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

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Rotherham abuse survivor memoir to HC

Harper Element has signed a first-person account from a survivor of the Rotherham abuse scandal. Publisher Natalie Jerome and interim editorial director Kate Latham acquired world English language rights in Violated: My True Story as a Survivor of the Rotherham Abuse Scandal by Sarah Wilson... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Netwars Brings Cyberterror to Life

Netwars/Out of Ctrl is a sprawling cross-platform media project about the global rise of cyberwarfare, combining pulse-pounding fictional narratives and sobering nonfiction research to bring the mounting dangers of cyberterrorism vividly to life. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Carrie Brownstein's memoir is coming this October

Brownstein's band Sleater-Kinney released a new album, the first in several years, this past January. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Andrew Sharples' top 10 war memoirs

From thrilling accounts of derring-do to bitter descriptions of the human fallout, here are 10 memoirs of conflict which inspired and moved meI’ve always been fascinated by war. From the earliest age, I loved reading books on the subject and was captivated by stories of courage and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BA welcomes 'radical' business rates review

The Booksellers Association has welcomed the launch of a “radical” review of the business rates system in the UK. The government revealed today (16th March) that the review had begun and would report back in time for the 2016 budget.  "The time has come for a radical review of this important... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Myrmidon buys memoir from occupied France

Myrmidon has acquired the true story of a young British girl and her family trapped in France during the Second World War after her father is incarcerated by the Nazis. Kate Nash, director at Myrmidon, acquired world rights to the memoir, titled Nell and the Girls, direct from the author,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Virago acquires Mackay memoir and backlist

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reviews of New and Forthcoming Spirituality and Religion Books, March 11, 2015

Theologian Harvey Cox offers simple advice on reading the complex Bible; Pope Francis ponders Jesus and the life of faith. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Books Mark the Second Anniversary of Pope Francis

A crop of new and weighty books about and by Pope Francis mark the second anniversary of his election to lead the Catholic Church. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling author Alice Hoffman's children's book, 'Nightbird,' receives mostly positive reviews

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Poetry memoir for Blackfriars

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fig Tree signs Abramović memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bestselling author Erik Larson garners rave reviews for his upcoming book 'Dead Wake'

'Wake' centers on the sinking of the British ship the Lusitania in 1915. The book will be released on March 10. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebury Press to publish Hynde memoir

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[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' stays strong on bestseller lists (+video)

'Tidying Up,' which gives readers a one-time solution to de-cluttering their home, has been a mainstay on bestseller lists since its publication. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'War and Peace' BBC adaptation will star Jim Broadbent, Gillian Anderson

The adaptation will also star actors Paul Dano and Lily James. It's being directed by Tom Harper of 'Peaky Blinders.' Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' stays strong on bestseller lists

'Tidying Up,' which gives readers a one-time solution to de-cluttering their home, has been a mainstay on bestseller lists since its publication. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Campbell Newman memoir rejection not political, says publisher

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[ The Guardian | 2015-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Reviews of New and Forthcoming Religion and Spirituality Books, February 25, 2015

Benedictine nun Joan Chittister offers salve for the soul; cosmology and theology combine in the theory a God who is consistent with science. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Little Black Classics review – affordable snippets of great literature

From Homer to Balzac to Darwin to Dickens, these Penguin 80th birthday booklets are where publishing meets public serviceIt was quite overwhelming, to open the box containing all 80 of these booklets – one for each year in the life of Penguin Books. Each is around 60 pages long; each is an... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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