The lost classic 'Angry Young Man' novel. A clash of two temperaments. An artist and an industrialist grow up in the same smoky town and attend the same local school. In adult life each drives fiercely towards success in his own sphere, as much with an eye to outdoing the other as for any other reason. The struggle is watched through the tolerant eye of a non-competitive friend - until that eye becomes markedly less tolerant, the sub-plot becomes the main plot, and surprises pile up.

The lost classic novel of a young man's rebellion against his father, set against a backdrop of Jazz in 1940s London. A young man rebels against the stuffy future envisaged for him by his father, an upright Professor of Classics in a 'red-brick' university. He runs away from school at the age of seventeen and becomes a jazz pianist in a low dive club in one of the seamier haunts of London. The year is 1942...

“Sometimes I play a game in my head: name the five best American rock bands of the ’60s. My list goes: The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Doors, and then I stall on the fifth. Creedence? The Band – although they’re mostly Canadian. Simon and Garfunkel? Jefferson Airplane? The Lovin’ Spoonful? But I plump for The Monkees.”—Robert Forster Robert Forster was a Go-Between, and now has an acclaimed solo career, but in recent times he has also established himself as one of the finest music critics ...

The Hotel Chelsea is not just a New York institution. It is not even merely an American institution. For over a century this extraordinary building - part hotel, part rooming house, part sanctuary - has been one of the most important landmarks on the circuit of international bohemianism. Sarah Bernhardt adored the Chelsea. Robber barons moved in. Lily Langtry came to stay. Mark Twain took up residence. Thomas Wolfe wrote 'Look Homeward Angel' in room 831. Andy Warhol used it as a forum for his happenings. Sid Vicious lived there. Nor were artists ...

The Nice were Keith Emerson's band prior to superstardom in Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Formed as a backing band for soul singer PP Arnold, The Nice laid the foundations for what would become progressive rock. Their debut album mixed rock with jazz and classical music, and their hard rock reinvention of Leonard Bernstein's 'America' propelled them into the US and UK charts, influencing their biggest fan, Jimi Hendrix, to reinterpret 'The Star Spangled Banner'. 'The Story of The Nice: Hang on to a Dream', first published in ...

Spending a night out in the former battlefields of Beirut wouldn't strike many people as their idea of a good time. But then, neither would going to see a Def Leppard concert in a Moroccan cave. Yet Andrew Mueller has willingly done both and somehow managed to see the humorous side. 'Rock And Hard Places', his first book, recounts Mueller's experiences in such far-flung places as Kabul and the Woodstock II festival. Throughout, he seems constantly amazed by people's ability to survive any hardship, whether they're caused by mines ...

The lost novel, winner of the 1982 Whitbread Prize. New life flowering from death, new perspectives arising from suffering, a new peace that comes from being tested to the uttermost. To 17 year old Paul Waterford life is beginning to seem a sour business, full of unsolved problems, unhappiness and general stress. Why did his young sister have to die in an air disaster? Why is his parents' marriage so evidently close to breaking up? Tired of the world as he sees it, Paul retreats into the fantasy of an ideal republic, the magnetic centre of his fantasies. ...

Bill Bruford, once called the godfather of progressive-rock drumming, has been at the top of his profession for four decades. This is his memoir of life at the heart of prog rock, art rock, and modern jazz, playing with Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Earthworks and many more. It is an honest and entertaining account of life on the road and in the studio, rubbing shoulders with the famous, the less famous, and the infamous, and creating an impressive tally of great music. A rock musician with the temperament of a classical musician who became a jazz musician ...