Rock Stars Stole My Life by Mark Ellen review – misty-eyed, touchingly nerdy memoir

From the mud and thunder of early festivals to Live Aid and Rihanna, music journalist Mark Ellen was usually in the right place at the right timeMark Ellen surveys the happy youngsters comfortably cavorting at Glastonbury, marvelling at Primal Scream beneath a harvest moon. “You bastards,” moans the music journalist and editor, recalling his nascent festival experiences in the early 1970s, of trench foot, scurvy and Van der Graaf Generator. “You don’t know how lucky you are.”Still, there’s a misty-eyed reverence for the past in Ellen’s entertaining memoir of five decades surrounded by music – which is to be expected. This, after all, is the man who launched Mojo magazine after realising there was a potential readership who liked music that was “magical and built to last”. For Ellen, the magic began with the discovery of the Beatles and the Kinks, Small Faces and Chicken Shack. Like a character from Jonathan Coe’s novel The Rotters’ Club, his comfortable 60s and 70s adolescence discussing the meaning of prog is ditched for a squat in Battersea, where he begins to pen florid gig reviews for Record Mirror and NME.  Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #jonathan coe

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Rock Stars Stole My Life by Mark Ellen review – misty-eyed, touchingly nerdy memoir'


Meghan O'Rourke Tapped as 'Yale Review' Editor

Poet Meghan O'Rourke has been named the next editor of the 'Yale Review,' succeeding acting editor Harold Augenbraum on July 1 of next year, the 200th anniversary of the journal's founding. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #200th anniversary


Grand Central Publishing to Close Life & Style Imprint

Grand Central Publishing will absorb its Life & Style imprint into the flagship GCP list at the end of 2018. The reorganization will result in a few job cuts. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #job cuts


Facebook defends Mark Zuckerberg's exposed emails

The social network publishes a detailed rebuttal of some of the claims made against it. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Parliamentary Book Awards 2018 winners revealed: Jowell wins best memoir

Tessa Jowell and Frances D’Souza have won Best Memoir at the Parliamentary Book Awards 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Salt scoops rights to new volume of Lezard’s memoirs

Salt Publishing has acquired the UK and Commonwealth rights to a new volume of Nicholas Lezard’s memoirs.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Rakuten Kobo Forma e-reader review: Refined experience, flawed package

The Rakuten Kobo Forma is a poster child for the tug-of-war behind the design of every device you own. Companies strive to find the right balance of size, weight and features based on market research and what’s worked well for them in the past. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes things go... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kobo aura #rakuten kobo #market research


Profile snaps up 'eye-opening' Beryl Burton biography

Profile Books will publish a biography of “legendary” Yorkshire cyclist Beryl Burton, through its Pursuit imprint in 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #profile snaps #profile books


Octopus scoops forensic psychologist’s memoir after five-publisher auction

Octopus has bought the autobiography of forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, The Dark Side of the Mind, after a five-publisher auction.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #five-publisher auction #dark side


Maya C. Popa Joins 'PW' as Poetry Reviews Editor

Maya C. Popa has joined 'Publishers Weekly' as its new poetry reviews editor. She is a widely published poet and critic, and will be responsible for editing reviews of poetry collections at the magazine. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #poetry collections


Murder trial lawyer’s hit legal memoir seeks wider audience with Quercus

Quercus is publishing the hit legal memoir of barrister William Clegg QC, who has acted as counsel in high profile murder trials including the acquittal of Colin Stagg during the Wimbledon Common Murder case and the shooting of Jill Dando. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


‘Heartbreaking' memoir of losing a family and gaining a dog to Hodder

Radio presenter, podcaster and journalist Emily Dean is publishing a "heartbreaking" memoir, called Everybody Died, So I Got a Dog, with Hodder. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #radio presenter


Transworld to mark Wood's 25th anniversary with library giveaway

Transworld is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Val Wood's first novel, The Hungry Tide (Penguin Random House), by giving out 10 sets of all the author’s books to Hull libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #25th anniversary


24 hour pre-empt from 4th Estate for playwright's 'luminous' MND memoir

4th Estate will publish the "remarkable" memoir from playwright Joe Hammond, following a pre-empt within 24 hours of submission. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #4th estate


Mike Huckabee Shares Advice for a Life ‘Well Done’

Former governor of Arkansas and two-time Republican presidential primary candidate Mike Huckabee is drawing on his experiences to offer advice on living meaningfully in ‘Rare, Medium or Done Well: Make the Most of Your Life.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #offer advice


BBC Scotland boss reveals career highlights in new memoir

Scottish independent The Lunicorn Press has acquired an account of 30 years of working in radio by Jeff Zycinski, former head of BBC Radio in Scotland. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bbc radio


Hodder buys bereaved father’s ‘moving’ memoir

Hodder has bought a father’s "moving" memoir, Once More We Saw Stars, about how he and his wife coped after the death of their two-year-old daughter in a freak accident. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Octopus to publish clutter-clearing formula from 'organisers to the stars'

Mitchell Beazley has acquired The Home Edit: Conquering the Clutter with Style from "organisers to the stars" Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #mitchell beazley


My Brilliant Friend director talks about bringing Elena Ferrante’s beloved novel to life for HBO

Italian director Saverio Costanzo spoke with Fast Company about the challenge of adapting the first novel in the Neapolitan series (as a man, no less). In 2007, Italian director Saverio Costanzo wrote to the publisher of Elena Ferrante’s novella The Lost Daughter and asked if he could option the... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #film rights #young girl #big screen


4th Estate snaps up Vogue columnist's 'irreverent take on modern life'

4th Estate will publish the debut non-fiction title, Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits, described as “a smart and irreverent take on modern life” from the Vogue columnist’s perspective. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #modern life #4th estate


'Most ambitious' Hay Festival Cartagena to star Adichie, Smith and Sands

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith and Philippe Sands are among the literary heavyweights leading Hay Festival Cartagena 2019's line-up in its "most ambitious year yet". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #zadie smith #philippe sands