Fingers Crossed How Music Saved Me From Success

Rough Trade Book of the Year Resident Book of the Year A Rolling Stone Book of the Year A Mojo Book of the Year A Sunday Times Book of the Year Formed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all. From the bohemian ways of her father's social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother's acting career, Miki's young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling. But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her abusive grandmother resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation. The route out of this hole was music - a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers began attending gigs together and would ultimately go on to form Lush. Talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings. Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush's thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki's own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between 'safe' indie obscurity and 'sell-out' international success. Miki also explores her complicated relationship with Emma - one that has fluctuated between camaraderie and rivalry over the years - and addresses the devastating tragedy that led to the band's split. Told through frank confession, wry humour and searing emotional honesty, this is the incredible tale of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band.

The Shoegaze Story of a Britpop Star #1 New Release in Composer & Musician Biographies Go behind the curtain of London's Britpop industry as music icon Miki Berenyi revisits the people and memories that changed her life forever A rising star in the darkness. Growing up with a dubious family life, Miki never thought that music would be her ticket out of a cycle of neglect, exploitation, and struggling with her mental health. But soon after meeting fellow rock fan Emma Anderson, she found herself going from attending gigs to becoming a member of Lush, the most popular Britpop band in the world. Now she shares all in Fingers Crossed, an incredible confession about how the power of music can bring people together to share an ethereal experience. Featuring honest truths and hopeful reflections, this celebrity memoir will inspire you to find your own triumphs by embracing what you love. Fame, friendship, and life under the spotlight. Lush had become Miki's sanctuary, but life wasn't all glitz and glamour. With cutthroat competition, a complicated relationship with Emma, and Lush's tragic end, she shares how she juggled her private life with her new rock band identity. Miki's life story will captivate you and prompt you to consider this: you, too, can achieve happiness during difficult times. After all, tribulations create the strongest voices. Inside Fingers Crossed, you'll also find: What the early indie years of Lush were like Why money doesn't mean prosperity How Britpop industry pitted female singers and musicians against each other Finding how artists (and everyone else) can find new meanings after saying goodbye If you love music biographies such as The Woman in Me, My Effin' Life, or Karma, you'll love Fingers Crossed.

The extraordinary and searingly honest personal story of musician Miki Berenyi, revealing the highs and lows of navigating the madness of the '90s music industry.

Autobiography by the singer and creative force of 70s rock group The Stranglers.

A Times Book of the Year 'Most underrated group? World of Twist.' - LIAM GALLAGHER 'They're a top band. No one could do what World of Twist do, except World of Twist.' - NOEL GALLAGHER 'They were such a special band, such a moment in time, and Gordon has written such a special book.' - JON RONSON World of Twist: the greatest lost band of all time. While fame, glory and untold riches seemed like an inevitability for World of Twist at the turn of the '90s, the universe was simply not ready for a group of retro futurists, psychedelic adventurers and cosmic tunesmiths. Too late for Madchester, too early for Britpop and too much fun to pigeonhole, the band went on to face a demoralising string of near-misses and 'what could have been's, ultimately falling apart in a medley of incompatible drugs, musical contretemps, sartorial differences and all-round shoulder-shrugging apathy. But they burned bright and left an indelible mark on everyone who looked deep into their light... Now, in When Does the Mind-Bending Start?, co-founder, guitarist and principal songwriter Gordon King tells the incredible inside story of his time with World of Twist, revealing the jealousy, anguish and personal demons experienced by the clashing personalities of King and the band's late singer, Tony Ogden. This is a memoir of tragedy and triumph, comedy and drama, demise and recovery.

“This debut novel about an Irish expat millennial teaching English and finding romance in Hong Kong is half Sally Rooney love triangle, half glitzy Crazy Rich Asians high living—and guaranteed to please.” —Vogue A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM: The New York Times Book Review * Vogue * TIME * Marie Claire * Elle * O, the Oprah Magazine * The Washington Post * Esquire * Harper's Bazaar * Bustle * PopSugar * Refinery 29 * LitHub * Debutiful An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than "I like you a great deal." Enter Edith. A Hong Kong–born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theater and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her—and wants her. And then Julian writes to tell Ava he is coming back to Hong Kong... Should Ava return to the easy compatibility of her life with Julian or take a leap into the unknown with Edith? Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life—and announces herself as a singular new voice.

'Terrific... Very funny' Guardian What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display? THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed into a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker starts clearing out his loft, he finds a jumble of objects that catalogue his story and ask him some awkward questions: Who do you think you are? Are clothes important? Why are there so many pairs of broken glasses up here? From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget. This is not a life story. It's a loft story. 'Brilliant...lurid, entertaining' Daily Telegraph 'It's real gold... its storytelling first class' Sunday Times * A Book of the Year in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail and Uncut *

The first official account of the iconic record label.