Author:Sarfraz Manzoor,Sarfraz Manzoor
Dolly Parton grew up in poverty in rural East Tennessee, where children only attended school if there was no work to be done on the farm. She came to regard literacy skills as a passport to a better life and in 1995 she launched the 'Imagination Library'. All local children were sent a book a month, from birth to age 5. In 2007, she brought the project to Britain, starting in Rotherham. But what happened next? Travelling to Dollywood for an Imagination Library conference, Sarfraz Manzoor meets people from all over the world who have signed up for the project, and finds that Dolly's influence is global. He talks to Dolly about her life and work, speaks to those who knew her as a child and explores the motivations for this charitable work she undertakes with such passion. It is a journey to the glamorous heart of country music, but one which reveals much more about one of the world's best-loved country singers.
With a number of surprises, and a recreation of another past era, this penultimate episode of Serpent Crest is one of the most enjoyable in the series to date.
—— Paul Simpson , http://scifibulletin.comThe unexpected pleasure of David Troughton stepping into his father’s shoes in the role of the Second Doctor is a sheer delight, with David capturing this incarnation’s quirks and mannerisms while never bordering on pastiche, and still managing to instil the part with his own particular style.
—— http://www.wisbechstandard.co.ukThe main merit of this perceptive work is that, by not making Marley its focus, it gets closer to the truth about him than most other biographers... Colin Grant has composed a highly evocative and original account of a misunderstood group, and the misunderstood man at its core
—— Literary ReviewProvides a lively introduction to the life and times of the Wailers and, incidentally, to the neo-African religions and animist cults of beautiful, bedevilled Jamaica
—— Sunday TimesIn Grant's hands life in Trench Town in the 1960's is energetic and theatrical, rich in comedy and tragic irony... Grant's original and stylish second book... This brilliant book is not just about Jamaica, but about ourselves, no longer the country of The King's Speech but a post-imperial nation many of whose citizens have a buried history. Read it also for Grant's acute descriptions of its characters
—— GuardianOne of the few books to get to grips with the social, cultural, political and religious forces which drove the trio... He has you smell the open sewers of Trench Town, and feel its deprivation... Joyfully literate and philosophically penetrating
—— MojoGrant has approached a well worn topic in a lively and different way... Ever alert to Jamaica's adage that "there is no such thing as facts, only versions," he gives space to the ambiguities surrounding the Wailers' story without forcing conclusions, which bestows a rich sense of the mix of truth and fiction constantly at play in Jamaica... The bigger picture is painted in rewardingly colourful, often revelatory detail
—— MetroThe myth-making that surrounds the memory of Bob Marley has largely obscured the contribution of his fellow Wailers, Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later Bunny Wailer) and Peter Tosh. I and I restores these two to their rightful position
—— New StatesmanGrant...is skilled at peeling away layers of history
—— ObserverThere are illuminating details and fresh revelations
—— IndependentThis intelligent study...offers something more than the usual story of rags-to-riches and ganja-fuelled Rasta-speak. This book is full of...insights and revelations
—— James Ferguson , Times Literary SupplementThe three pillars - Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer - occupy equal roles in this illuminating study from the cross-roads of music and society
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent, Books of the YearUtterly riveting
—— Rob Fitzpatrick , Sunday TimesVivid biography...This brilliant book is not just about Jamaica, but also about ourselves, no longer the country of The King's Speech but a post-imperial nation, many of whose citizens have a buried history of slavery
—— Maggie Gee , GuardianMasterful biography...It is utterly riveting, taking in, as it does, true crime, West African folk magic and deeply corrupt politics
—— Rob Fitzpatrick , Sunday Times