I Used To Say My Mother Was Shirley Bassey

Growing up in a large Nigerian family in South London, Stephen K. Amos learnt early on to find the humour in every situation. Raised by his parents and extended family of 'aunts' and 'uncles', I Used to Say My Mother was Shirley Bassey tells the story of Stephen's chaotic upbringing in the carnival atmosphere of the late seventies and early eighties. Stephen describes his awkward beginnings as the only black kid in his class, where he told everyone his mum was Shirley Bassey to break the ice. Then, as a middle child in a large family, Stephen learnt stage presence by vying for attention and performing at family parties. Now a world-renowned comedian and performer, regularly selling out venues like the Hammersmith Apollo, Stephen looks back at his earlier life and the incidents which shaped him and continue to inspire his performances. Poignant, funny, and with the narrative gift Stephen is famous for, I Used to Say My Mother was Shirley Bassey is a memoir of a life fitting in, standing out, and (almost) always laughing.

OK2BG is narrative nonfiction, a Memoir about a guy who wants to be a Mentor preferably to a teenager, so they can have a decent & meaningful conversation about stuff & preferably with a kid at-risk, or just otherwise lost, in order to help both the teenager as well as the determined subject of this story realize their unique potential & find or reinforce their place in the world. Overall, a chronicle about the author’s attempt over several years to understand the question of ‘why do I want to be a Mentor’ which eventually helps him become a more insightful person. Subsequently in September, 2010 after a plague of teen suicides, Jack turns his attention to researching gay biographies into optimistically appropriate groups of books for gay kids at-risk, from bullying. After 5 years Jack has categorized 2,000+ books in the form of Memoirs, Biographies & Autobiographies written by or about 1,000+ allegedly gay men. The primary message in OK2BG is to read & reassess before you run asunder!

'Having a baby is like watching two very inefficient removal men trying to get a very large sofa through a very small doorway, only in this case you can't say, "Oh, sod it, bring it through the French windows"' Victoria Wood 'It's not easy being a mother. If it were, fathers would do it' Dorothy, The Golden Girls Motherhood is a tough job and a serious business. Which means there's all the more reason to step back and see the funny side of it, and Just Like Mum Says is packed with humorous insights and wry observations on all matters maternal. Tracing the course of mothering through pregnancy, the terrible twos, the teenage years and the empty nest, Just Like Mum Says includes wise and witty words from celebrated matriarchs from Marge Simpson to Sharon Osbourne, and Victoria Beckham to Victoria Wood. In short, Just Like Mum Says amuses, delights, enlightens and touches the heart - just like Mum. 'When my husband comes home, if the kids are still alive, I figure I've done my job' Roseanne

I've Always Kept a Unicorn tells the story of Sandy Denny, one of the greatest British singers of her time and the first female singer-songwriter to produce a substantial and enduring body of original songs. Sandy Denny laid down the marker for folk-rock when she joined Fairport Convention in 1968, but her music went far beyond this during the seventies. After leaving Fairport she formed Fotheringay, whose influential eponymous album was released in 1970, before collaborating on a historic one-off recording with Led Zeppelin - the only other vocalist to record with Zeppelin in their entire career - and releasing four solo albums across the course of the decade. Her tragic and untimely death came in 1978. Sandy emerged from the folk scene of the sixties - a world of larger-than-life characters such as Alex Campbell, Jackson C. Frank, Anne Briggs and Australian singer Trevor Lucas, whom she married in 1973. Their story is at the core of Sandy's later life and work, and is told with the assistance of more than sixty of her friends, fellow musicians and contemporaries, one of whom, to paraphrase McCartney on Lennon, observed that she sang like an angel but was no angel.

Eight tracks. Endless stories. Allow yourself to be cast away in eight glorious decades of the most iconic show on radio. To mark this momentous occasion, The Definitive Desert Island Discs focuses on 80 of the most powerful and unforgettable interviews, revisiting every era of Desert Island Disc's storied history. Reflecting on how times have changed, the book will feature brand new material as castaways are interviewed about their experiences - did the conversation go how they expected? Would Sir Patrick Stewart still take his beloved billiards table (and a shed to keep it in, of course)? And does Hilary Devey stick by her endless supply of Cointreau? Get lost in lists of the weirdest and most wonderful luxury items, most popular tracks and books throughout the years, and more. Introduced by Lauren Laverne, The Definitive Desert Island Discs is a must-have gem, celebrating an incredible institution that has captured the hearts of a nation for 80 years.

From "Hot from Harlem" to "Goldfinger," the story of how a two-bit jazz singer from Cardiff became an immortal icon: In 1954, Shirley Bassey was seventeen years old. She had just returned from a cheesy revue tour called "Hot from Harlem." Depressed, disillusioned and four months' pregnant, she decided that her dream of being a professional singer was over. A mere ten years later, she was one of the biggest stars in the world. She had sold more records than any other British singer of the day, and was poised to conquer America. Her latest hit, "Goldfinger," was the theme tune to the year's blockbuster film. No longer the two-bit jazz singer from Cardiff, she was by now an international sex siren, as glamorous and unreal as Bond himself. Miss Shirley Bassey explores this remarkable transformation, both of an individual and of the British society and British psyche that made it possible. From the vibrant, multicultural oasis of Tiger Bay in the Cardiff docklands through the club-lands of Soho and Las Vegas to New York's Carnegie Hall, it is a journey from mere mortal to international icon. Along the way she would encounter homosexual husbands, predatory managers, newspaper scandals, and a range of friends and acquaintances from Sammy Davis Jr. to Reggie Kray. John L. Williams draws on original research and interviews to provide a portrait of a young woman on the cusp of stardom, whose rise to fame was in many ways symbolic of a changing world. Brilliantly written non-fiction in the style of David Peace's The Damned Utd or Nick Tosches' Dino, this is the story of a woman who set out to be extraordinary and--against all the odds--succeeded.

With a Foreword by symphony orchestra conductor Leonard Bernstein and insight into such varied figures as Beethoven, Billie Holiday, Boy George and Bette Midler and Bruce Springsteen.