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[[Category:New Reviews|Entertainment]]==Entertainment==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Jermaine Jackson|title=You Are Not Alone: Michael Through A Brother's Eyes|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=It is inevitable that the books we have already seen about Michael Jackson in the two years since his sudden passing will be merely the tip of the iceberg. Yet for those which comprise and are based on first-hand knowledge of his life and death, there will surely be few if any to rival this account by his brother Jermaine and ghostwriter Steve Dennis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007435665</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Kermode|title=The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I've been there, and so, despite all number of free press screenings, has Mark Kermode. When a major cinema chain I probably shouldn't name, but will !- Odeon - moved from their smelly innerINSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-city fleapits to a major new development far from any convenient bus routes, they started their multiplex life with the best intentions, having an arthouse film every week, on a Wednesday, and an offer of free entry courtesy of the local newspaper. This was brilliant for me - or would have been, if they'd managed to keep up with my expectations. I lost track of the number of weeks they had the wrong film on the projector, and particularly how many times they started the right one without glimpsing that it was being shown on the wrong-sized screen, through the wrong lenses, not matching with the gate, or even upside down. The projectionist of course had eleven other screens to worry about, pressing a button for each and never needing (or wanting?) to watch a movie. Kermode is correct in that if we must still think of cinemas in the parlance of theatres, and film-showings as performances, the projectionist can ruin a show just as a bad actor can a stage play.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946038</amazonuk>}}

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert RossPatti Smith|title=Marty Feldman: The Biography Year of a Comedy Legendthe Monkey

|summary=Some years ago, I was given a Penguin edition of Wilde's 'The Picture On the coast of Dorian Gray'Santa Cruz, with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on Patti Smith enters the front cover. A lunar year or two later, I saw a photograph of Marty Feldman and was convinced he must have inspired it if not actually been the model.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Hasted|title=You Really Got Me: The Story of The Kinks|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary='People in America talk about 'The Beatlesmonkey - one packed with mischief, the Stonessorrow, The Whoand unexpected moments.In a stranger' For me its words, 's 'The BeatlesAnything is possible: after all, the Stones, The Kinks.it' Those words, quoted in s the book, are those year of Pete Townshend of The Who himselfthe monkey''. He is certainly not alone in his verdict that, at As Smith wanders the height coast of the swinging sixties Santa Cruz in Britainsolitude, the Muswell Hill quartet were No 3 she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in the premier music league. Patchy chart success since their heyday has done nothing to diminish their reputationher life - loss and ageing are faced head on, or that of leader Ray Davies as one of it the most gifted British songwriters of the last fifty yearsshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849386609</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreview|author=Marcus Gray|title=Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=When I began reading these 500 pages or so, my initial feeling was – how could anybody write a book THIS long on one album? Soon, it became clear that I had been slightly misled by the title. Although 'London Calling', long feted as the best LP (now a CD, naturally) ever made by one of punk's most seminal groups, is the focal point, this volume also charts in detail the history and development of the Clash to that point, their subsequent career (and decline), and their legacy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524201</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Barbara Sinatra|title=Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Barbara Blakeley, born in 1926, was married firstly to Robert Oliver, an executive, with whom she had a son, and secondly to Zeppo Marx. But it was the already thrice-married and thrice-divorced Francis Albert Sinatra, whom she had idolized as a singer for a long time, with whom she would make her most enduring marriage, and vice versa. They tied the knot in 1976, and stayed together until his death in 1998.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip NormanWalton_Ask|title=John Lennon: The Life|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Ask For part of my formative years, John Lennon was one of the four most famous people in the world. All that we have learnt about him in the thirty years or so since his death has kept his name firmly in the public eye, if not always for the best of reasons. At over 800 pages, this is one of the lengthiest biographies written about the extraordinary life and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartial. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBlues|author=Donald Spoto|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan CrawfordMalcolm Walton

|summary=In January 1939 Christopher Isherwood left England for America in the company of poet WH Auden. This hefty volume covers Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his diaries from that date until August 1960, when he celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday. A 49-page introduction setting out the background leads us into the entries, which are divided into three sections – The Emigration, to the end Trad Jazz scene of 1944; The Post-war Years, to 1956; the late 1950s and The Late Fifties. After these we have a chronology and glossaryearly 1960s, or but he has chosen to put write it more accurately a section of brief biographies of in the main characters mentioned, these two sections comprising over a hundred pages altogether.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555824</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eric Siblin|title=The Cello Suites: In Search form of a Baroque Masterpiece|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=At the end of novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the 20th century Eric Siblin was book a rock and pop critic for different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Montreal GazetteMartin'. This, he says, was, a job which filled his head takes on Malcolm's mantle and begins with vast amounts of music, much his first discovery of which I didn't want to be there'. Aware that there were vast horizons crying out to be explored, he went out one night to hear a recital from the Boston cellist Lawrence Lesser, featuring the solo cello suites of BachSalvation Army band with his grandfather. The contrast between hearing one solitary performer playing This catapults him into a simple wooden cello for an audience a fraction love of the size could have hardly been more different to the stadium style gigs he had been covering regularly until then. About three years earliermusic, he had reviewed a show by U2initially taking piano lessons, noting that for and later delving into his true love – the 52,000 fans who attended and 'wanted to see more than four Lilliputian musicians making huge noises...technology blew everything out of proportion.' The inevitable hate mail soon rolled intrumpet. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546787</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsay ReadeMoore Bientot|title=Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay WilsonA Bientot...|author=Roger Moore

|summary=Mr Manchester, The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as Tony Wilson came to be known, could have been the next John Humphrys. Instead a great shock: he ended up becoming the next Malcolm McLaren – or, perhaps, a far less successful version was one of Richard Bransonthose people you knew would go on forever. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree There was just one small glimmer of light in English he became the sadness - the news that a trainee news reporter for ITN, and for much matter of days before his life death he worked as an anchorman for regional evening news programmes. Yet he is less remembered for this than for 'd delivered the finished manuscript of his championship of alternative music and punk rockbook, ''À bientôt…'', founding of Factory Records and involvement with the Hacienda Clubto his publishers. Although he loved the Beatles Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and folk music in general, he disliked much of the contemporary music scene until he saw the Sex Pistols live in the summer of 1976I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654567</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Larry StempelMaslanka Sherlock|title=ShowtimeSherlock: A History of the Broadway Musical TheaterThe Puzzle Book|author=Christopher Maslanka and Steve Tribe

|summary=Stempel Who doesn't love a good puzzle, especially those really fiendish ones that get the brain working extra hard? There really is an associate professor of music at an American university so I would imagine nothing to compare to that this book is primarily a labour of love. In buzz we get from the Preface Stempel bemoans Aha! moment, when everything falls into place and the loss of important research material over solution reveals itself. If puzzles are your thing then you may wish to put your grey cells to the years, whether it be musical scores, playbills or similar. It happens. It is a fact of life. Simply thrown away or discarded as being considered not important. Ittest with ''The Sherlock Puzzle Book''s only a musical, after all. A bit light and frothy. Stempel thinks otherwise - and takes his time telling us exactly whybased on the popular TV series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393067157</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter DoggettCorcoran_Dylan|title=Do You Never Give Me Your MoneyMr Jones?: The Battle for Bob Dylan with the Soul of the BeatlesPoets and Professors|author=Neil Corcoran|rating=4.5

|summary=When four young Liverpudlians got together to make music Bob Dylan's award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 'for having created new poetic expressions within the early 1960s, they can have had no idea of their future impact on great American song tradition' proved highly controversial. It inevitably led some people in the literary world around themto take stock and look at his work and reputation with a fresh eye. Likewise they would surely not have had an inkling This volume of the extraordinary business minefield which their existence as a group would createessays was first published in 2002, and which would leave the scars long after they had gone their separate ways, even after two of them had died. As at least one of them ruefully commented, they must have provided several lawyers' children is now reissued with a very expensive educationnew foreword by Will Self.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532360</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan DaviesKyncl_Stream|title=Teenage Revolution: Growing Up in the 80sStream Punks|rating=3.5|genreauthor=Autobiography|summary=Born in 1966, Alan Davies grew up in Essex, the son of a staunchly Conservative-voting father and a mother who died of cancer when he was only six. It was a childhood dominated at first by 'Citizen Smith' and the other TV sitcoms, 'Starsky Robert Kyncl and Hutch', 'Grease', Barry Sheene, the Barron Knights, and Debbie Harry. The book begins at 1978, ''the year I started venturing out more'', and finishes at 1988, when he graduated from Kent University to find that stand-up comedy could be an alternative to finding a job where he would have to do what he was told.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141041803</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clinton Heylin|title=Still on the Road: Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2008Maany Peyvan

|summary=Heylin is also obviously I watch quite a fan, lot of YouTube. I play music videos when I want to listen to a very knowledgeable and obsessive one particular song I don't already have in my collection. I use it to boot. He has never met or directly interviewed his subject (who is known find out how to guard his privacy quite fiercely most of the time)do things, but his research materials include official recording sessionographies and interviews conducted by others. All this is naturally invaluable information for his analysis and history of all the 600-plus songs with the man is known instruction videos they seem to have written or co-written from 1974 to almost for pretty much anything. At the present day. In terms of his discographygym, I'll stick it on on my phone, that spans the albums from ‘Blood prop it up on the Tracks’, released in 1975 cross-trainer and commonly regarded watch some behind the scenes interviews with the cast of my favourite shows. And sometimes I'll treat it as probably his best post-1960s setif it is Netflix, to ‘Together Through Life’watch series with new episodes releasing every few days, exclusively on YouTube. Having a new smart TV adds an extra, which appeared easy way to watch without having to plug in 2009my laptop or squint at a small phone screen. So yes, I like YouTube and I use YouTube. But I didn't know a whole lot about the site it until I read this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010110</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marina HydeJVDK_Swing|title=CelebrityWe Can Swing Together: How Entertainers Took Over The World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=I have what is perhaps a regular-sized interest in A and B-list celebrities. I can name the off-spring Story of many an actress, tell you who the spokespeople for certain brands are, write a list of celebs with publicly declared devotions to certain religions, even win the odd pub quiz thanks to knowing the birth names of various performers. I know all sorts of things about this rather small subset of society, but I know the ''what'' more than the ''why'', and that's exactly the problem, according to this book. After all, if more of us sat down to wonder about what it actually ''is'' that the likes of Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman bring to the UN, we might seriously question how and why they ever got involved in the first place.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532050</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewLindisfarne|author=Rob Chapman|title=Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head John Van der Kiste|rating=4.5

|summary=Roger BarrettIt all began with a group of youngsters in North Shields. Rod Clements, who later acquired the moniker Simon 'Si' Cowe, Ray 'Jacka'SydJackson and Ray Laidlaw formed ' (let's make him Syd from now on) was born in Cambridge in 1946. The fourth of five childrenDowntown Faction'', he was soon changing the only one name to inherit any lasting artistic talent, which came from his father Max''Brethren'' when they were joined by singer-songwriter Alan Hull. The latter was As a US-based group had a senior pathologist, member of similar name they opted to change the local Philharmonic Society, gifted singer, pianist name again - and watercolour painter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571238548</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michele Monro|title=Matt Monro: The Singer's Singer|rating=4'Lindisfarne'' (with the name taken from an island off the Northumberland coast) was born.5|genre=Biography|summary=In terms More than forty years on and with numerous changes of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potentialpersonnel the band is still very much around. When measured against They might not be touring or producing much in the achievements way of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdincknew material, he fell some way short. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuitbut they still perform, and overseas, particularly in Latin America and the Philippineswith Rod Clements, he was undoubtedly one of Britain's most successful exports ever, and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spain. His idol Frank Sinatra, to whom he was often compared, often said that Matt was original members on his fourth stint with the only British singer he ever really listened togroup.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Don FelderJVDK_ELO|title=Heaven And HellElectric Light Orchestra: My Life in the Eagles, 1974 - 2001Song by Song|author=John Van der Kiste

|summary=In terms My memories of record sales pop music in the early sixties revolve around guitars and income from live toursdrums, hardly anyone matched sometimes the Eagles' rate of success during the 1970s. Yet the constant search to better themselves piano with each record, the in-fighting, the drugs only occasional excursions into strings and egos, soon got the better of thembrass. They say Pop music rarely stands still and it is tough at wasn't long before the topbasic instruments were seen as constraints and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and nobody is better equipped The Beach Boys began to tell the often painful story than experiment, with other groups following where they led. Amongst these groups was The Move and their former lead guitarist Don Felder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753826771</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Will Birch|title=Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Ian Dury was always one of the most individualand songwriter, even contrary characters in the musical worldRoy Wood. In a branch of showbiz where people often relied on good looks as a short cut Wood wanted to stardom, he was no oil painting. During develop the pub rock era, he and his group, the Blockheads, ploughed a lonely furrow which owed 's sound by adding more to jazz-funk than rock'n'roll, instruments but was prevented from achieving what he wanted by cost limitations and his songs extolled because the virtues rest of characters from Billericay or Plaistow rather than those from Memphis or California. Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom he competed for inches in the rock press, he was comparatively middle-aged. As if that was not enough, in group didn't really share his own words childhood illness had left him a permanent 'raspberry ripple'enthusiasm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark SimpsonWatkins_Lets|title=Alastair SimLet's Make Lots of Money: The Star of Scrooge and My Life as the Belles of St Trinian'sBiggest Man in Pop|author=Tom Watkins

|genre=BiographyEntertainment|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during the 1950s when Who on earth would be a more gentle humour was manager in the order larger than life, here today gone tomorrow world of pop? Anybody with an ego, a ruthless streak, an opportunity to embrace the day. Yet the man hated chances and did his best accept that it's not going to avoid publicitylast, claiming that the person the public saw on screen revealed all that anybody needed evidently. Tom Watkins is just one of several to know about him. How he would have fared twenty years later in walked the age fine line and, for part of a more intrusive pressthe time, quite successfully. As his memoirs suggest, one cannot but wonderpart of the time was achievement enough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David ClaytonKendrick_Scrappy|title=The Richard Beckinsale StoryScrappy Little Nobody|author=Anna Kendrick|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyEntertainment|summary=A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only from repeats on Celebrity autobiographies. It's a genre long tainted by the UK Gold TV channelsexamples of people who clearly didn't deserve to be a celebrity, let alone have a ghost-writer create their book, and from occasional mentions in the context by those who did so little but managed to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirty. But more recently it's become a way of staking a claim to importance for female comics. They'how great he would ve not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, but enough have to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the bookstore. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads award, Lena Dunham's been if only…at it, and we've also got Anna Kendrick. Now she' In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as s not a rising major star strict comic – not all of the 80s who would blossom into one her films are designed to make you laugh, and some of them that are just don't – but this has to be in the great all-round stage actors. One year later, he was deadsame bracket.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454404</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val DoonicanRopek_Tragic|title=My Story, My LifeTragic Magic: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographyLife of Traffic's Chris Wood|author=Dan Ropek

|genre=AutobiographyEntertainment|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson Chris Wood was the personification a member of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth cultureTraffic, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainment. He may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both. Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and group formed by Steve Winwood in the process 1967 after he has never really put a foot wrongleft The Spencer Davis Group. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do A gifted musician best, known for his flute and what the public wants from yousaxophone work, then stick with ithe also played keyboards, bass guitar and do it contributed backing vocals as well as you canhaving a hand in writing several of the songs and one or two instrumentals.' With This biography takes its title from the possible exception name of one of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'compositions for their fifth album.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jo BerryDolby_Sound|title=The Ultimate DVD Easter Egg Guide: How to Access the Hidden Extras on Your DVDSpeed of Sound|author=Thomas Dolby

|summary=Consider the Easter Egg From struggling post- at least in the way DVD collectors mean. Sometimes a pointless hidden add-onpunk musician to pop star, that is there for no reason. Sometimes they can be a priceless bonus, seemingly gifted by the disc producers from Silicon Valley innovator to those in the knowuniversity professor, costing - at least in the case of some animated instances - many thousands of pounds. Some oik on set with Thomas Dolby has had a camcorder, they are remarkable if not. I've been guilty several times of clicking away in directions the menus don't seem to encourage on the off-chance I find something (orunique career, often reinventing himself on a PC, just sweeping the PC mouse over any and every title card in case it highlights something previously invisible)way. Forcing several titles This memoir is based on his extensive notes and chapters by going straight to them in case they're something secret is not a hobby I like to admit tojournals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752875205</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Giddins and Scott DeveauxMorris_Legion|title=JazzThe Legion of Regrettable Supervillains: Oddball Criminals from Comic Book History|author=Jon Morris

|summary=At first glance this 700-page volume might look a little daunting. Do As much as I like comics – and I do, whether superhero ones or not be daunted. If you want a small pocket book which merely scratches at – I have to admit one thing, namely that the surface and can probably be digested villains in them are a sitting or two, look elsewherebit pants. On What is The Penguin but the other handworld's worst Mafioso, if with a hobby of waddling along like his pet birds? Where else do you want win an extremely readable Oscar of all things by playing a two-bit killer who just fell in a vat of random chemicals and comprehensive book on jazz which can not only be read cover to coverchanged colour, but also retained and got mardier as a work of reference to use again and again, I doubt if this can be bettered.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393068617</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Hornby|title=An Education: The Screenplay|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Adroit marketing? Well, yes. result (although recently he's become a nanotech genius – but let'An Education'' has been published, of course, to coincide s not go there)? And what is it with the film's general release gimp in the UK. Hardly surprising since our national appetite for nosiness seems insatiable and cosy background details prop up every telly series and film these days. As well as see-through plant pot because he is the screenplay, Nick Hornby has provided an introduction and diary embodiment of the filmcold? And that's successful premiere at just some of the Sundance Festival in Utah. Beyond trivia, I think this fascinating little book presents an excellent 'how to' guide for wannabes from one better-known enemies of Britain's most respected screen and novel writers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141044748</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louis Barfe|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if it's a bit naff, tepid and ignorable. WhatBatman's often forgotten is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable and much of it is one of the highest qualitybetter goodies. Louis BarfeYou can imagine how awful the baddies related to the bad goodies can be. And if you can's Turned Out Nice Again tells t, this is the complete story of British light entertainmentperfect primer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham McCannFletcher_Midnight|title=Bounder!In the Midnight Hour: The Biography of Terry-Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When I was in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters Life & Soul of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWilson Pickett|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft|title=Margrave of the MarshesTony Fletcher

|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, he began his career in the mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London and then become one of sixties there were three major names in the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years latersoul music field who mattered above all. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time James Brown was something of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the BBC wanted to hearsingles charts, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in Otis Redding was on the music weeklies and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much verge of his show unlistenable towards shooting into the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while. So I approached this book with stratosphere when he died in an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical oneaeroplane crash.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jo Brand|title=Look Back in Hunger|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Born in Hastings in May 1957The other was the man from Alabama, after leaving Brunel University with a degree in social sciences, Jo Brand unsuccessfully applied for a research job with Channel 4 on a series about racism, then worked for a time as a psychiatric nurse at 'the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital. But the lure of showbiz proved too strong, and stardom in stand-up comedy soon beckonedwicked Pickett'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755355237</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy ClarksonPaling_Reading|title=Driven to DistractionReading Allowed: True Stories and Curious Incidents from a Provincial Library|author=Chris Paling

|summary=Jeremy Clarkson's middle name ought to be ''Marmite'I once made a comical faux pas in a library when I was younger, but it certainly didn'. You really do either love him or hate himt put me off returning. I am once declared in a self-important way that I would start at the first camp. I think he is brilliantly funny. He is. He makes me laugh. Out loud. And like many women who watch Top Gear, (wellbeginning of the books for young children and not stop til the end, then do the same for those that don't watch it because they are strangely for the older children – ''bizarrelyand then do it all over again with them'' , I said, pointing at the large- attracted to James May – I am 'print shelves. ''I hope not''' - or because they want to mother The Hamster , was the response – I do '''but little me was only aware of a need for large font for my fellow whippersnappers, and not''') I find Jeremy Clarkson hilariousfor any other reason. And Since then I don't think you have ve needed libraries, and going to like cars them has been second nature. On the dole I made sure I could use the free Internet they provided to see the appeal either! pay me back for my council tax; later I was intent on finding out if a Senior Library Assistant girl was worthy of her title, and of course, it saved a fortune on books for study and fun. I mean, the columns within ''Driven To Distraction'' occasionally start ''off'' talking about cars, but m not always alone in sharing the warmth of both their heating system and the very thing they quickly move on were born to the things that get his dander provide – books, but there was still a huge step up before tailing neatly back between my level of use and knowledge of them to the cars again. Or notactually working in one. And what Which is where Chris Paling comes in between is pure gold dust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155548</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith FloydSpringsteen_Born|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The Autobiography|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes and still have some recipes in my childish handwriting, which begin ''4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…'' as I battled Born to copy what was on the screen before we retuned to the presenter. Programmes stagnated as the cook spoke to camera and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or a fish dish. Then we were shocked awake. There was a man, quite good-looking in a raffish, slightly dangerous sort of way, who cooked on the deck of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass in hand and who was quite capable of berating the cameraman about how he was doing his job. Like him, or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy to millions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRun|author=Peter Hook |title=The Hacienda: How Not To Run A ClubBruce Springsteen|rating=45

|summary=In the beginning there was Tony WilsonNo, you haven't stumbled into a Granada TV presenter who came to prominence as compere of music review from the music show ''So It Goes1970s, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Then there was Factory Records, the Manchester-based alternative record label he helped to foundLots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew him, worked with him and their main act, by others who have only read the post-punk band Joy Divisioncuttings. After their vocalist Ian Curtis killed himself in 1980 Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the band recruited another member and continued as New Orderrecord straight, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective. As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. Between them and their manager Rob Gretton, they decided to found and run their By his own clubadmission, it isn't the Hacienda. Peter Hook was not only New Orderwhole truth, discretion holds him back but ''s bassist but also seems to have had the highest profile in hands-on management of a project like this, the establishmentwriter has made one promise, and despite a generous intake of various substances is well placed to chronicle show the sometimes comicreader his mind.'' ''In these pages, sometimes sad storyI've tried to do this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847371353</amazonuk>''

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rick WakemanJVDK_Beatles|title=Grumpy Old Rock Star|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Rick Wakeman wrote and published a more conventional autobiography, ''Say Yes!'' in 1985, and it has so far never been updated. This, written with A Beatles Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the aid of ghost-writer Martin Roach, takes a totally different approach, being a selection of episodes from his sixty years in more or less random order. In theory it might seem rather disjointed, Beatles but in practice it works brilliantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090056</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Karl Pilkington|title=Karlology|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=The Radio Five film critic Mark Kermode has a rule when reviewing comedies. If he laughs more than five times then the film deserves its billing as a comedy. If that rule was applied Were Afraid to Karl Pilkington's new book Karlology then it would easily fit into the category for there are laugh aplenty in this strange, amusing and charming little book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140533746X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAsk|author=Linda M James|title=How to Write Great Screenplays: And Get Them into ProductionJohn Van der Kiste

|summary=Over my time at university IYou might have thought that just about everything which could be said about the Beatles had been said and certainly, there've sat on a few scriptwriting modules. I'm currently working on a couple s been no shortage of projects with my scriptwriting partnerbooks about what went wrong, with whom I've already completed a pilot TV show. So it was nice what happened to be asked to review this book the money and get some more insight into this field of writingeven what went right.  But what I've probably read most every book on Creative Writing that younever seen before is a 've ever heard of and a lot that youmiscellany're probably not aware of. When it comes - all those little facts which are so hard to scriptwriting, there really track down and this is only one book thatwhere historian John Van der Kiste comes into his own: he's worth comparing anything else in a man with an eye for detail and the field with: Robert McKee's ''Story''ability to bring everything together into a very readable whole. It's so heavily touted that I've seen it recommended by experts in novel writing – a quite different craftwonderful collection of the small facts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845283074</amazonuk>