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Once there was a girl, pretty and smart and sexy. By her mid-twenties, she'd acquired two husbands and two children, and life wasn't going to plan... Then she met a man. Outrageous, brilliant, impossible, charismatic and kind, he was irresistible. Sex, drugs and jazz were a heady combination for the girl from Essex. Suddenly it was the swinging sixties and she was juggling babies with one hand and popping pills with the other. When George Melly wasn't in jazz clubs, he was fishing - and not just for fish. Brutally honest, hilariously candid, Diana Melly tells the extraordinary story of a turbulent marriage, of the uncharted trajectory of a woman's life from the fifties to the new century - by way of a glitteringly seductive crowd that includes Bruce Chatwin, Jean Rhys, Sonia Orwell, Kenneth Tynan, Jonathan Miller and a host of other luminaries. Written with a unique and clear-eyed self-effacement, here is an addictive, exceptional memoir, glowing with life and love, that breaks your heart, but makes you glad to be alive.
In this delightful and gently humorous book, Diana Melly takes us on an eye-opening tour of dance halls up and down the country, introducing us to everything from tango to swing.
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Nicholas Haslam is one of the world's finest interior designers, sought by rock stars, royalty, and the aristocracy alike. His interiors have chutzpah and a touch of opulence that seduce you the momentyou catch a glimpse. Rooms look glamorous and sexy, yet liveable in, practical, and, above all, flattering to their owner and their surroundings. He makes great use of the completely unexpected and is known for effects such as linen carpets, silver-papered ceilings, slashed leather curtains, and Picasso-inspired fabric footstools. Sheer Opulence, with specially commissioned photography by David Montgomery, reveals Haslam's decorating secrets and instinctive approach to both classic and contemporary interiors in a visual diary with Haslam's own watercolor plans accompanying the stunning photographs of rooms around the world. * The first book from the rock stars' and royalty's favorite interior designer. * Previously published in hardcover by Watson-Guptill (ISBN:082347970). * His autobiography, Redeeming Features, is published by Random House.
"Featuring 10 women's dresses and 11 dresses for girls, and ranging from toddler to plus-size, each project starts with instructions for a bodice and a skirt, but from there, it's up to you! From the simple and pretty lines of the classic Primrose sundress to the edgy and stylish shape of the city-chic SoCo dress, you'll find the instruction and inspiration you need to make your own unique and custom-fitted dresses. Change the skirt length or style, try different fabrics and prints--make each dress a one-of-a-kind piece!"--Page [4] of cover.
George Melly's three autobiographical memoirs - Scouse Mouse, Rum, Bum and Concertina and Owning Up in one volume for the first time. An account of the author's life from childhood in middle-class Liverpool in the thirties, through national service in the navy as an ordinary seaman to his emergence as a connoisseur of surrealist art and his career as a jazz singer.
How does it feel when someone you love develops dementia? How do you cope with the shock, the stress and the grief? Can you be sure that you and your family will receive the support you need? In Telling Tales About Dementia, thirty carers from different backgrounds and in different circumstances share their experiences of caring for a parent, partner or friend with dementia. They speak from the heart about love and loss: 'I still find it hard to believe that Alzheimer's has happened to us,' writes one contributor, 'as if we were sent the wrong script.' The stories told here vividly reflect the tragedy of dementia, the gravity of loss, and instances of unsatisfactory diagnosis, treatment and ...
How do you become a writer, and why? Maggie Gee's journey starts a long way from the literary world in a small family in post-war Britain. At seventeen, Maggie goes, a lamb to the slaughter, to university. From the 1960s onwards she lives the defining events of her generation: the coming of the Pill and sexual freedom, tremors in the British layer-cake of class and race. In the 1980s, Maggie finally gets published, falls in love, marries and has a daughter -- but for the next three decades and beyond, she survives, and sometimes thrives, by writing. This frank, bold memoir dares to explore the big questions: success and failure, sex, death and parenthood -- our animal life. 'A wise and beaut...
In this compelling and moving account of the marvellous Melly's last five years, on- and off-stage, the eminent jazz trumpeter, Digby Fairweather, whose band has accompanied Melley during this period, captures the technicolour Melly as never before. He vividly recalls the many gigs, recording and drinking sessions, the performances up and down the country, the characters they have met and the unexpected and unscripted encounters...as well as their conversations and friendship.Anyone who has seen George Melly on stage will know how outrageous and captivating he can be - the rouguish twinkle in the eye always spelling mischief. But there is another side to him - his erudition, his fame as an expert on Surrealism, his passion for angling, his sexual appetite and more.Even in his last year, although very ill and growing ever more deaf, his sense of fun and his love of music has kept him singing to the end - the ultimate performer. In "George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend", one of his closest associates offers a view of this jazz master as never seen before.