Hell Fire Books are currently working with…
Maggie Abbott & Marijane Miller
Seeking Hazardous Adventures: A British Girl Takes On A Man’s World In Hollywood
TINSELTOWN Adventures SOUGHT
- Who befriended Peter Sellers on the cusp of international stardom in Rome?
- Who secured Mick Jagger the leading role in Performance?
- Who realised her friend David Bowie would be perfect as The Man Who Fell To Earth?
- Who worked tirelessly with Martin Sheen to ensure he landed the lead role in the legendary Apocalypse Now?
- And who thrived in Hollywood’s intensely male environment during the seventies and eighties?
All this and more can be found in Hollywood agent/executive Maggie Abbott’s memoir – as she moves from London’s East End and life as a wartime evacuee to the heart of Hollywood via Rome’s Hollywood on the Tiber, New York’s leading literary circles and 1960s Swinging London, navigating her way through the male dominated executive offices of the music and film industries to the heart of the entertainment industry.
MAGGIE ABBOTT
Londoner, Maggie Abbott accidentally fell into the movie business when she was employed by the William Morris Agency in Rome.
Acquiring a knack for being in the most interesting places at the best of times, Maggie’s friendships with Gore Vidal and George Plimpton saw her working in New York’s vibrant literary circles during the early sixties, assisting director Henry Kaplan on two Broadway plays and finally returning to London to work alongside Kenneth Tynan at The National Theatre just as the Swinging Sixties burst into life.
Maggie next joined Creative Management Associates, the prestigious talent agency, and spent ten years representing such major stars as Charlotte Rampling, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. In Los Angeles she was the agent for Martin Sheen, Maria Schneider and Peter O’Toole, before experiencing life as a studio executive at Columbia Pictures.
Marijane Miller
Marijane Miller has over 25 years’ experience in network television, online video and feature documentary production. Her strong background in informational and educational content includes Emmy-winning children’s programming for network and public television.
Marijane has created documentary content for national non-profit organisation websites as well as online video/informational solutions for national brands.
She more recently wrote, produced and directed two feature documentaries and currently writes weekly video news reports for the non-profit InvisiblePeople.tv.
Stuart Bailie
Trouble Songs: Music & Conflict In Northern Ireland
INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL
Trouble Songs presents the previously untold history of music and conflict in Northern Ireland, commencing in 1968 and bringing the story right up-to-date with Kneecap.
Musicians from the punk, folk, rave and rock worlds have all responded to the violence, bigotry and shocking events that occurred in Northern Ireland, which has resulted in a remarkable collection of songs by artists as wide-ranging as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Sinead O’Connor, The Pogues, The Cranberries and Elvis Costello.
Featuring contributions from a who’s who of Irish music, the 60 plus interviewees include Bono, Christy Moore, The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Orbital, Kevin Rowland, Terri Hooley, The Rubberbandits and The Miami Showband survivors. Trouble Songs is part music history, part social history, examining the conflict from a unique perspective and highlighting the power of music as a persuader, agitator and peacemaker.
STUART BAILIE
Stuart is a Belfast-based music journalist and author who has been active in the music industry for 40 years. His work has appeared in NME (where he was Assistant Editor), Mojo, Uncut, Q, Vox, Classic Rock, Hot Press and The Irish Times.
Across his career, Stuart has shared unforgettable encounters with Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan, Nina Simone, Björk, Sinéad O’Connor, and Dave Grohl, while documenting the rise of Radiohead, the chaos of Oasis, the road fever of Primal Scream and U2, and the pain and transcendence of the Manic Street Preachers. He also wrote and narrated the BBC documentary So Hard To Beat and co-founded the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast, where he served as its CEO from 2008 to 2016. Stuart currently edits Dig With It, a publication celebrating music, arts, and counterculture in Northern Ireland.
Malcolm Bennett & Aidan Hughes
The Complete BRUTE!
NOT AVAILABLE IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Unique in the annals of modern literature, unrivalled in the civilised world, BRUTE! is an unparalleled exercise in minimalist hard-boiled narrative. Candid sagas of ‘two-fisted action’ and‘sheath-bursting romance’ so real and raw they explode off the page. Wild, untameable women and colossal, work-hardened men grapple in savage unbridled passion. The BRUTE! style spans every genre and straddles the whole gamut of human emotions.
Written and illustrated by Malcolm Bennett and Aidan Hughes, BRUTE! lampoons several literary conventions in short, concise bursts of ‘WOODSPEAK!’ – a phonetic language based on sound, comprised of a number of elements, namely Spikespeak, Forcephrase and Powerphrase. Brutal strings of sharp, staccato word sounds forced together into narrative’. A technique derived from tabloid headlines and pulp novels.
Originally, only seven issues of the pamphlet BRUTE! were published (1984-88). However, it quickly became a cult favourite and spawned an animated TV series, a Sphere Books paperback and strips in Blitz magazine and the London Evening Standard.Aidan & Malcolm crack with the funnies at a BRUTE! book signing.
The Complete BRUTE! contains fistfuls of stories featuring cowboys, hooligans, pig farmers, Romans, sailors and squaddies and will not be available in public libraries until each one contains a bar.
The rest, as they say, will be history.
“A pocket riot bible of screaming bold text and black & white prints that sets itself apart from everything else. I loved it!” – James Brown, Creator of Loaded
“The best experimental novel this decade” – Kazuo Ishiguro
“Masterly…” – The Literary Review
Malcolm Bennett
Sadly, Malcolm passed away in March 2015, of unknown but unsurprising causes. While his post-BRUTE! years were punctuated by pubs, drugs and prison, by the turn of the century he had cleaned up and started a new life in London. He told few about his previous life on TV, radio and page, yet he couldn’t shed the contrarian charisma that would establish him as a racontrepreneur in his stomping ground of The Borough, south east London.
Malcolm began writing and performing again, enjoying a revival around 2010, when the discovery of previously unpublished BRUTE! stories led to the release of I, Brute! in 2010. He published small runs of new material in the following years and was looking forward to the future when he went and fucking died. He is still painfully missed.
AIDAN HUGHES
When Aidan and Malcolm went their separate ways, Aidan continued to work successfully as a commercial illustrator, as he does to this day. His dramatic high contrast artwork would translate easily to advertising and animation, even if clients like Guinness and Bank of Scotland required fewer murderous, bloke-poking, pub heroes.
Aidan also produced several large scale outdoor murals in England, France, Italy and the Czech Republic. But perhaps Aidan is best known for the album covers he designed for Massive Attack and the German industrial band KMFDM, featuring the unmistakable style that runs through his body of work. He currently lives, works and has a great time in the Czech Republic.
OFFICIAL!
The Complete Brute! Is once again available to licence. Details upon request. You lucky, lucky people…
Andy Blade
The Secret Life Of A Teenage Punk Rocker
INSIDE TRACK/OUTSIDE VIEW
“This is amazing! Johnny Rotten was going to sign us to his label – even though we’d never met him, he’d never heard us, we’d only ever done one gig and we hadn’t even got a bass player! This music business was obviously a piece of piss…”
This is no ordinary ‘just-another-rock-biography’. No. Andy Blade, Eater’s then 15-year-old frontman and vocalist, has gone to great lengths in composing an intimate, no-holds-barred window into the kickstart of punk rock, life in its trenches, and the wild, post-punk psychedelic trip out to where the buses don’t run. And, mercifully, to where the rock ‘n’ roll ones do…
Outlining and illustrating just how it was and what went on, he brings a sharpened steel-trap memory and an alarming lack of self-restraint or self-congratulation to proceedings. His punches are indeed never pulled and feathers are most certainly ruffled.
It was a time of intensity and attitude in the face of established conformity unwelcome to change. So best to tell it like it was and not worry about hurting feelings too much, eh?
And what a time it was. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The Ramones, Johnny Thunders – now acknowledged as rock deities – pass through the pages as just people who were loitering at the bar at the time. As far as punk rock goes, this is it.
Brimming with quirky, off-kilter tales featuring the usual suspects and then some: from punk legends like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious to luminaries Spike Milligan, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, and Muhammad Ali. Worth the admission price alone…
“The people’s punk biography” – The Observer
“First-hand and from the inside out, Andy Blade documents and recounts the 1976-77 punk explosion with wry and alarming clarity” – Don Letts
“Punk rock, blowjobs and ladybird holocausts… This is the original London punk rock scene story straight from the horse’s mouth” – Tim Wheeler, Ash
“Raw, ragged and real. A fast-moving and funny history of the early days of punk and beyond. Buy one for the punk in your life!” – Jonathan Ross
“Eater’s ‘The Album’ is probably the record I’ve listened to most in my life. I loved the vibe and the sound. They turned Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ into ‘I’m Fifteen’, and being 15 myself, I could relate. This was my band… I was psyched because I heard they called the Sex Pistols old. (Drummer) Dee Generate was almost my age and playing in an awesome band. They inspired me to start my own band. I love Eater” – J.Mascis, Dinosaur Jnr
ANDY BLADE
Andy Blade is a singular figure in British punk rock – a true original who burst onto the scene as a teenager and has remained a sharp, compelling presence on its fringes for decades.
Born into an Anglo-Egyptian family, he formed the pioneering teen punk band Eater at just 15 years old in 1976. His band became one of the youngest and rawest acts in the explosive first wave of UK punk, delivering frantic, no-frills energy that captured the era’s spirit perfectly.
Eater were quickly drawn into the heart of the burgeoning punk movement. Signed to Sex Pistols’ producer Dave Goodman’s label and managed by the legendary Lee Childers (whose other charges included Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers), they shared bills with the era’s biggest names. Blade lived the chaos of 1977 from the inside.
Since those early days, Blade has stayed true to his rebellious outsider roots, carving out a distinctive path as a musician, solo artist, podcaster, and cultural observer. While many of his contemporaries faded or chased trends, he has continued creating, performing, and evolving. In recent years, he has enjoyed a notable resurgence, emerging as a unique cult figure amid a landscape of increasing uniformity. His late-career vitality stands out: few peers match his ongoing activity and creative output.
Dennis DiBrizzi
As We Were: Life with Ian Hunter & Mott The Hoople ‘74
YOU LOOK LIKE A STAR ~
BUT YOU’RE OUT ON PAROLE
As We Were: Life with Ian Hunter & Mott The Hoople ‘74 is a magnificent collection of personal photographs by keyboard player Dennis DiBrizzi – a member of both Ian Hunter’s Rant Band and MOTT ‘74. This volume includes over 150 previously unseen images – on stage, on the road and behind the scenes – and is supplemented throughout by personal reminisces from Ian Hunter, members of both Mott ‘74 and the Rant Band, and the road crew.
As Dennis says, “As the keyboard player I had the access to my bandmates and the experiences we shared on stage, in the dressing rooms, hotels, and various motorway services, and truck stops. I also had the most important thing, the trust of my travel companions to document our time together. I think these photos show that trust, the camaraderie, and the respect.”
This is a book no one else could have created.
DENNIS DIBRIZZI
Dennis was born in Yonkers, NY. He’s toured with Mott The Hoople, as well as Ian Hunter and The Rant Band. His other touring and recording credits include Dion, Genya Ravan, Gary “US” Bonds, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and The Raiders, Lou Christie, Mitch Ryder, Chris Pati and Bluefire. As well as a talented keyboard player, Dennis is also a photographer, specialising in black and white photography. His work has appeared on numerous albums and in Rock ‘n’ Roll Sweepstakes: The Authorised Biography of Ian Hunter.
Martin Eden
Zeros
HEROES FROM ZEros
Zeros is an epic soap opera graphic novel series following the lives of a group of schoolchildren who all have superpowers.
In Volume 1, we meet the characters aged eight, whilst each subsequent volume jumps ahead by ten years. Each volume will also feature a different and relevant art style and colour scheme, as we follow the lives of this fascinating group of characters into adulthood and middle age.
Zeros has numerous twists and turns, plus fascinating and relatable characters. The series captures the excitement of Scott Pilgrim and Harry Potter, particularly the anticipation readers experienced as each new volume was published.
But ultimately Zeros presents its own unique vision.
Volumes 1 and 2 are complete, Volume 3 is well underway, and the series’ fourth and fifth instalments are already fully planned out.
Martin started out wanting anyone – from 9 to 99 – to be able to read and enjoy Zeros. And in that he’s undoubtedly succeeded…
MARTIN EDEN
Martin Eden is a comic creator living in South London.
His acclaimed comic series have included the award-nominated superhero soap opera The O Men (amazingly created over a 20 year timespan), the award-nominated LGBT superhero comic Spandex and the all-ages history thriller, The Mysterious Doors of Stanley Halls. Martin’s current magnum opus is the incredible Zeros graphic novel series.
Martin was previously an editor at Titan Publishing, working on magazines such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Buffy and The X-Files, as well as comics like Robotech, Doctor Who and various Dreamworks titles.
He now works as a freelance editor, illustrator and comic creator.
Rudi Esch
The Seven Shows Of Chaos: The Sex Pistols in the USA
A SOUTHERN FRIED DISASTER
A photographic narrative by Rudi Esch featuring New York photographer Bob Gruen – on tour with the Sex Pistols, USA in Jan 1978 – capturing the apocalyptic moment when punk fell apart.
The Seven Shows of Chaos is a loud and fast, take no-prisoners account about the most combustible week in punk history: the Sex Pistols’ infamous January 1978 American tour. The Southern-fried, brawl-heavy, media-scorching disaster that blew the band apart. Told through the raw, unfiltered photography and firsthand memories of Bob Gruen, the legendary rock photographer who was right there in the line of fire. This book captures the Pistols exactly as they were: brilliant, reckless, hilarious, self-destructive, and absolutely alive.
The book also showcases Gruen’s early iconic 1976 photographs of the Sex Pistols signing with EMI. Images that define the early punk aesthetic and still shape the band’s myth today. It presents a definitive visual and contextual account of the Pistols at two pivotal moments: their explosive arrival into the British music industry straight from the rehearsal room on Denmark Street to their spectacular unraveling on American soil.
The story arc moves from the birth of the Pistols’ legend to its spectacular onstage implosion, revealing the chaos, the comedy, the violence, and the accidental genius that made the band immortal. It provides extensive Oral Quotes of the people who were there: Bob Gruen, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and John Lydon.
This is not a nostalgic coffee-table book. No. It’s a hard-hitting, high-energy, behind-the-curtain chronicle, driven by Gruen’s unique access and his instinct for capturing the exact moment when music history turned into CHAOS.
Bob Gruen is one of the most respected rock photographers of all time. His archive includes seminal work with John Lennon, The Clash, Ramones, New York Dolls, Tina Turner, Green Day and dozens more. His images are cultural landmarks.
Rudi Esch is a musician, writer, and curator with a deep background in post-punk, music history and archival projects. He is known for his sharp, accessible insider perspective on the evolution of modern music culture. His previous publications and curatorial work established credibility within both scholarly and music communities.
RUDI ESCH
Rudi Esch was born in Düsseldorf and is a renowned music historian, author and musician. He is a cornerstone of the German alternative music scene and, as the long-standing bassist of the influential industrial band Die Krupps, played a key role in shaping the sound of EBM and industrial rock. He is also a member of Germany’s first punk band, Male.
With his critically acclaimed debut book, ELECTRI_CITY : The Düsseldorf School of Electronic Music, he established himself as the leading chronicler of Germany’s electronic heritage. In his most recent work, Spass Muss Sein – Love For Fun, Esch continues his exploration of German pop culture, giving voice to the pioneers, survivors and visionaries of the Schlager era.
Rudi is also the founder and curator of the eagerly anticipated annual ELECTRI_CITY Conferenceand is involved in various archival projects. He lives with his family on Graceland in the south of Düsseldorf and works as a music consultant in Düsseldorf and London.
Mark Guarino
So Blue: The Story Of The Jayhawks
MAKING AMERICANA GREAT AGAIN
“We never set out to be a country band. We were just rock kids who happened to love Neil Young, Gram Parsons, and the harmonies of the Louvin Brothers. It’s flattering to be called pioneers, but sometimes I think that label made people overlook our pop sensibilities” – Gary Louris
The Jayhawks were at the forefront of the Americana movement in the eighties. In fact, without them it would probably never have happened.
For the first time, So Blue presents their improbable and sometimes tumultuous story – with meticulous input from the band – detailing how they have survived and thrived through more than 40 years of personal turmoil, major label dysfunction and the wholesale transformation of the music industry.
Supplementing the band’s own input, acclaimed author Mark Guarino has also interviewed an incredible 150 other key people in The Jayhawks’ story – essentially anyone who was in the room with the band during critical moments in their personal and professional history.
Emerging from Minneapolis in the post-punk era of The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and Soul Asylum, The Jayhawks pioneered today’s Americana movement through a series of classic albums that introduced young rock audiences to country music melodies and folk music’s storytelling tradition – which they then allied with Brit-pop craftmanship.
The band’s unique sound is showcased on some of the era’s most critically acclaimed albums, including Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow The Green Grass, and Sound Of Lies.
“The Jayhawks managed to bridge punk rock energy with perfect, tattered country rock harmonies in a way nobody else could touch” – Ryan Adams
And in the tradition of The Band and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, The Jayhawks have served some of music’s most acclaimed visionaries (including Ray Davies, Roger McGuinn, and Johnny Cash) as their back-up band for special recordings and performances.
The group have also been endorsed by numerous household names: Co-founder Gary Louris has written songs for many hitmakers such as The Chicks; collaborated with Nickel Creek, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, Peter Buck of REM, and many others; as well as appearing in Golden Smog, a successful and prolific Jayhawks side project that includes members of Big Star, Wilco, and Soul Asylum.
“They are one of the most important bands to ever do this. They managed to take that classic country-rock layout and give it this heavy, beautiful Midwestern heart” – Lucinda Williams
The Jayhawks never had a massive Billboard hit, but like the Velvet Underground or Big Star, their influence is immeasurable and they have developed a fervent following that still sustains their frequent touring.
Today, Gary Louris, Marc Perlman, Karen Grotberg, and Tim O’Regan continue to record and tour throughout North America and Europe. Through 12 studio albums, two live albums, and several EPs and solo projects, The Jayhawks are still building a legacy of music that stands the test of time.
MARK GUARINO
Mark Guarino is an award-winning journalist who writes about national news events, trends and culture – with a special emphasis on American roots music.
His previous book, Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival (University of Chicago Press), is a deeply researched and ground-breaking first on the subject, covering 100 years of history.
It received several awards, including the Belmont University Curb Music Industry Award for Country Music Book of the Year, Book of the Year from the Illinois State Historical Society, and Best Historical Research in Recorded Country, Folk, World, or Roots Music Certificate of Merit from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections.
“In this remarkable and thrilling book, Mark Guarino writes that Chicago’s role in country music and the folk revival has never earned a closer look. Well, it gets that now in a book exhaustively researched, stylishly written and exciting on every single page. In it I find people I knew well, many more that I heard play and sing in clubs, and some that are new to me. They are all here, vividly, the rogues, rascals and geniuses who made and keep making our city sing” – Chicago Tribune
His second book, Killings In Kenosha: How Lies, Fear, and Guns Turned America Against Itself, is due in August 2027.
Mark is also a full-time staff producer with ABC News and Good Morning America – covering breaking news events, organising interviews with high-profile news makers, and working on long-form investigations.
He has previously been the Midwest correspondent for The Washington Post, the Midwest Bureau Chief for The Christian Science Monitor, and the pop music critic for The Chicago Daily Herald.
Mark’s byline has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Reuters, The BBC, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Al-Jazeera America, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, Agence France Presse (AFP), and many other media outlets.
“Guarino’s richly textured cultural history is informed by his instinctive sense of the sounds and lyrics that originated in Chicago’s small taverns and clubs that were an ‘unusual hothouse for creativity,’ crucial to the reinvention of country and folk music” – The National Book Review
Adrian Harte
The Power Of Love: The History Of The Power Ballad
love HURTS, LOVE SCARS
The Power of Love: The History of the Power Ballad is the definitive history of one of the most commercially successful and misunderstood forms in popular music, told through 40 songs in 40 chapters.
Based on extensive new interviews with musicians, songwriters, producers, and record‑industry figures, the book traces the evolution of the power ballad from its emergence in the 1970s to its dominance of radio, charts, and MTV in the 1980s, its transformation through the 1990s and 2000s, and its continued relevance in contemporary pop. The narrative begins with Nazareth’s Love Hurts and charts the success, death, and rebirth of the form up right until Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ Die With A Smile.
Each chapter focuses on an individual song, examining how it was written, recorded, produced, marketed, and received. While the song is the central unit of analysis, the book places each within its broader cultural and industrial context, exploring the mechanics of hit‑making, the role of radio formats, the influence of MTV, and the uneasy relationship between authenticity and commercial success.
Rather than treating power ballads as ironic artefacts or guilty pleasures, The Power of Love approaches them as a coherent songwriting tradition with recognisable traits, shared influences, and a clear emotional vocabulary. From Los Angeles to Vancouver, from Sheffield to Sweden, the book weaves together studio practices, musical differences, production techniques, and industry pressures into a connected story.
Drawing on extensive research and hundreds of original interviews, Adrian Harte presents the first history to examine the power ballad as both a musical form and a cultural force, offering a song‑led account of how these records were made, why they mattered, and why they endure.
ADRIAN HARTE
Adrian Harte is an Irish writer and poet who has lived in Switzerland for over 25 years.
He published Small Victories (Jawbone), the definitive biography of the San Francisco rock band Faith No More, in 2018.
Classic Rock said: “Harte’s eye for detail coupled with bullseye analysis and a breezy prose style illuminates the band’s dramatic and chaotic trajectory with authoritative calm… Essential.”
His first poetry collection, Red Rite Hand, was published in 2023 by Australian publishers, ICOE Press. His work has appeared in Abridged, Peregrine Journal, Vita Poetica and Rabble Review.
Clinton Heylin (1)
A Couple Of Writers From Dulwich: The Parallel Lives Of Raymond Chandler & P. G. Wodehouse
PULP FRICTION
It would be hard to think of two writers with styles more diametrically opposite than P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler. Yet, to this day, they remain the most parodied of writers – sometimes consciously, often unwittingly – a sure sign of writers of the first water.
One was the creator of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster (two characters whose greatest fears were an overbearing aunt, being nabbed stealing a cow creamer, or getting engaged to the wrong girl) and the finest comic writer of his age; the other, a pioneer of the hard-boiled detective story, turned pulp fiction into literature with the seven novels he wrote featuring Philip Marlowe.
Chandler and Wodehouse, these two near-contemporaries and popular literary stylists, never met. Though they knew each other and talked about each other in letters, their paths never crossed in person. Which is not on the face of it entirely surprising. One was born in Guildford, Surrey, to an old English family; the other in Chicago, Illinois, to a family of Irish Quakers.
This is a book about two writers of hugely contrasting styles and yet they have everything in common; both classically educated at the same esteemed educational establishment – Dulwich College – and each of whom shunned the world of literature and turned to pulp fiction. Both liked the colour of money and disdained the literary establishment, preferring to make a name for themselves in popular magazines during the golden era of newsstand fiction, ever carrying on an exchange of ideas with their mutual third wheel, Bill Townend.
The result is a unique dual biography with many unexpected intersections, showing how two very different writers, both supreme stylists, sharing the same educational background, navigated their way through the same milieu, largely along parallel lines: biography by juxtaposition, as it were.
CLINTON HEYLIN
Clinton Heylin is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading authority on Bob Dylan, but he is also a biographer of a whole range of fascinating subjects.
He has forensically examined numerous musical talents (Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, the Velvet Underground and Sandy Denny amongst them), as well as turning his attention to the life of Orson Welles (Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios) and exploring Shakespeare’s sonnets (So Long As Men Can Breathe).
The Irish Independent has considered Clinton “arguably the world’s greatest rock biographer.”
His other acclaimed titles include From the Velvets to the Voidoids (a history of American punk), The Great White Wonders (an in-depth look at bootlegging), It’s One for the Money (a history of song publishing since the birth of the popular music industry) and All the Madmen (a long overdue examination of mental illness in British rock music in the 1960s and 1970s).
Brought up in Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School, London, and Sussex Universities, he now lives in Somerset.
Clinton Heylin (2)
We Three Poet-Punks: The Downtown Demimonde of Patti Smith, Television & The Blank Generation
BLANK VERSES
The protagonists: Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell ~ the three poets of punk who were at different times sounding boards, friends, lovers and frenemies.
The location: Seventies New York ~ a city and a period like no other.
The result? Landmark albums Horses, Marquee Moon and Blank Generation ~ three towering achievements which have unquestionably stood the test of time.
Drawing on its protagonists’ own archives, We Three Poet-Punks details both their relationships and their work in the period when maybe the world was not there for the taking, but the one below Manhattan’s 14th Street was.
The core span is from 1971 to 1977. To be precise, from February 10th 1971, when Patti Smith gave her first poetry reading at the St Mark’s Project, to her CBGB Theatre gig on December 31st 1977, when she literally brought the house down.
Initially all three came to New York not to be musicians, but to be poets. And from 1967 through 1973 that is what they all became: published poets. The switch, when it came, was one borne of frustration at the poetry scene, its audience and their failure to make an impact. Starting in early 1974, the lives and loves of Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell would become inextricably entwined, as each began to champion the other, and as the two bands they founded, the Patti Smith Group and Television, attracted the great and the good to their gigs.
If Television were the band attracting the interest of David Bowie and Eno (both of whom wanted to produce them), John Lennon, Lou Reed, John Cale, Paul Simon and Bryan Ferry, inside a year it was Patti who signed to Arista.
That Television failed to follow suit – at least for almost two years – would be down to an acrimonious split in April 1975 which would see Richard Hell go his way and Verlaine moulding Television into a reflection of his vision alone. The result would be two rival bands working along the exact same line – twin guitars, quirky key and signature changes, surprisingly poetic lyrics, catchy song titles – Television and the Voidoids.
And in 1977 both would deliver the statement they wanted to make, their own personal manifesto of punk, before it was all taken away from all three of them and they were left crawling from the wreckage, finding refuge in marriage (in Patti’s case); heroin (in Richard’s case) and solo projects (in Tom’s case).
It’s a story never previously told in all its dimensions, but now that’s changed thanks to previously unafforded access to the archives of Richard Hell (housed at NYU) and Tom Verlaine (housed at NYPL, not yet accessible to the public).
Whilst Clinton Heylin’s groundbreaking From The Velvets To Voidoids (still in print 33 years on) delved into the musical tradition that defined punk, We Three Poet-Punks focusses on the three key personalities and their ambitions, both before they started making music and when they started playing together, writing together and sleeping together.
We Three Poet-Punks is, of course, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of both Marquee Moon and Blank Generation in 2027.
CLINTON HEYLIN
Clinton Heylin is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading authority on Bob Dylan, but he is also a biographer of a whole range of fascinating subjects.
He has forensically examined numerous musical talents (Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, the Velvet Underground and Sandy Denny amongst them), as well as turning his attention to the life of Orson Welles (Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios) and exploring Shakespeare’s sonnets (So Long As Men Can Breathe).
The Irish Independent has considered Clinton “arguably the world’s greatest rock biographer.”
His other acclaimed titles include From the Velvets to the Voidoids (a history of American punk), The Great White Wonders (an in-depth look at bootlegging), It’s One for the Money (a history of song publishing since the birth of the popular music industry) and All the Madmen (a long overdue examination of mental illness in British rock music in the 1960s and 1970s).
Brought up in Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School, London, and Sussex Universities, he now lives in Somerset.
Patrick Humphries
The A-Z Series: Bob Dylan
SORTING OUT THE MEDICINE
The A-Z Series presents the most interesting, unusual, amusing and iconic stories about rock and pop’s greatest musicians.
Launching with a Bob Dylan A-Z, follow-up volumes will be devoted to Taylor Swift, The Beatles, David Bowie, Dolly Parton, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Abba, Queen or whoever the publisher might like to suggest.
These books won’t just present the facts, although there will be an element of that, but will provide the reader with fascinating anecdotes, each selected to give real insight into each artist.
There will be plenty of tales that will be unfamiliar to even the most ardent fan, but the A-Z series will essentially remain accessible to those readers simply wanting to understand and learn more about these famous performers.
Supporting the A-Z stories will be a selection of approximately five quizzes alongside some rare visual material threaded throughout the book, making the A-Z series an ideal companion to dip into time and time again.
It’s a series raise a smile, provide new stories, begin a journey and settle an argument.
“I know more about Dylan than I know about my own family: Bob’s paternal grandparents emigrated to America from Odessa, while my cousin’s children are… what relation to me?
A day hasn’t gone by when I haven’t listened to, thought about, looked at, quoted, remembered, discussed, read about or mused on… Bob Dylan.
I am guessing Dylan is the most written-about ‘rock star’. I have written two books on him and wondered if I had anything more to say about this infuriating, majestic, spellbinding, teasing, charismatic, maddening, world-changing individual. Then I began collating material accumulated from over half a century, scouring cuttings, interviews and numerous rare sources, and found there were things I wanted to share, and things I did want to say.
Ideally this book will raise a smile, provide new stories, begin a journey, settle an argument. Ultimately, this is a man who has meant so much to so many over so many years, in so many countries. And I feel safe in saying he will continue to do so for decades to come…
For those coming fresh to Dylan, it may well all seem a bit overwhelming. If A Complete Unknown was your introduction, then remember that film only took the story up to when Bob was 24 years old. There have been, and still are, so many Bobs, but the past always seems close behind, with each new volume of the Bootleg Series offering up fresh gold. And Dylan’s own writings allow more scrutiny, but ultimately with the realisation that, really, nothing honestly is ever revealed. Maybe Tom Waits said it best, that Dylan really is “a planet to be explored”. Welcome to the exploration…”.
– Patrick Humphries, May 2026
PATRICK HUMPHRIES
Patrick Humphries was recruited as a ‘hip young gunslinger’ by the New Musical Express in the seventies, before joining Melody Maker as a staff writer. Since then he has also freelanced for a great many titles, including The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Mail, Mojo and Record Collector.
During this time, Patrick has interviewed many legendary figures, in particular Leonard Cohen, Art Garfunkel George Harrison, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Lou Reed, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen and Roger Waters.
He has also written and presented some notable documentaries for BBC radio – covering such diverse subjects as Bob Dylan, Len Deighton, Elton John, Frederick Forsyth, The Bee Gees, Stephen Foster and The Battle Of The Alamo.
His first book – a biography of Fairport Convention – was published in 1982 and he has since written acclaimed biographies of Nick Drake, The Beatles, Lonnie Donegan, Richard Thompson and Paul Simon, amongst others.
“Patrick Humphries is one of the all-time great biographers of rock music. Few others come close” – Colin Hall, author of The Songs The Beatles Gave Away, and custodian of John Lennon’s Liverpool home, ‘Mendips’ (2004–2023).
“I didn’t think that anyone could find anything new in the Beatle universe, but you have. Ears and tail maestro… You done good” – Charles Shaar Murray on With The Beatles.
“With the Beatles is a terrific book. Patrick Humphries… scholarship in music is evident from the number of interviews with the famous (including three Beatles) and the not so famous who populate his book. Not only does the author know and love The Beatles’ music, he understands the roots from which they and their original fans sprouted. Many books have been written about The Beatles, and this is one of the very best” – Ray Connolly (That’ll Be The Day scriptwriter) on With The Beatles.
Paul Marko
The Roxy, London WC2: A Punk History
disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic, nauseating
The Roxy – formerly a fruit and vegetable warehouse in the then dark, dank and decaying Covent Garden – was central to the rise and spread of punk rock in 1977. A club that featured an array of major and minor punk acts, and the key faces on the scene. Punk’s foremost club flourished despite it’s less than salubrious neighbourhood. It may’ve been tiny, but its impact was huge.
This is the punk rock of struggling bands, bad drugs, and sometimes badder music.
… of homemade fashion, self-mutilation, fast sex, and random violence.
… of furious nights of youth, youth, youth looking for kicks against a backdrop of a gangster’s forgotten dive, away from the perceived glitz and polished glamour of the nearby West End.
… of unscrupulous landlords with criminal affiliations, threats of physical damage from bolshie band managements, and two robberies.
The Roxy, London WC2 is not simply the story of a punk club. It is the story of two disappearing underground Londons colliding: Inside, The Roxy, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Buzzcocks, and a generation of unknown teenage fans and bands that grew the punk scene in its own safe petri dish. Outside, Soho was still a rough, sexually fluid and sometimes dangerous world of gay clubs, sex workers, strip joints, rent boys, hustlers, criminals, gangsters and late-night characters.
This book uses The Roxy as a doorway into this lost London – combining music history, social history, first-hand testimony and rare visual material to tell a story that has never been told in quite this way.
The Roxy, London WC2 features first-hand candid tales – unpublishable in a family Sunday newspaper – from the untrained musicians; from the well-intended, and less well-intended, club owners; and from the D-I-Y unwashed punk rock generation that attended. But awash, mind, with unseen photos, promo flyers and ephemera. This is the truth of the punk rock mythology that was The Roxy, London WC2.
Last published in 2007, second-hand editions (if you can find one) of this definitive tome will set you back three figures. 2027 marks the 50th anniversary of the white heat punk rock revolution. Time is ripe for a re-run. Welcome to The Roxy, London WC2.
PAUL MARKO
Paul Marko has been digging through the wreckage of punk rock for decades. Author of this book, and Menace: Prog, Punk, Skinheads & Serendipity, he has documented the bands, the characters, the venues and the chaos that exploded around the UK punk scene in the late 1970s.
He is also the founder and owner of Punk77.co.uk, one of the world’s longest-running and most extensive punk rock websites – a sprawling archive packed with rare photographs, interviews, memorabilia, first-hand stories and the forgotten history of the movement.
Rather than simply looking back at punk through rose-tinted nostalgia, Paul digs beneath the ‘accepted’ mythology to uncover the real stories – the obscure bands, lost recordings, notorious gigs, unlikely characters and cultural collisions that made the era so dangerous, creative and unpredictable.
Through his books, Punk77 website, record releases and continuing research, Paul remains committed to keeping punk’s history alive – loud, uncompromising and happily ruffling a few feathers along the way.
“Paul Marko’s highly entertaining book tells the story of the Covent Garden club that moves from being punk central to a total culture relic within a few months. Here is the fag end of the rock dream” – Jon Savage, Best Books (The Observer)
“A vast survey of the life and crimes of punk’s infamous West End venue. Gritty stuff” – Pat Gilbert, Mojo magazine
“Astonishingly detailed account of the club’s all-too-short history. An intriguing read, with some great photos, and surely the last word on the subject” – Record Collector magazine
“The Roxy was the first place that the punks could think of as their own” – Shane MacGowan, The Nipple Erectors & The Pogues
“A 35-year old’s vision of hell” – Peter York, Harpers & Queen
Kev Nixon
The Tale Of Two Sisters: A Teenage Love Story
RIGHT PERSON, WRONG TIME…
It’s the mid-nineteen seventies, and over the previous twenty years Great Britain went from the black-and-white fifties to the Technicolour sixties, before fading into the slate-grey seventies. Jamie Conway is seventeen and certain his music is his ticket out of small town Northern England. Making a conscious decision to move on from his heroes, singer-songwriter with-acoustic-guitar like Paul Simon and James Taylor, and somewhat in emulation of the radical change in career of David Bowie, Jamie’s new band, The Vendettas, are a powerhouse of protest and potency. As Jamie’s dreams begin to tip into reality, the noise gets louder, the right people are reacting to his songs… and then the records simply explode.
But in the unseen background of Jamie’s transformation, the Harvey sisters from Hull come to dominate his new life…
First it’s Karen… beautiful, unpredictable, dangerous and daring. Then elder sister Laura unexpectedly arrives on the scene, and she and Jamie get under each other’s skin. Laura is smart, sharp, charismatic, a music fanatic close to Jamie’s level, and of course… completely off-limits. What begins as perfect compatibility turns into obsessive true love and a winning combination. But things get messy when lines are crossed, loyalties fracture and the teenagers become young adults. And then, with the brightest of futures ahead, one tragic night, everything changes.
Set against the charged backdrop of two rocketing careers in the music business, The Tale Of Two Sisters is a powerful love story of finding the right person at the wrong time, and what happens when love and loyalty are tested beyond their limits. Because some relationships can change your life… and others can destroy it.
KEV NIXON
Raised in a family of jazz musicians in York, Kev Nixon signed his first record deal in 1975 and has been in the music business ever since. He’s achieved 33 Top 40 hits, 3 #1 albums, a Brit Award, and completed 9 world tours as either artist, songwriter, producer, manager, label owner, and/or A&R director.
Along the way he has worked with artists including James Bay, George Ezra, The Kooks, Tom Odell, Michael Hutchence, Kirsty MacColl, Kula Shaker, Madonna, Bryan Adams, Robert Plant, Little Angels and Alex Harvey.
In 2001 he became co-founding chairman of the degree-awarding Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM) with his wife Sarah Clayman. BIMM open in four cities across ten years before Kev and Sarah sold it and moved to Detroit, Michigan in 2012. They founded the Detroit Institute Of Music Education (DIME), which also opened in Denver, Colorado.
Kev and Sarah opened a venue called The Underground in Detroit’s town square, and in partnership with Capitol Records they founded Original 1265 Recordings for whom Kev produced 8 albums by local Detroit artists. DIME was listed in the top 3 of Rolling Stone’s annual list of Top Music Schools in America in both 2019/20.
Covid-19 brought a return to the UK and to artist management until 2023, when Kev decided to become a full-time author and started pageturna.com.
After writing a monthly column for Songwriter magazine, Kev’s first 3 books and audiobooks (about music and music education) were published in 2025/26.
Using the pen name, Jamie Conway, he has also written novels based on true stories. The first of these, The Tale Of Two Sisters, is due to be published in 2027, and is already attracting interest from Hollywood producers.
Mal Peachey
Get Black: The Beatles from Doo-Wop to Hip-Hop
Get Back TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED
It’s getting harder to find a new and interesting angle on The Beatles, but Mal Peachey’s Get Black: The Beatles from Doo-Wop to Hip-Hop has certainly achieved that and tells a fascinating story as well. For the first time, Mal traces the development of The Beatles’ Black music roots and the effect that they, in turn, had on Black music from the 1960s until the present day.
In fact, before the band’s legendary appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, DJs and producers at American Black music stations thought that The Beatles were Black because their records were released by the Black-owned label, Vee-Jay.
“The Beatles were the first white artists to ever admit that they grew up and honed themselves on Black music. I loved the fact that they did that, that they were honest” – Smokey Robinson
The band’s first American album (Introducing…The Beatles) carried 12 songs, only half of which were Lennon/McCartney originals, the rest being cover versions of songs written or first released by Black artists. Later, in 1964, Capitol released The Beatles Second Album, which contained 6 (of 11) tracks written or recorded by Black artists. As the band began to write their own material, The Beatles reflected all those influences back in their songs, which blended perfectly into their sets of R&B, soul and rock ’n’ roll covers. They sounded essentially American, and Black American, at that.
Furthermore, during their subsequent tours in the States, The Beatles would refuse to perform in front of segregated audiences and hired various Black acts to perform with them in front of those audiences – among them Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, The Exciters, Mary Wells, The Marionettes and The Ronettes.
As well as quoting from contemporary Black commentary on The Beatles, there will be new interviews with people who witnessed the band in their formative years, and with people born long after John, Paul, George and Ringo ceased to be a working unit – among them musicians and artists who have covered, sampled and remixed The Beatles songs in the 21st century.
Matters of social class, racial and sexual prejudice, cultural and social history, and shifting perceptions of the meaning of fame will also figure strongly. There will be discussion on what it was like growing up as a Black Beatles fan, what the band did to and for Black music and culture – and why, until now, there has been no in-depth look at The Beatles and Black music.
“The fact is, that while The Beatles undoubtedly and inarguably took a lot from Black music, they also gave a lot back” – Don Letts
MAL PEACHEY
Mal Peachey began his writing career as folk and country editor at Time Out magazine at the end of the 1980s. He got the job because he owned two Johnny Cash albums at a time long before Johnny met Rick Rubin. From where he graduated to become features editor at Vox magazine, the so-called NME monthly at IPC.
He simultaneously wrote as a freelance for several magazines and national newspapers, including as the rock critic at the Mail On Sunday, before leaving journalism for publishing. As Editorial Director at Virgin Books he set up a Manchester United imprint, published Jeremy Clarkson’s first three titles and wrote Picture This – the official illustrated Wet Wet Wet biography – amongst many others.
Mal’s next venture was co-founding the book packaging company Essential Works. Over the course of the following decade Essential created books for an array of UK and US publishers, among them HarperCollins, Penguin US, St Martin’s Press (to whom he sold May Pang’s Instamatic Karma), Octopus, Universe, Reader’s Digest and Atlantic. Mal edited, and in some cases wrote the text, for many packaged books, using his Johnny Morgan pseudonym.
In 2009, Essential launched Rocket88 Books, a direct-to-customer publishing company with an official Dream Theater biography and an official illustrated Syd Barrett title. Since then, Rocket88 have published books with, among others, Jethro Tull, ELP, Foreigner, Dinosaur Jr, DEVO, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, The Alan Parsons Project, and a series of books under the Vintage Black Glamour brand. All of which Mal edited.
As well as editing and publishing books with Rocket88, Mal wrote and conducted the interviews used in the Grammy Award-winning documentary The Clash: Westway To The World (2000), directed by Don Letts. The transcripts of the interviews were used to create the official illustrated The Clash by The Clash book published by Atlantic in the UK and Grand Central in the US. He has ghosted two best-selling autobiographies and co-authored There And Black Again with Don Letts (Omnibus Press, 2021).
Dominic Pedler
God Save The Queen: The Incredible Life Of The Sex Pistols Anthem
A POTENTIAL H-BOMB
God Save The Queen: The Incredible Life Of The Sex Pistols Anthem is the ultimate illustrated history of the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’, which is not only the world’s most collectable single but also remains one of the most controversial records ever released.
The book is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the single in May 2027 and covers absolutely everything: the recording, the lyrics and music, the artwork, the A&M release, the move to Virgin, the media reaction, the chart controversy, foreign editions, bootleg editions, collectables and the song’s enduring afterlife.
Dominic’s definitive text is accompanied by over 450 amazing images (photos, posters, clothing, rare memorabilia, etc), both from the UK and very much worldwide.
DOMINIC PEDLER
Dominic is a freelance writer and musician who has written for Record Collector, Guitarist, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques and Classic Rock, amongst others. His first book, The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles, was an acclaimed 800-page appreciation of the Fab Four’s music.
An honours graduate of the Musicians Institute in California, Dominic has also contributed forensic musicology to copyright cases. He has been following the ‘God Save The Queen’ story ever since buying the single as a teenager in 1977 after attending that year’s Silver Jubilee celebrations.
Praise for The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles:
“Forms more of a basis for serious debate than any other book on the Fab Four and will doubtless be unearthed and referred to by probing future historians in the decades to come” – Mike Read, Record Collector.
“Massively erudite” – Charles Shaar Murray, Mojo.
Jane Plüer
Modernist Poster Stamps
MODERN. AS ADVERTISED.
A collection of modernist poster stamps from their golden age in twentieth-century Europe. Curated, from her own collection, by Jane Plüer. A graphic designer and esoterica enthusiast from Germany, now living in England.
Poster stamps originated in nineteenth-century Europe and are now highly valued as an important part of the history of graphic design, popular art and social tradition, and are also highly collectable.
Designed as miniature advertisements they could be found stuck on envelopes, letters and bills. The stamps were created by commercial artists, illustrators and printers, who all added their own effects and interpretations, often including the work of contemporary artists of the time.
Poster stamps were printed in the same way as postage stamps, in multiples on large sheets separated by perforated edges with a glued backing. The visual style, originality and intricacy of their graphics made them popular collectables with both adults and children, with people keeping their collections in specially produced albums.
Poster stamps originated from German-speaking Continental Europe, including Austria, old Czechoslovakia and Germany. This was the heartland of Modernism, the main inspiration for the heyday of poster stamp design in the 1920s and 30s, and then its revival from the 1950s to the 1970s.
JANE PLüER
Jane is an associate partner at Pentagram design company. She has been collecting poster stamps for over a decade and now has hundreds of them.
In 2023 Jane published her story as one of the award-winning Pentagram Papers – highlighting the origins of poster stamps, her avid interest, and growing collection.
She will be exhibiting her collection in New York at The Poster House come March 2028.
Kurt Squiers
AD/DC: Every. Dirty. Song.
LET THERE BE ROCK
AC/DC. Every. Dirty. Song. is an incredibly comprehensive, narrative deep dive into every track the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll band has ever released. The title might nod to AC/DC’s unapologetic humour, but the work itself is serious, fully researched and immersive.
Each song is treated as a full essay — album cuts, B-sides, outtakes, live versions, rarities, and overlooked gems — exploring their origins, the studio magic (or chaos), cultural context, artwork, tours, gear and each song’s place in AC/DC history.
The material draws from a lifetime of immersion: numerous AC/DC shows worldwide; archival research; original interviews; writing for Classic Rock; and conversations from Kurt’s own AC/DC Beyond The Thunder podcast, which has featured members of AC/DC as well as many well-known cultural figures.
Here’s to the rock ’n’ roll damnation, the loudest noise pollution, and a salute like no other. For those about to read…
KURT SQUIERS
Kurt Squiers is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s biggest AC/DC fans and is the brains behind the successful charitable podcast AC/DC Beyond The Thunder.
He was hooked by Highway To Hell at the age of ten, had his first live AC/DC experience in 1985 and finally met the band in 2000, a relationship he has since maintained.
In 2009 Kurt launched AC/DC Twivia on Twitter (now X), asking a new question daily – over 5,000 questions and counting! – while giving away prizes to fans worldwide.
His day job is in advertising, where he runs his own company (SQUiERS LLC) and works with national brands and global bands – from AC/DC to Frank Zappa. He lives in in Raleigh, North Carolina and also writes for Classic Rock.
AC/DC. Every. Dirty. Song. is his first book.
Rory Sullivan-Burke
The Luck Of The Irish?
HELP WANTED: THE APPLIED IRISH
The luck of the irish? There’s no such thing. As we all know, the harder you work, the luckier you get. And the Irish are no strangers to graft.
The Luck Of The Irish? is the full and extensive story of how the Irish revolutionised Britain after the Blitz.
Celts in faraway towns. Polishing, sculpting and changing the landscape and culture wherever the roamed.
A tale of nursing and building the NHS.
A tale of navvying and construction.
A tale of minstrels and showbands in ballrooms of romance.
Weekend troubadours and comedians in working men’s clubs aplenty.
Snooker players, footy players and pop stars.
Dreamers, drifters and dramatists…and everyday folk alike eeking out a living and an identity in, at times, a hostile land.
The contributions of the Irish in making Britain the envy of the western world have long been overlooked, underplayed or downright forgotten. The children and grandchildren of the Irish diaspora forever changed the cultural and socio-economic landscapes of Britain.
We take a forensic look under the bonnet at how the Irish influenced and shaped the arts cultures both nationally and internationally. Musically giving the world, to this day, what it did not yet know it wanted…
From Lennon and McCartney to Liam and Noel, the Gallagher Brothers of Oasis. From Dusty Springfield to Elvis Costello. Shane MacGowan, Morrissey and Marr. To John Lyndon, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Ed Sheeran. And then some.
Not forgetting the comedians knocking ‘em dead nightly in the working men’s clubs and nite-spots, on the radio and on TV: Spike Milligan, Dave Allen, Frank Carson, Mike Reid, Sean Hughes, Jimmy Cricket, Dylan Moran et al;
Nor the sports stars showing off on the footy pitches, darts oches and boxing rings every Saturday and more: Georgie Best, Johnny Giles, Liam Brady, Pat Jennings, Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins, Dennis Taylor, Mary Peters, Barry McGuigan, and more;
And the writers, the poets, the playwrights, the actors, turning pages, tales and heads in the theatres and on the big and small screens alike: Edna O’Brien, Seamus Heaney, Jim Sheridan, Neil Jordan, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Roddy Doyle, Daniel Day-Lewis, Steve Coogan etc…
Running parallel, our narrative features fascinating and moving stories of the working class Irish who also did the jobs that nobody wanted. Who sweated blood and tears in providing the foundations for Britain’s rebirth after WWII. Not only in building and re-building the day-to-day infrastructure – the bomb-damaged cities, motorways, the London Underground, the homes – but also, in helping to create the first ever national health service. The pinnacle of ‘a caring state’ that promised to be there for its people from cradle to grave. Something now that everybody wants.
Through commentary and exclusive interviews this book appeals to culture heads and those also interested in socio-economic and political history. A deep dive exploration into the culture, the traditions, the religions, and the difficulties of the diaspora. Not to mention the effect of ‘The Troubles’ on Anglo-Irish relations.
A book to be reckoned with. So it is. Mark my words, luck has nothing to do with it.
RORY SULLIVAN-BURKE
Rory was born in London’s East End in 1983. He has worked in community care work since he was 16, first supporting children in the inner city and then as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities.
He relocated to West Yorkshire in 2007. Diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, he has used his experience of living with autism to empower and advocate for people on the autistic spectrum.
His earliest memories are of music and it has remained an enduring and pivotal obsession. He is an ardent West Ham United fan. The Light Pours Out Of Me – The Authorised Biography of John McGeoch was his first published work.
To date it has sold over 8000 copies in hardback and is available now as a paperback and an e-book. The Luck Of The Irish? is his follow-up tome.
Kenneth Womack
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Biography
OUR FINE FOUR-FENDERED FRIEND
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Biography brings the story of the world’s most famous flying car vividly to life. From a germ in Ian Fleming’s 12-year-old mind after witnessing its prototype in action at England’s Brooklands racetrack in 1920 through the making of the hit MGM movie with Dick Van Dyke in the 1960s, the distinctive car has never failed to capture the imagination.
A work of creative nonfiction that traces the heart-warming story of the car’s origins in Fleming’s boyhood imagination through the evolution of its storyline via the various and competing media of a children’s novel, a screenplay, a playful song-cycle, and a film adaptation.
As each new chapter unfolds, readers will be transported across space and time as different auteurs assume temporary custody of Fleming’s creation, including madcap storyteller Roald Dahl, the much-heralded Sherman Brothers of Walt Disney fame, and Ken Hughes, the director who grafted the disparate pieces together into a feature film for the ages.
By turns, each of Fleming’s storytelling successors will become frustrated with, even resentful of his original narrative. But they will have one abiding aspect in common: they simply adore the car.
In addition to the larger-than-life historical personalities of Fleming and Dahl, the book conjures up a variety of unforgettable characters, including racing legend Count Louis Zborowski; cantankerous film producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli; Fleming’s head-strong, steadfast mistress Blanche Blackwell; illustrator John Burningham; renowned English publisher Jonathan Cape; and actors Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews – the latter of whom declined to participate in the film production to Van Dyke’s great despair.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang : The Biography will be additionally well-served by the timely production of a new version of the film. In December 2024, Variety reported that a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang remake is being developed under the direction of Matthew Warchus, with a script by Irish playwright Enda Walsh.
KENNETH WOMACK
Kenneth enjoys a well-developed and internationally revered platform as a public scholar and pop-cultural expert. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on The Beatles and their enduring cultural influence. He is the author of a two-volume biography of famed Beatles producer Sir George Martin: Maximum Volume (2017) and Sound Pictures (2018).
His latest book, Living The Beatles’ Legend: The Untold Story of Mall Evans (2023), traces the extraordinary life and times of the Beatles’ roadie – and has sold more than 35,000 copies globally.
He also serves as the music culture critic for Salon, as well as being a contributor to a host of print and web outlets, including Billboard, Time, Variety, The Guardian, USA Today, The Independent, NBC News, The Times andThe Liverpool Echo.
Kenneth lives in West Long Branch, New Jersey, where he serves as Professor of English and Popular Music at Monmouth University.