Author:Tom Watkins
LONGLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC PRIZE 2017
The coke-fuelled mania behind pop’s greatest successes
Tom Watkins is the famously entertaining pop Svengali with killer commercial instincts and prodigious talent for design. He propelled the Pet Shop Boys, Bros and East 17, among others, to global stardom, all whilst maintaining a savage hedonistic lifestyle and a stellar art collection. His fingerprints are all over British pop, and he’s decided the time has come for a tell-all autobiography about the business behind the stars that shaped your life in the 80s and 90s.
Follow Tom’s journey from his humble boyhood in post-war South-East London, to his teenage misdeeds and the birth of Rock and Roll; his days as a design student under the tutelage of Terence Conran and Rodney Fitch, to the excesses of the 80s and 90s where he became one of the original boy band innovators – the driving force behind the pop icons plastered on the walls of teenage girls’ bedrooms.
Funny, unstoppable and outspoken, a razor-sharp and greatly respected businessman, marketing visionary, designer and art collector, Tom takes us through his extraordinary and colourful life into the inner-circle of 80s pop-culture. From hobnobbing with Bruce Sprinsteen to bust-ups with Bros, Tom has seen it all.
Expect a gripping, gossipy, meticulously researched memoir of the drug-addled 80s and 90s, layered on top of an insightful and intelligent portrait of a recent but very different age, from the singular perspective of a man who played a huge role in defining the era and paved the way for industry moguls like Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.
A highly enjoyable memoir, the book’s depiction of Eighties excess is an absolute must…
—— Classic PopOutspoken and unapologetic ... gossipy, refreshingly frank and disarmingly insightful, this entertaining biography is packed with stories and anecdotes ... Music to our ears
—— AttitudeUnapologetic and outspoken ... [a] hugely entertaining tell-all biography. Gripping and gossipy, hilarious and forthright, yet insightful and self-knowing, Let's Make Lots of Money is everything an 80s music mogul memoir should be, and more.
—— BoyzLet's Make Lots of Money is as brash as its title ... [it has a] waspishness that makes it so readable.
—— GQA brutally honest memoir
—— SunIn the longer view, America's - and before that Europe's - dominance may come to be seen as a short aberration and the rise of China and other Asian nations as simply a reversion to the natural order of things. That at least is the key point of a provocatively titled book, Has the West Lost It?, by Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean academic and former diplomat. As many in America and Europe contemplate the dramatic changes to their world in the past few years, it's been getting a lot of attention.
—— Gerard Baker , The TimesSome economists merely interpret the world in various ways; others seek to change it. Mariana Mazzucato is an exemplar of the latter kind. The Italian-American is a restless thinker drawn to transformative, disruptive projects. ... Mazzucato's mission is to overturn the now dominant neoclassical theory of value. In the mid-19th century, she explained, an intellectual revolution occurred: rather than value determining price, price began to determine value.
—— George Eaton , New StatesmanThe Value of Everything is receiving accolades on Twitter from finance ministers and student idealists alike, and is clearly set to be essential summer reading for civil servants.
—— Delphine Strauss , Financial TimesPraise for The Entrepreneurial State: Conventional economics offers abstract models; conventional wisdom insists that the answer lies with private entrepreneurship. In this brilliant book, Mariana Mazzucato...argues that the former is useless and the latter incomplete.
—— Martin Wolf , Financial TimesOne of the most incisive economic books in years.
—— Jeffery Madrick , New York Review of BooksThis memoir is good and gossipy, will make you wish that you got to hang out with Barack and Michelle on a daily basis and is the missing link between The West Wing and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
—— RedAn apolitical, fundamentally human story, and one with which many women will identify.
—— Refinery29An entertaining, relatable and refreshingly frank guide to life in the orbit of the President... This lively, entertaining story offers a joyful nostalgia trip back to more hopeful times.
—— ExpressAn extraordinary behind-the-scenes glimpse into Obama's White House, from a young woman who stumbles her way almost by chance into a job as a stenographer amongst the inner circle of the West Wing. Dorey-Stein’s memoir navigates intimate liaisons and world history, from hotel gyms to Air Force One.
—— VogueThis memoir by a former Oval Office stenographer is equal parts racy, pacy and funny. From barely keeping her head above financial waters in Washington DC to hopping on board Air Force One with Barack Obama and his elite team, Dorey-Stein doesn’t so much dish the dirt as mop up the mess left at her feet by the drama of politics and the heartbreak of romance.
—— Irish IndependentAn incredible story
—— GQDelightful... a bit Legally Blonde. What's most surprising about this isn't the hot pink cover, it's that we haven't had such a book before. Washington DC is famously a city of eager twentysomethings who work and date within the same pool. Where has the workplace relationship comedy been this whole time?
—— Mail on SundayHilarious . . . [Beck] Dorey-Stein writes with honesty and panache.
—— Publishers WeeklyIf you’re like me and you pour yourself a cocktail and look at pictures of Obama and cry, you will adore From the Corner of the Oval. If you’re a normal person who ever wanted to be a fly on the wall in a singularly historic place in time, you will find this book fascinating. Beck Dorey-Stein’s warmth, humor, and keen view made me wistful, happy, hopeful, and only sad when the book ended.
—— Julie Klam, author of The Stars in Our EyesAn insider account of Obama's presidency in this fascinating memoir by former White House staffer Beck Dorey-Stein
—— Good HousekeepingIntriguing and funny
—— PrimaA White House story with shades of Bridget Jones... Dorey-Stein is perceptive and has made an unusually interesting contribution to the groaning shelves of presidential history.
—— Evening StandardFor five years Beck Dorey-Stein was a stenographer in the White House, giving her a front-row seat as US political history was made.
—— Observer[This] breezy page turner is essentially Bridget Jones goes to the White House.
—— New York TimesHilsum is a former colleague, well placed to chart her friend’s life, with an especially brilliant account of her final week, where Colvin’s exposure to peril again went beyond the call of duty
—— Strong WordsSuperb and moving
—— Emma Lee-Potter , Independent, **Books of the Year**[Hilsum’s] tone is admiring but never adulatory, and her book is richly informed by her close knowledge of the events described… [an] excellent book
—— Caroline Moorehead , Times Literary SupplementLindsey Hilsum… in this account… [shows] just how brim full of life and heart Colvin was: from the start to the finish of her brilliant career, and of her sassy, rambunctious life
—— Barney Bardsley , On: Yorkshire[An] excellent biography… I found it inspirational
—— Ann Treneman , The TimesThis is a remarkable book, deeply moving, disturbing in its sometime intensity… such is the power of Lindsey Hilsum’s book
—— Tony Jasper , Methodist RecorderColvin’s tumultuous life has inspired a number of recent accounts… it is Hilsum’s biography, written by a woman who both knew Colvin and had access to her unpublished reporting notes and private diaries, that seems to most closely capture her spirit.
—— The New YorkerHilsum writes with admiration and compassionate understanding of her colleague, and of their collegial friendship that gets close to what we can, without sentiment, call love.
—— The New York Review of BooksA refreshing take on the ecology of modern economics . . . This book serves as a fascinating reminder to business leaders and economists alike to stand back at a distance to examine our modern economics.
—— Best Business Books of 2017 , ForbesI am loving Kate Raworth’s book Doughnut Economics. It puts inequality in a far broader context, connecting a great many 21st century problems with a single vision. Every business leader and every policy maker should read it.
—— Tim O’ReillyWhat if it were possible to live well without trashing the planet? Doughnut Economics succinctly captures this tantalising possibility and takes up its challenge. Brimming with creativity, Raworth reclaims economics from the dust of academia and puts it to the service of a better world.
—— Tim Jackson, author of PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTHKate Raworth makes a powerful argument to look beyond economic growth alone for a true measure of prosperity and progress . . . The doughnut offers a vision for an equitable and sustainable future.
—— Intelligent HQThis book gave me faith that there is an alternative story to tell to the neoliberal narrative.
—— Marcus de SautoyFinding a healthy alternative to the prevailing growth model that has strained the planet to bursting is the holy grail of environmental economics. And it looks like maybe we’ve found it . . . It’s hard to understate how exciting this revelation is
—— InhabitatThis is truly the book we've all been waiting for. Kate Raworth provides the antidote to neoliberal economics with her radical and ambitious vision of an economy in service to life. Given the current state of the world, we need Doughnut Economics now more than ever.
—— L. Hunter Lovins, president and founder of Natural Capitalism SolutionsI read this book with the excitement that the people of his day must have read John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory. It is brilliant, thrilling and revolutionary. Drawing on a deep well of learning, wisdom and deep thinking, Kate Raworth has comprehensively reframed and redrawn economics. It is entirely accessible, even for people with no knowledge of the subject. I believe that Doughnut Economics will change the world.
—— George Monbiot, author and Guardian columnistRaworth’s groundbreaking book hand-picks the best emergent ideas – ranging from ecological, behavioural and institutional economics to complexity thinking, and Earth-systems science – to reveal the insights of eclectic economic re-thinkers . . . Revolutionary.
—— Judges' Statement, The Transmission Prize 2018In Doughnut Economics Raworth takes on the enormous task of sketching out a new approach to the economy in 290 pages . . . A dizzying whirl through the 300 years of economic theory, and challenges to their fundamental principles
—— City A.M.One of last year's most important books on (fixing) economics
—— Best Books on Innovation , NestaA good starting point for a much needed debate about economic policy priorities.
—— Reuters BreakingViewsHighly informed and intelligent.
—— Socialist Review[Raworth’s] business-friendly 2017 book Doughnut Economics advocated meeting the needs of all within the means of the planet.
—— 1000 Most Influential Londoners , Evening StandardPowerful and radical
—— Building.co.ukIt's an absolute must-read about the circular economy and an economic model beyond capitalism.
—— Sam Galsworthy, co-founder of Sipsmith , The GrocerExcellent
—— Ben Cooke , The TimesIt’s the first book about the future economy that I can’t put down!
—— Frances Morris , ELLE DecorationA fascinating look at future economic policy
—— U2’s The Edge , Daily TelegraphKate is not the first person to try to reconcile economic growth with our world's finite resources . . . but her book makes a complex thesis accessible.
—— George Alagiah , New StatesmanOne of the best books I have read in the last year or two was Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, an economist. She puts economics into the framework of society and the environment, rather than at the top. I recommend it to all.
—— Lord GreavesIn Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth's economics serve life - not the endless growth of late capitalism. Compellingly, she invites us to see the economy as an organism rather than a mechanism. By referring to our knowledge of natural systems instead of the machine models of Newtonian mechanics, she offers us a way to reimagine money in order to regenerate rather than degenerate. In this wonderful, readable book, Raworth completely rewrites the textbooks of economic theory in language that is lucid and inspirational: a must read!
—— Antony Gormley , GQRaworth radically redraws the system, putting people's needs at its heart . . . with growth bound by an ecological ceiling, the outer edge of the circle, beyond which there is climate change, freshwater stress and biodiversity loss. The doughnut is the safe space where there can be sustainable development.
—— Conde Nast TravellerAn accessible, relatable account that relays academic thinking back to everyday lives and communities.
—— Best Books on Climate Change , Independent