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Shirley
Shirley
Oct 4, 2024 7:26 AM

Author:Muriel Burgess

Shirley

Shirley Bassey is one of the all-time greats of the entertainment business. She has sold more records than any other British female singer and still commands massive audiences around the world. Now, after a career spanning decades, her life story can be told: the story of a triumph over enough tragedies to last several lifetimes. The personal hardships that have fuelled the emotionalism of her songs have never before been revealed. Here her poverty-stricken childhood in Wales is detailed: how her mother struggled to bring up seven children on Income Support after their Nigerian father was deported; how she worked in a saucepan factory when her first struggles for stardom were halted by her pregnancy at sixteen. Shirley had a series of tortured loves: she married a homosexual Cockney who died of an overdose; she had a highly publicised affair with actor Peter Finch; and her second marriage, to an Italian, also failed. The shocking death of her second daughter, Samantha, just before her 21st birthday caused Shirley to lose her voice for nearly a year. Behind the showbiz glamour and consummate professionalism lies a fiercely resilient and independent woman.

Reviews

Sound plays a great part in this Target Books adaptation of the classic Second Doctor story, with designer Simon Power deliberately trying to evoke a chilling sense of menace which perhaps wasn’t conveyed on screen, building up the claustrophobia and sense of tension... a near-perfect masterpiece of storytelling which in many ways is actually superior to its television counterpart.

—— Matt Adams , http://www.huntspost.co.uk

A comprehensive, no-holds-barred account... details with steely, forensic precision the story of the group's ascent, heyday and spectacular implosion. All the triumphs and disasters are here

—— The Sunday Times

A forensic, detailed and beautifully researched history of the Stone Roses.... full of new stuff

—— John Harris

For the casual listener, or die-hard fanatic, this is a genuine masterpiece

—— What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision

This is the one Stone Roses book fans will want to read. Copies of this superb biography will not remain on shop shelves for long

—— The Bookseller

An era-defining, definitive biography

—— Q

A loving and detailed biog

—— Mojo

Cute on the machinations of the industry and internal band politics

—— The Times, Book of the Week

Brilliant... forensically put together

—— Gordon Smart , XFM

Simon Spence's Stone Roses compendium has it all - interviews with the Manc group's closest confidants, unseen photos and a timeline that stretches all the way back to the group's inception . . . The definitive word on the band

—— NME Music Book of the Year 2013

He starts right at the beginning, with 25,000-year-old bone flutes ... It's a huge brief, made huger by Goodall's alertness to new thinking in scholarly circles, and his fondness for interesting asides ... a racily written, learned and often shrewdly insightful book

—— Ivan Hewett , Daily Telegraph (Review)

A roller-coaster ride, which Goodall tells with verve... a racily written, learned and often shrewdly insightful book

—— Ivan Hewett , Daily Telegraph

An accessible guide to roughly 42,000 years of music in just over 300 pages … The Story of Music is a clever, engaging read

—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on Sunday

Howard Goodall’s beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavour and a groundbreaking map of man’s musical journey

—— Wiltshire News

Goodall's distinguisihing gift is his ability to explain the mechanics of music instead of gliding hastily over them. He is fearless in unknotting those medieval mysteries of oranum and isorhythms, as well as chords, triads, fugues, keys, equal temperament, atonality, dodecaphony and blues

—— Fiona Maddocks , Spectator

A clear and compelling account which is a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking musical journey

—— Kirkham & Fylde

Fascinating – as well as illuminating on how music works

—— The Lady

At his best, Goodall has a facility for lively shorthand…

—— Adam Mars-Jones , Guardian

This ambitious and all embracing history of 40, 000 years of music will have you dancing in the aisles

—— Sally Morris , Daily Mail

[Rod] has warm good humour and a nice line in self-deprecation...He wears it well—and tells it even better.

—— Daily Mail

By some distance the most entertaining of last year’s...rock star memoirs.

—— Uncut Online

This book takes readers on an adventure, that is at times deeply moving, through the life of one of the UK's greatest singers.

—— Hello! online

Ruthlessly entertaining

—— telegraph.co.uk
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