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.
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.
Malcolm Garrett & Richard Boon
Buzzcocks Productivity
PACKAGING THE PERFECT POP
Painting & decorating Buzzcocks the Malcolm Garrett and Richard Boon way.
“We wanted to set Buzzcocks apart from this punk look, which merely exploited a style that was already proving clichéd and consequently locked in time…”
Buzzcocks Productivity is the collected and catalogued compendium of the designs produced for the group by Malcolm Garrett, in conjunction with the band’s first manager, Richard Boon. The architect and the town planner, if you will.
This high-end, top-notch, glossy edition gathers together in one place all of the imagery that accompanied Buzzcocks’ recorded output from the initial ground-breaking and self-funded, ‘Spiral Scratch’, through the ever-present, chart-busting years of 1977 to 1980 while signed to the United Artists record label, and onto the reformation coda from 1993.
At its heart the book not only features all the record sleeve designs but also the extensions of the designs into and across the promotional, publicity and marketing campaigns – featuring fly posters, press adverts, tour merchandise, promo badges and other associated ephemera.
The book will be annotated by Malcolm and Richard, who explain their thinking and execution of the designs in question, with additional commentary and anecdotes from associates and collaborators, such as Linder Sterling (illustrator of the distinctive ‘Orgasm Addict’ image); Jon Savage (creator of the fanzine ‘The Secret Public’); photographers Jill Furmanovsky, Chris Gabrin and Kevin Cummins, and A&R man and United Artists record label executive, Andrew Lauder, who signed the band and steered their rise up the pop charts alongside producer Martin Rushent.
Additional contextual essays outlining the prevailing moods, mores and mindsets of the times, supported by press clippings and photographs, will pepper the visual narrative.
This first time comprehensive collection of the visual language of Buzzcocks is a must-have for every Buzzcocks fan across the seven seas and seven continents.
MALCOLM GARRETT
Malcolm came to prominence in the late 70s and early 80s through his work for music artists such as Buzzcocks, Magazine, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Simple Minds, Heaven 17 and Peter Gabriel. He was an early convert to exploring the opportunities and challenges of design with digital technology, and his London studio, Assorted iMaGes, was amongst the first of its peers to go totally digital in 1990.
Garrett was born in Northwich, England in 1956, and attended St Ambrose College in Hale Barns. He studied typography at the University of Reading from 1974 until 1975 and graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975 until 1978.
His first notable work was design for the punk rock group Buzzcocks, including the iconic cover for their 1977 single ‘Orgasm Addict’.
RICHARD BOON
Richard Boon was the former first manager of Buzzcocks and boss of the record label, New Hormones.
Boon, born in 1953, is a Leeds Grammar School friend of Buzzcocks’ founder, Howard Devoto, and became the manager for seminal punk group by default, after organising gigs for the band.
Boon participated in the writing of several Buzzcocks songs, using the pen name Alan Dial, and, whilst seeking to release the band’s music, Boon, Devoto and Pete Shelley started the New Hormones label. The label released the influential ‘Spiral Scratch EP’ in January 1977, and began releasing records by other artists regularly from 1979 to 1982.
Richard Boon went on to work for Rough Trade Records, and later became a librarian at Stoke Newington Library, Hackney, London, and is part of the crew at the annual Stoke Newington Literary Festival, held first weekend of June each year.
Mark Guarino
So Blue: The True Story Of The Jayhawks
A TALE FROM THE TWIN CITIES
The Jayhawks burst out of the fabled late eighties Minneapolis music scene (Husker Du, Soul Asylum, the Replacements) and, alongside fellow Midwesterners Uncle Tupelo (and, through them, Wilco and Son Volt), gave birth to the hugely influential “alternative country” movement of the 1990s, and subsequent Americana movement which is still going strong today.
After a pair of early independent releases, the group swiftly became critical favourites and cult heroes with the release of their first major-label album, 1992’s Hollywood Town Hall, and its acclaimed follow-up, Tomorrow the Green Grass.
Their melancholic songwriting, impeccable musicianship and the honeyed harmonies of Mark Olson and Gary Louris quickly gained the band attention, but over time they evolved into a more baroque pop outfit – indebted as much to Brian Wilson as to Gram Parsons. The Jayhawks are considered a natural heir to The Band, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Kinks, and over the years have been invited to participate in musical projects by many icons from that period, including Roger McGuinn, Ray Davies and Johnny Cash.
So Blue: The True Story of The Jayhawks is the first in-depth book dedicated to the influential band’s 40-year history. Written with their full cooperation, So Bluealso features interviews with the many collaborators, peers, former bandmates, and others who have intersected with, and added to, the band’s long and rich history.
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.
For seven years Mark worked as a correspondent for the Washington Post, preceded by another seven years having served as the Midwest bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor. He was the pop music critic for the Chicago Daily Herald for 11 years and his byline has also appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, BBC.co.uk, Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, New York, Agence-France Presse, Mojo, among many other outlets. Mark is currently a producer with ABC News.
He is also a frequent music producer, having created successful shows in Chicago and New Orleans, two cities where he splits his time.
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.
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.