to be removed because the Georgian building can’t take the weight. All, it seems, except … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, History
Tagged Cumbrland, Litt, Toby, Westmoreland, wrestliania, Wrestling
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Philip Norman – Paul McCartney: The Biography
When Philip Norman published “Shout” in 1980, it quickly became and long remained the standard Beatles biography. It was noted at the time that there was a marked preference for Lennon over McCartney in that book and Philip was pretty … Continue reading
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Nicholas Wapshott – The Sphinx – Franklin Roosevelt, the Isolationists, and the Road to World War II
Senator Burton K Wheeler put the question best: If the war in Europe was America’s war, why was she not fighting it? It was the vital question of its day. Should America join the European war or not? There are … Continue reading
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Humaira Shahid – Devotion and Defiance
Humaira Shahid might have had a gilded life, and no-one would have blamed her. She was born into the privileged classes of Pakistan, enjoyed a happy and liberal childhood, and married well into a newspaper dynasty. The important men in … Continue reading
Christopher Fowler – Film Freak
There was a time when film publicity consisted of having a poster painted, and sending the posters with the reels of film in the van when they were delivered to the cinemas. And then advertising industry foot-soldiers Christopher Fowler and … Continue reading
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Gore Vidal from the archive – Palimpsest
After half a century as a great novelist and America’s finest essayist, in 1995 Gore Vidal got round to writing… well, not an autobiography, but at any rate a memoir. Why a memoir? Gore told Tim that by the age … Continue reading
Posted in Archive, Biography, Cultural History, Politics
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Philip Norman – Mick Jagger
Fifty years a star. Gracefulness incarnate. Irresistable to women. Vain and arrogant, perhaps, but with so much to boast of. But enough about Tim. Mick Jagger is by contrast an accountant. You think you know him. The drugs. Marianne Faithfull … Continue reading
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Alom Shaha – The Young Atheist’s Handbook
Richard Dawkins has said that there is no such thing as a Muslim child, only the child of Muslim parents. Saint Richard’s admirers are wont to characterise the imposition of religious delusions as a variety of child-abuse but not all … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Religion
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Nicholas Wapshott – Keynes Hayek – The Clash That Defined Modern Economics
Can government action fix a broken economy? Eighty years ago John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek arrived at diametrically opposed conclusions. Far from being a dry and technical academic argument, it was then and is now the central division within … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Economics
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Chris Mullin – A Walk-On Part: Diaries 1994-1999
Political diaries can be turgid and self-serving or they can be witty and revealing. Chris Mullins diaries are firmly in the second category. The final volume, A Walk-On Part, is brilliantly insightful, satisfyingly indiscreet, tender and tough, and marvellously resonant … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Politics
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Alwyn W Turner – The Man Who Invented The Daleks, The Strange Worlds Of Terry Nation
You may remember Survivors and Blake’s Seven. You may even remember that they were created by Terry Nation. But Terry Nation’s immortality will always be tied up with invention of The Daleks. Alwyn W Turner has written a lively and … Continue reading
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Steve Richards – Whatever It Takes
When the dust settles we will observe that more books have been written about New Labour than about any other British administration, yes, including Mrs Thatcher’s febrile season in the sun. But let the Peter Mandelsons and the Alistair Campbells … Continue reading
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Lord David Owen – In Sickness And In Power – illness in heads of government during the last 100 years
Tim Haigh visited Lord David Owen, sometimes known as Doctor Death in a previous life, to discuss his new book, “In Sickness And In Power- illness in heads of government during the last 100 years”. While Dr Owen has a … Continue reading
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