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The Go-Betweens
by David NicholsWhen Robert Forster and Grant McLennan formed the Go-Betweens in Brisbane in 1977, they were determined to be different. They were angular, spare, and poetic when crashing directness was the prevailing style. Their heroes were Dylan, Creedence, and Television, when it was more fashionable to cite the Stooges and the New York Dolls. Their attitude was as punk as anyone's, but their lyrical guitar pop stood in sharp contrast to the trends of the day.The Go-Betweens story is a fascinating one. With cornerstone drummer Lindy Morrison - and, later, additional members Robert Vickers and Amanda Brown - the band recorded six albums in the 1980s that are among the finest work of the decade, and earned them a reputation as "the ultimate cult band." And as one reviewer of the original 1997 edition of this book noted, "Unlike most rock groups, the Go-Betweens had personalities as well as talent"-which makes for a compelling read, even if you're not yet a fan.David Nichols relates the Go-Betweens story with wit and verve, and for this edition he completely updated the book, adding chapters on the members' subsequent solo careers in the 1990s, the subsequent reuniting of Forster and McLennan under the Go-Betweens name, and the band's flourishing second life in the new millennium, tragically cut short by the sudden death of Grant McLennan in 2005.
The God Groove: A Blues Journey to Faith
by David RitzAs a ghostwriter, biographer, and lyricist, David Ritz has worked with some of the biggest names in music, such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Marvin Gaye. Now, in his inspiring memoir, he shares how writing for these legendary artists led him to faith. Over the last forty-five years, David Ritz has collaborated with some of the biggest stars in music. Working to give a voice to these iconic musicians, he found his own, and following the sacred pulse he calls &“The God Groove,&” he also found belief in Christ. In his moving memoir, he recalls growing up as a secular Jew in New York and Dallas, and finding himself drawn to the smoky jazz clubs and Pentecostal churches where the music touched something deep in his soul, unlike anything he&’d ever felt before. It was this love of music, coupled with an equal passion for words—both language that flowed across the page and language sung out loud—that led him, against all odds, to convince Ray Charles to hire him as a ghostwriter. Through this first project, David learned the art of capturing another&’s voice. As Marvin Gaye&’s biographer and cowriter of &“Sexual Healing,&” David learned about Marvin&’s father, a charismatic storefront preacher in an ultra-strict Christian sect, but he also saw the visceral love Marvin had for Jesus. David&’s conversations with Aretha Franklin, conducted during the two-year process of writing her memoir, yielded further insights into Christianity. Threaded throughout David&’s story are in-depth conversations with Willie Nelson, BB King, Janet Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Etta James, Buddy Guy, and Jessi Colter, all of whom shaped his thinking about faith. The God Groove is a moving, deeply personal, and inspiring memoir about the unlikely ways God works—if we listen to Him.
The Golden Age Musicals of Darryl F. Zanuck: The Gentleman Preferred Blondes
by Bernard F. DickBeginning with The Jazz Singer (1927) and 42nd Street (1933), legendary Hollywood film producer Darryl F. Zanuck (1902–1979) revolutionized the movie musical, cementing its place in American popular culture. Zanuck, who got his start writing stories and scripts in the silent film era, worked his way to becoming a top production executive at Warner Bros. in the later 1920s and early 1930s. Leaving that studio in 1933, he and industry executive Joseph Schenck formed Twentieth Century Pictures, an independent Hollywood motion picture production company. In 1935, Zanuck merged his Twentieth Century Pictures with the ailing Fox Film Corporation, resulting in the combined Twentieth Century-Fox, which instantly became a new major Hollywood film entity.The Golden Age Musicals of Darryl F. Zanuck: The Gentleman Preferred Blondes is the first book devoted to the musicals that Zanuck produced at these three studios. The volume spotlights how he placed his personal imprint on the genre and how—especially at Twentieth Century-Fox—he nurtured and showcased several blonde female stars who headlined the studio’s musicals—including Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Vivian Blaine, June Haver, Marilyn Monroe, and Sheree North. Building upon Bernard F. Dick’s previous work in That Was Entertainment: The Golden Age of the MGM Musical, this volume illustrates the richness of the American movie musical, tracing how these song-and-dance films fit within the career of Darryl F. Zanuck and within the timeline of Hollywood history.
The Golden Thread: Experiencing God’s Presence in Every Season of Life
by Joyce Meyer Darlene Zschech“I know your faith will be lifted and increased with this new treasure.”~Chris TomlinDo you feel like you are barely holding on?Let the golden thread of God's presence be the calm on the other side of chaos.It could be that He is weaving a brilliant new beginning in the middle of your mess.Join beloved worship leader Darlene Zschech as she traces God’s goodness through her recent transitions—moving to a new city, starting a church. The songwriter of “Shout to The Lord” urges us to maintain joy in the middle of it all.Rather than seeing her many life changes as a zigzag of unrelated events, Darlene and her family have learned to trace God’s goodness through every crisis—even as she faced the battle for her life, cancer.Your heart will be encouraged, and your faith will soar right along with Darlene’s.
The Golden Touch
by Laura LondonFor fans of Julie Garwood, Jude Deveraux, Loretta Chase, Johanna Lindsey and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss comes a classic novel about what happens when the bad boy rock star rides into town, from acclaimed author Laura London. Kathy Carter has seen many things in her small-town instrument repair shop. But never has a dangerously hot, world-famous rock star pulled up on his motorcycle, needing his guitar fixed. Kathy's not surprised to find he's endlessly sexy, with a voice that would make any woman's heart melt. What she doesn't expect: he wants her bad.Neil meets a lot of women who would do anything to be with him. Sweet, beautiful Kathy is nothing like them. She doesn't care about fame, and that's why he can't keep his mind-or his hands-off her. Yet once things start getting hot, Kathy pulls away. Soon Neil realizes that it's more than his life in the limelight that scares her. When the ghosts of the past make a guest appearance, Neil and Kathy must decide if what they have is forever, or if Neil is still a solo act... Fall in love with the richly romantic, classic love stories of Laura London, author of The Windflower, as her beloved novels are released in ebook for the first time.
The Good Life: The Autobiography Of Tony Bennett
by Tony BennettA wonderfully warm, resonant, and captivating autobiography from iconic singer and entertainer Tony Bennett.He&’s that regular guy from Astoria, Queens, who left his heart in San Francisco. He&’s the postwar heartthrob who inspired hundreds of young girls to wear black outside St. Patrick&’s Cathedral on his wedding day. He&’s the darling of the MTV generation who made music history when, at the age of 68, he won the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year. He&’s the consummate artist known worldwide for his paintings. He&’s Tony Bennett, and here, this legend shares his amazing life story. &“Tony Bennett has not just bridged the generation gap, he has demolished it,&” praised The New York Times. From his appearance with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 1993 MTV Video Awards to his Radio City Music Hall concert with Lady Gaga, Bennett was the hottest—and coolest—pop-culture icon for today&’s younger listeners, while remaining beloved by their parents and grandparents. Multiple generations have experienced the Tony Bennett magic—the mesmerizing spell of a singer in love with singing, who embraces his audience with a soulful serenity communicated by both the man and his music. Honored with countless awards and with more than ninety albums to his credit, no other recording artist has attained Bennett&’s stature—or garnered the half-century of memories shared in The Good Life. From Sinatra, Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald, to k.d. lang and Elvis Costello, Bennett shares his unique takes on the most fascinating talents of our time. Here is the story of his lifelong love affair with art, music, and performing—from his childhood in Depression-era Queens, where opera and Billie Holiday flowed freely; to his stint as a singing waiter; to soaking up the New York jazz scene in the 1940s. With crisp wit and firmly grounded emotion, Bennett captures the people and places that shaped his sublime performances. The dozens of hits he introduced to the great American songbook, including &“Because of You,&” &“Rags to Riches,&” &“Cold, Cold Heart,&” and his signature song, &“I Left My Heart in San Francisco,&” remain a legacy of truth and beauty for the classic art of intimate singing. In this unforgettable self-portrait, we get to know Tony Bennett as he really is: an unpretentious and thoughtful human being. Through all of his personal and artistic challenges, he was, in his own words, &“a humanist&” whose Zen-like philosophy of life remains an inspiration for all ages. Like the fascinating story he shares in The Good Life, Tony Bennett was one of a kind, an American treasure, an enduring artist seasoned with experience and self-knowledge, and a true class act.
The Gospel at Colonus
by Lee BreuerA founding member of the acclaimed New York-based company Mabou Mines, Breuer's gifts as a writer and director have have made him a mainstay of the theatrical avant-garde.
The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument
by Krs OneThe Gospel of Hip Hop: First Instrument, the first book from theI Am Hip Hop, is the philosophical masterwork of KRS ONE. Set in the format of the Christian Bible, this 800-plus-page opus is a life-guide manual for members of Hip Hop Kulture that combines classic philosophy with faith and practical knowledge for a fascinating, in-depth exploration of Hip Hop as a life path. Known as “The Teacha,” KRS ONE developed his unique outlook as a homeless teen in Brooklyn, New York, engaging his philosophy of self-creation to become one of the most respected emcees in Hip Hop history. Respected as Hip Hop’s true steward, KRS ONE painstakingly details the development of the culture and the ways in which we, as “Hiphoppas,” can and should preserve its future. "The Teacha" also discusses the origination of Hip Hop Kulture and relays specific instances in history wherein one can discover the same spirit and ideas that are at the core of Hip Hop’s current manifestation. He explains Hip Hop down to the actual meaning and linguistic history of the words “hip” and “hop,” and describes the ways in which "Hiphoppas" can change their current circumstances to create a future that incorporates Health, Love, Awareness, and Wealth (H-LAW). Committed to fervently promoting self-reliance, dedicated study, peace, unity, and truth, The "Teacha" has drawn both criticism and worship from within and from outside of Hip Hop Kulture. In this beautifully written, inspiring book, KRS ONE shines the light of truth, from his own empirical research over a 14-year period, into the fascinating world of Hip Hop.
The Gospel of the Hold Steady: How a Resurrection Really Feels
by Michael Hann The Hold SteadyAn oral history (with photographs) of the greatest American bar band of the twenty-first century."Plenty of rock bands treat their fans like congregants. But, not many shine a light on the arrangement. Fewer still go as far as The Hold Steady, whose lead vocalist and lyricist, Craig Finn, has a disarming way of combining humility and exultation." —New York TimesOn January 22, 2003, four men stepped onto a stage in Brooklyn and did something no one else was doing at that time, in that place. They played rock ’n’ roll: old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll with skyscraping riffs and sloppy solos, topped with extraordinary lyrics about an out-of-focus America, blurred by pills and powders, of crime and fear and desperation and redemption.Twenty years later, The Hold Steady are one of America’s most beloved rock bands, famed for live shows that turn unbelievers into converts, and for a catalog filled with some of the most exciting yet poetic music of the twenty-first century. To mark those twenty years, The Hold Steady tell their full story in The Gospel of The Hold Steady: How a Resurrection Really Feels. An oral history, based on interviews with everyone who has played in the band, and those who have worked with them over the course of their career, The Gospel of the Hold Steady addresses all the triumphs and setbacks of The Hold Steady’s career in the band’s own words—from high times to near deaths, from the brink of splitting to their current renaissance. The volume also includes over 200 photographs and images.The Gospel of The Hold Steady is completed by essays about America’s greatest bar band by writers Rob Sheffield, Laura Barton, Isaac Fitzgerald, and Michael Hann, as well as the thoughts and memories of “The Unified Scene”—the fans who have helped define the band’s identity over the years. This is a book for everyone who loves The Hold Steady, and anyone who understands that the magic of rock ’n’ roll happens on a stage in a small room, with voices raised from the crowd.
The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God
by Jonathan KirschThe Surprising History and Legacy of the InquisitionThe renowned historian and critic Jonathan Kirsch presents a sweeping history of the Inquisition and the ways in which it has served as the chief model for torture in the West to this day. Ranging from the Knights Templar to the first Protestants; from Joan of Arc to Galileo; from the Inquisition's immense power in Spain after 1492, when the secret tribunals and torture chambers were directed for the first time against Jews and Muslims, to the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent women during the Witch Craze; and to the modern war on terror—Kirsch shows us how the Inquisition stands as a universal and ineradicable reminder of how absolute power wreaks inevitable corruption.
The Grand Ole Opry: The Making of An American Icon
by Colin EscottThe official inside history of the home of country music--the Grand Ole Opry.This is the story of the birthplace of country music as told by the people who were there--from the birth of country music 100 years ago to the songs and culture its myriad fans know and love today. Nearly every country music icon has crossed the Grand Ole Opry stage, including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, and recent inductee Dierks Bentley. Drawing from detailed archives of correspondence, photographs, oral histories, and live recordings (few of which have been made public until now), this history offers fans an exclusive look into the heart and soul of country music.
The Grand Theater of the World: Music, Space, and the Performance of Identity in Early Modern Rome (Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera)
by Valeria De Lucca Christine JeanneretMusic and space in the early modern world shaped each other in profound ways, and this is particularly apparent when considering Rome, a city that defined itself as the "grande teatro del mondo". The aim of this book is to consider music and space as fundamental elements in the performance of identity in early modern Rome. Rome’s unique milieu, as defined by spiritual and political power, as well as diplomacy and competition between aristocratic families, offers an exceptionally wide array of musical spaces and practices to be explored from an interdisciplinary perspective. Space is viewed as the theatrical backdrop against which to study a variety of musical practices in their functions as signifiers of social and political meanings. The editors wish to go beyond the traditional distinction between music theatrical spectacles – namely opera – and other musical genres and practices to offer a more comprehensive perspective on the ways in which not only dramatic, but also instrumental music and even the sounds of voices and objects in the streets relied on the theatrical dimension of space for their effectiveness in conveying social and political messages. While most chapters deal with musical performances, some focus on specific aspects of the Roman soundscape, or are even intentionally "silent", dealing with visual arts and architecture in their performative and theatrical aspects. The latter offer a perspective that creates a visual counterpoint to the ways in which music and sound shaped space.
The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones
by Rich KienzleIn the vein of the classic Johnny Cash: The Life, this groundbreaking work explores the wild life and extraordinary musical career of “the definitive country singer of the last half century” (New York Times), who influenced, among others, Bob Dylan, Buck Owens, Emmylou Harris, John Fogerty, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones’s life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon called “the Keith Richards of country.”Kienzle chronicles Jones’s impoverished East Texas childhood as the youngest son of a deeply religious mother and alcoholic, often-abusive father. He examines his three troubled marriages including his union with superstar Tammy Wynette and looks unsparingly at Jones’s demons. Alcohol and later cocaine nearly killed him until fourth wife Nancy helped him learn to love himself. Kienzle also details Jones’s remarkable musical journey from singing in violent Texas honky tonks to Grand Ole Opry star, hitmaker and master vocalist whose raw, emotionally powerful delivery remains the Gold Standard for country singers.The George Jones of this heartfelt biography lived hard before finding contentment until he died at eighty-one—a story filled with whiskey, women and drugs but always the saving grace of music.Illustrated with eight pages of photos.
The Grateful Dead (Popular Rock Superstars of Yesterday and Today)
by Kenneth McintoshOver the course of thirty years, the Grateful Dead became America's most successful touring act, even performing in front of Egypt's great pyramids. In 1994, the Dead were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and today, their music is still heard over the radio waves. Tribute bands help keep their sound alive, and the band's remaining members are still making music.
The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places
by Bernie KrauseMusician and naturalist Bernie Krause is one of the world's leading experts in natural sound, and he's spent his life discovering and recording nature's rich chorus. Searching far beyond our modern world's honking horns and buzzing machinery, he has sought out the truly wild places that remain, where natural soundscapes exist virtually unchanged from when the earliest humans first inhabited the earth.Krause shares fascinating insight into how deeply animals rely on their aural habitat to survive and the damaging effects of extraneous noise on the delicate balance between predator and prey. But natural soundscapes aren't vital only to the animal kingdom; Krause explores how the myriad voices and rhythms of the natural world formed a basis from which our own musical expression emerged.From snapping shrimp, popping viruses, and the songs of humpback whales-whose voices, if unimpeded, could circle the earth in hours-to cracking glaciers, bubbling streams, and the roar of intense storms; from melody-singing birds to the organlike drone of wind blowing over reeds, the sounds Krause has experienced and describes are like no others. And from recording jaguars at night in the Amazon rain forest to encountering mountain gorillas in Africa's Virunga Mountains, Krause offers an intense and intensely personal narrative of the planet's deep and connected natural sounds and rhythm.The Great Animal Orchestra is the story of one man's pursuit of natural music in its purest form, and an impassioned case for the conservation of one of our most overlooked natural resources-the music of the wild.
The Great British Mistake: 1979-84
by Tom Vaguehttp://www.breadandcircusespublishing.com/home/vague.html
The Great Festival: A Theoretical Performance Narrative of Antiquity’s Feasts and the Modern Rock Festival
by Olav HarsløfThe Great Festival presents and analyzes two historical festivals - the ancient Dionysus Festival and the present Roskilde Festival. The purpose is to set up two comparable structures or 'codes' to explain the universal artistic effects, structures and fascination of the festival. Olav Harsløf argues that there are major structural, organizational and economic similarities which, when exposed, can give us greater insight into today's festivals. This is illuminated through a combined performance design and event analysis of the ancient Dionysus festival and today's Roskilde Festival, explaining the festival's historicity, diversity, complexity and paradigmatic strength. This will be a discussion of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of performance studies, experience economy, theater, music, classical philology and archeology.
The Great Gould
by Peter GoddardA startling new portrait of Gould, including never-before-seen material. Glenn Gould’s astonishing recordings deliver that unmistakable jolt of genius to each generation newly discovering the great Canadian pianist. With the support of the Glenn Gould Estate, Peter Goddard draws on his own interviews with Gould and on new, and in some cases overlooked, sources to present a freshly revealing portrait of Gould’s unsettled life, his radical decision to quit concertizing, his career as a radio innovator, and his deep response to the Canadian environment. Sci-fi and hi-fi, hockey and Petula Clark, Elvis, jazz, chess, the Beatles, and sex — all these inform this exploration of the pianist’s far-reaching imagination. There is even a touching account of the only piano lesson Gould ever gave. This is the perfect gift for anyone new to classical music and those already immersed in it, for those with an interest in Canadian music, in Glenn Gould himself, and in what led to The Goldberg Variations, one of the greatest recordings in music history.
The Great Jazz Artists
by James Lincoln Collier Robert Andrew ParkerSurveys the lives and music of such well-known jazz performers as Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and others.
The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums
by Will FriedwaldThe author of the magisterial A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers now approaches the great singers and their greatest work in an innovative and revelatory way: through considering their finest albums, which is the format in which this music was most resonantly organized and presented to its public from the 1940s until the very recent decline of the CD. It is through their albums that Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, and the rest of the glorious honor roll of jazz and pop singers have been most tellingly and lastingly appreciated, and the history of the album itself, as Will Friedwald sketches it, can now be seen as a crucial part of musical history. We come to understand that, at their finest, albums have not been mere collections of individual songs strung together arbitrarily but organic phenomena in their own right. A Sinatra album, a Fitzgerald album, was planned and structured to show these artists at their best, at a specific moment in their artistic careers. Yet the albums Friedwald has chosen to anatomize go about their work in a variety of ways. There are studio and solo albums: Lee’s Black Coffee, June Christy’s Something Cool, Cassandra Wilson’s Belly of the Sun. There are brilliant collaborations: famous ones—Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson—and wonderful surprises like Doris Day and Robert Goulet singing Annie Get Your Gun. There are theme albums—Dinah Washington singing Fats Waller, Maxine Sullivan singing Andy Razaf, Margaret Whiting singing Jerome Kern, Barb Jungr singing Bob Dylan, and the sublime Jo Stafford singing American and Scottish folk songs. There are also stunning concert albums like Ella in Berlin, Sarah in Japan, Lena at the Waldorf, and, of course, Judy at Carnegie Hall. All the greats are on hand, from Kay Starr and Carmen McRae to Jimmy Scott and Della Reese (Della Della Cha Cha Cha). And, from out of left field, the astounding God Bless Tiny Tim. Each of the fifty-seven albums discussed here captures the artist at a high point, if not at the expected moment, of her or his career. The individual cuts are evaluated, the sequencing explicated, the songs and songwriters heralded; anecdotes abound of how songs were born and how artists and producers collaborated. And in appraising each album, Friedwald balances his own opinions with those of musicians, listeners, and critics. A monumental achievement, The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums is an essential book for lovers of American jazz and popular music.
The Great Orchestrator: Arthur Judson and American Arts Management (Music in American Life)
by James M. DoeringThis biography charts the career and legacy of the pioneering American music manager Arthur Judson (1881-1975), who rose to prominence in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. A violinist by training, Judson became manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1915 under the iconic conductor Leopold Stokowski. Within a few years, Judson also took on management of the New York Philharmonic, navigating a period of change and the tenures of several important conductors who included William Mengelberg, Arturo Toscanini, and John Barbirolli. Judson also began managing individual artists, including pianists Alfred Cortot and Vladimir Horowitz, violinist Jasha Heifetz, and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. He also organized the U.S. tours of several prominent composers, including Igor Stravinsky and Vincent d'Indy. At the same time, Judson began managing conductors. His first clients were Stokowski and Fritz Reiner. By the 1930s, Judson's conductor list included most of the important conductors working in America. Drawing on rich correspondence between Judson and the conductors and artists he served, James M. Doering demonstrates Judson's multifaceted roles, including involvement with programming choices, building audiences, negotiating with orchestra members and their unions, and exploring new technologies for extending the orchestras' reach. In addition to his colorful career behind the scenes at two preeminent American orchestras, Judson was important for a number of innovations in arts management. In 1922, he founded a nationwide network of local managers and later became involved in the relatively unexplored medium of radio, working first with WEAF in New York City and then later forming his own national radio network in 1927. Providing valuable insight into the workings of these orchestras and the formative years of arts management, The Great Orchestrator is a valuable portrait of one of the most powerful managers in American musical history.
The Great Psychic Outdoors: Adventures in Low Fidelity
by Enrico MonacelliExplores the weird world of lo-fi music to investigate its revolutionary potential and its ability to subvert what we think music can do.Homemade records, tape-hiss worship and a taste for a very peculiar kind of psychedelia have carved themselves a weird niche in the contemporary musical landscape under the name of lo-fi.This genreless genre, characterized by poor recordings and rough sounds, spanning from the most extreme heavy metal to the sweetest ear-candies pop can offer, has become a solid presence in our collective sensibility. And yet, it has largely been neglected: this staunch refusal of anything hi-fi and hi-tech has fallen under the radar of the categories we use to analyse ourselves and our times.The Great Psychic Outdoors, dedicated to the most interesting and controversial artists in this movement, will rectify this injustice and vindicate the revolutionary potential of lo-fi music, engaging with this weird genre on its own terms and facing head on the contradictions and possibilities of this multi-faceted phenomenon. Confronting the aesthetic and conceptual stakes of this sonic craft, The Great Psychic Outdoors shows what lo-fi says about us, our lives under capitalism and the strange ways we cope with pain, madness and beauty.
The Great Romantic: Cricket and the golden age of Neville Cardus
by Duncan HamiltonNeville Cardus described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words.In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket - while appealing, in Cardus' words to people who 'didn't know a leg-break from the pavilion cat at Lord's'- he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions. Among those who venerated Cardus were PG Wodehouse, John Arlott, Harold Pinter, JB Priestley and Don Bradman. However, behind the rhapsody in blue skies, green grass and colourful characters, this richly evocative biography finds that Cardus' mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father and he received negligible education. Infatuations with younger women ran parallel to a decidedly unromantic marriage. And, astonishingly, the supreme stylist's aversion to factual accuracy led to his reporting on matches he never attended. Yet Cardus also belied his impoverished origins to prosper in a second class-conscious profession, becoming a music critic of international renown. The Great Romantic uncovers the dark enigma within a golden age.
The Great Romantic: Cricket and the golden age of Neville Cardus - Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
by Duncan HamiltonNeville Cardus described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words.In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket - while appealing, in Cardus' words to people who 'didn't know a leg-break from the pavilion cat at Lord's'- he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions. Among those who venerated Cardus were PG Wodehouse, John Arlott, Harold Pinter, JB Priestley and Don Bradman. However, behind the rhapsody in blue skies, green grass and colourful characters, this richly evocative biography finds that Cardus' mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father and he received negligible education. Infatuations with younger women ran parallel to a decidedly unromantic marriage. And, astonishingly, the supreme stylist's aversion to factual accuracy led to his reporting on matches he never attended. Yet Cardus also belied his impoverished origins to prosper in a second class-conscious profession, becoming a music critic of international renown. The Great Romantic uncovers the dark enigma within a golden age.
The Great Romantic: Cricket and the golden age of Neville Cardus - Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year
by Duncan HamiltonNeville Cardus described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words.In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket - while appealing, in Cardus' words to people who 'didn't know a leg-break from the pavilion cat at Lord's'- he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions. Among those who venerated Cardus were PG Wodehouse, John Arlott, Harold Pinter, JB Priestley and Don Bradman. However, behind the rhapsody in blue skies, green grass and colourful characters, this richly evocative biography finds that Cardus' mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father and he received negligible education. Infatuations with younger women ran parallel to a decidedly unromantic marriage. And, astonishingly, the supreme stylist's aversion to factual accuracy led to his reporting on matches he never attended. Yet Cardus also belied his impoverished origins to prosper in a second class-conscious profession, becoming a music critic of international renown. The Great Romantic uncovers the dark enigma within a golden age.