The Mystery of the Kaddish by Leon H. Charney (2008-05-04)

Religion & Spirituality

Leon H. Charney

Judaism

Pete Brown, lyricist for 60s super group Cream, has been a poet, singer, percussionist, record producer and screenwriter. As a Beat poet he worked alongside Spike Milligan, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Graves. As songwriter he is best known for his work with Cream, whose guitarist was Eric Clapton. Having been part of the Underground, he emerged as the lyricist of their massive hit songs 'White Room', 'I Feel Free', and 'Sunshine of your Love'. White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns is the personal odyssey of this poet, musician and writer. Brown takes the reader from the green fields of Surrey to the claustrophobia of a Jewish school in Hendon, from surreal day jobs operating lifts to hitch-hiking around Britain in a search for identity and girls. White Rooms deals honestly with the problems he faced - from the sexual side effects of a having a Jewish mother, to the mental adjustment necessary when, after years of earning GBP20 a week as a performing poet, he began receiving major sums his hit songs. There are many hilarious tales of being a touring musician, as well as anarchic opinions on drugs, love, music and movies. There are stories of the many more famous people Brown has worked with and met from Ginsberg and Burroughs to Spike Milligan, from Clapton to Peter Green and Jeff Beck, and from Alasdair Gray to Ken Campbell and Martin Scorsese. From affairs with actresses to Browns' 30-year collaboration with Cream singer, Jack Bruce, this is a fascinating journey into music, poetry, love and life by one of the biggest unsung heroes of rock and the beat movement.

White Rooms & Imaginary Westerns: On the Road with Ginsberg, Writing for Clapton and Cream - An Anarchic Odyssey

Pete Brown

Frederic Raphael's The Glittering Prizes and its sequel, Fame and Fortune, were widely acclaimed for their dazzling and moving portrait of an era and a generation. Now, in Final Demands, the culminating volume in the trilogy, writer Adam Morris and his high-flying Cambridge contemporaries find themselves at the peak of influence and success as New Labour and the Blair boom years take them high on the slippery pole of success. At the same time, they begin to fear the moment when seniority will render them superfluous. Adam, as astringent as ever, continues to stand centre stage, but his other contemporaries too play their vivid and energetic parts. Alan Parks still commands the nation's screens and microphones; movie director Mike Clode continues to pursue the bitch goddess Success; Joyce Hadleigh realises an unlikely ambition when she becomes 'joined at the hype' with Samuel Marcus Cohen, English literature's Nobel laureate-in-waiting. The younger generation too is growing into unpredictable potency. When he accepts a teaching gig In Los Angeles, Adam finds himself confronting his beautiful daughter Rachel's complex emotional life. And then, back in London, on Boxing Day, he learns that his son Tom's wife, Juliana - granddaughter of a Nazi business man - has come to a startling decision. When he and Juliana call to deliver a belated Christmas present to the film producer Bruno Laszlo, comedy and tragedy collide in a cruelly comic climax. Frederic Raphael has written more than 20 novels, five volumes of short stories, and biographies of Byron and of W. Somerset Maughan, amongst his prolific work as a writer. He also won an Academy award for screenwriting and wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed film Eyes Wide Shut. Also published by JR Books: Glittering Prizes Fame and Fortune

Final Demands

Frederic Raphael

The Lost Hancock Scripts: 10 Scripts from the Classic Radio and TV Series. Ray Galton, Alan Simpson

Ray Galton

When Andy Secombe was young, his father would burst like a whirlwind into his bedroom late on Saturday nights, wake him and his sister with a snatch of an Italian aria and a fanfare of raspberries, and act out the show he'd just performed, playing all the parts and breaking into song at every opportunity. Celebrities of the day - Alma Cogan, Frankie Vaughan, Tommy Cooper, Stanley Baker and many more - were regular visitors to their house in Cheam. For them this was normal family life. But what was it like for the other Goon children? Andy decided to find out. This extraordinary behind-the-scenes look into the private lives of the Goons reveals the thoughts, stories and feelings of their children. Growing up with the Goons gives a remarkable, unique insight into the joys - and occasional difficulties - of life as a son or daughter of the famous group. Andy Secombe also presents the history of the Goons themselves: their early years; military service and shows at The Grafton Arms and The Windmill. He has interviewed those who knew and worked with the Goons, including Lord Snowdon, the surviving Bentine Children, the original producers of the show, Janet Brown, wife of Peter Butterworth, Barry Cryer and of course, Sile Milligan and Sarah Sellers, as well as those who the Goons influenced, including Now Show's Steve Punt and Mitch Benn.

Growing Up with the Goons: Memories, Reflections and Startling Tales from Their Children

Andy Secombe

Immortalised in the film 'Chariots of Fire', Harold Abrahams remains one of the all-time-great British Olympians. But his true story, told for the first time in this official biography, is in many ways even more dramatic and moving than the distorted version previously seen on the big screen. Although it is true that Abrahams overcame anti-Semitism to become Britain's first 100 metres Olympic champion in 1924, Mark Ryan's powerful book reveals just how much more Harold suffered - and had to sacrifice - on a personal level before he reached the top. His book reveals what Abrahams really thought of sprint-rival Eric Liddell, and later how disgracefully Harold was treated by his own side in the build-up to Hitler's Berlin Olympics of 1936. Two remarkable love stories provide the back-drop to Abrahams' struggle to reach these two historic Games, first as an athlete and then as a pioneering broadcaster. Both romances highlight the mental fragility usually masked by Harold's physical prowess and apparent confidence. As the story races on, the reader is able to share Abrahams' excitement as he realises that Roger Bannister has what it takes to break the four-minute-mile barrier, and befriends the runner who soon begins his assault on the "Everest of athletics." And finally, Ryan shows how Harold not only helped to shape the modern-day rules of the sport as an influential administrator, but also did more than any man to make athletics popular in this country. In the build-up to London 2012, there has never been a better time to celebrate Harold Abrahams' unique story.

Running with Fire: The True Story of Chariots of Fire Hero Harold Abrahams

MARK RYAN

Bob Monkhouse Unpublished!: Personal Anecdotes, Gags, Sketches and Excerpts from the Famous 'Lost' Joke Books. David Ismay with Chris Gidney

Dave Ismay

'Don't keep asking when I'm coming back, David. I'm only away because your father said he'd kill me.' When he was twelve, David Cohen was left by his parents, though he'd only been three years in England. He knew he'd be put in an orphanage if anyone found out. So he made sure no one did. His posh school, St Paul's, never realised his parents had left him. For weeks David cried himself to sleep and asked God why He had done this to a nice boy who passed all his exams and was a good left arm spin bowler. But David had the sense to turn up at school every day, to get his uniform cleaned and to say nothing to anyone. Only the local dry cleaner suspected something was wrong - he never charged David a penny. This is the astonishing true story of a boys journey from boy to man, with little help from his parents save for Friday dinner with his Father in a restaurant where he was given money for the week ahead. Being abandoned is painful and tragic but David's story becomes comic as he fends off randy men who want to show him their telescopes, writes absentee notes to skive off school and falls hopelessly in lust with a Finnish au pair girl. His school suspects nothing as he produces decent essays on the usual suspects - Luther, Henry VIII and whether King Lear was madder than Hamlet. Painful but written with humour, this is the real story of being home alone - the ups and the downs, from learning to cook to the first kiss. David Cohen is the author The Escape of Sigmund Freud also by JR Books, and the best-selling Diana: Death of a Goddess.

Home Alone: Missing - One Mum, One Dad, My Sanity-- But Not a Sense of Humour

DAVID COHEN

Actor Ron Moody has enthralled generations with his masterly performance as Fagin in both the stage and film versions of Oliver! - one of the great classics of British theatre and cinema. Planning to become an academic, he first took to the boards when a student at the London School of Economics - writing and performing in student Reviews. But his comedic talent and ability to create a string of eccentric and original characters quickly caught the attention of West End producers, who recognised the his very special skills. Invited to appear, and later star in a string of highly successful Reviews, the course of his life was changed for ever. Now, in this highly original and idiosyncratic memoir, he looks back on those early days, describing in frank and fascinating detail the twists and turns of his career, the people he met and worked with, and the performances that led up to Oliver! In charting the course of his early career, Ron casts an ever-analytical eye over his many shows, giving piercing insights into the hard work and attention to detail involved in creating characters, the role of anarchy and clowning in his performances, and the nature of comedy itself. He also reveals the conflicts and clashes that can occur - both on and off stage - even in a show as successful as Oliver!, the tensions themselves often stimulating the actors to compete and create something memorable - as happened with Oliver!, and as he recalls in this truly original book.

Still Untitled, (Not Quite) Autobiography

Ron Moody

Val Doonican: My Story, My Life

Val Doonican

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