An English Madam: The Life and Work of Cynthia Payne

BAILEY, Paul

Health, Fitness & Dieting

HarperCollins, Publishers

PETER SMART'S CONFESSIONS

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Fourth Estate

Gabriel's Lament

Penguin Uk

Trespasses

Contemporary

Penguin Group Canada

This is Paul Bailey's account of growing up as a working class and gay man in South London just after World War I. His father came back from war to find that he'd been abandoned by his wife, and in early middle age - working as a road sweeper - he married a young servant girl. Bailey was one of three children brought up in such poverty that up to the middle of his adolescence he slept in the same bed as his father because of a lack of space in the house. Nevertheless it was a happy, secure home which he portrays with great affection. The second strand of the book is his discovery at grammar school that he's homosexual - a discovery which didn't go down well in rigidly conventional Battersea.

An immaculate mistake: scenes from childhood and beyond

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin

Francis Bacon is one of the most important and influential artists of the latter part of this century. A fascinating, but very private figure, he was brought up in Ireland and until the war occupied himself with such jobs as butlering and running a gambling club with his ancient nanny. A legendary figure of 50s bohemia and homosexual society, his friendships included Lucian Freud, Sonia Orwell, Bill Burroughs, David Sylvester and Lord Gowrie.

Three Queer Lives: An Alternative Biography of Naomi Jacob, Fred Barnes, and Arthur Marshall

Leaders & Notable People

Penguin Global

Physical description; x, 166p,[8]p of plates : ill., 1facsim.,ports. ; 23cm. Subject; Payne, Cynthia.

An English madam: The life and work of Cynthia Payne

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

J. Cape

This work presents the stories of two remarkable men and an extraordinary woman, and how they lived in an age when gayness was reviled and outlawed. Paul Bailey's interest in Naomi Jacob was awakened in 1959, when he waited on her in Harrods's book department under the impression that she was J.B. Priestley. "Micky" Jacob was the author of dozens of bestselling novels, and several volumes of autobiography, which can be found today in charity shops. Fred Barnes, who survived an attempted murder by his father, was a singer, dancer and light comedian at the beginning of the century. His is a classic riches-to-rags story, his downfall foreshadowed by two very public events. Arthur Marshall who completes the trio, is the sunniest presence here, chuckling his way through the World War II and becoming a much-loved television personality in old age. In a personal introduction, Paul Bailey describes how he came to be fascinated by these very different human beings, all gay in more senses than one.

Three queer lives: An alternative biography of Fred Barnes, Naomi Jacob and Arthur Marshall

Hamish Hamilton

In the spring of 1985, novelist Paul Bailey found himself becoming the unlikely owner of a dog. He saw the puppy in the window of a pet shop and was instantly (and lastingly) beguiled. She was given the name Circe by Bailey's dying partner, David, who was also overcome by her charms, though after a good deal of resistance. This memoir tells of the 16 years Paul Bailey spent in Circe's company, while also offering portraits of friends and acquaintances, living and dead. There are sketches of the various eccentrics encountered during his walks with the dog, and descriptions of the author's trips abroad - to Romania, Poland and Hungary, among other countries. "A Dog's Life" is the sequel to Bailey's earlier book of memoirs "An Immaculate Mistake", which Penguin published in 1991. Like that book, it is composed in a series of scenes, written as they came into the author's mind. Yet together they constitute a sustained narrative, at once funny and touching. At the heart of "A Dog's Life", appropriately, is the captivating animal herself.

Dogs Life

Hamish Hamilton UK

In Uncle Rudolf, two-time Booker-Prize finalist Paul Bailey has crafted an exquisite, profoundly moving portrayal of a charismatic and popular performer in World War II-era Europe, and the orphaned nephew he takes under his wing. Seventy-year-old man Andre reflects back on his life, beginning with his Jewish childhood in Romania on the eve of World War II. Andre's father, in a desperate effort to save him from the coming holocaust, hands him over to his captivating uncle Rudolf, an internationally famous singer of popular operettas. Rudolf is a sublimely gifted lyric tenor, a dashing leading man who is the object of many women's affections-but also an artist who lives in the shadow of his own unachieved potential as an opera star. Rudolf takes the boy to back to London, renames him Andrew, turns all his attention and sardonic humor upon him, and gradually sculpts him into a gentleman. Vivid, often lighthearted scenes of Andrew's worldly life with Rudolf are intertwined with the unfolding secrets of his forgotten past as Andre, which have shadowed his otherwise happy life. Told in matchless prose, Uncle Rudolf captures in fine detail the mood of 1940s Europe--and reveals the emotions of a man whose achievement falls short of his brilliant promise. It is a wise, knowing, elegant story about the sacrifices we make for those we love.

Uncle Rudolf: A Novel

St.Martin's Press

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