Author:Jessica Barker

Once upon a time there were emails from officials in far off places, telling us that all sorts of riches were ours for the taking, if we’d just email back. Boutros Boutros-Ghali contacted me several times, pleading for help moving a shipment of gold, with my name on it. These days, there are text messages for parcels I didn’t order, funds at risk in bank accounts I don’t have, and even Taylor Swift tickets in local Facebook groups that will go at face value. I get regularly phished at work, my IT buddies sending out spoof after spoof to keep me on my toes.

And I never fell for one of them, until I did. A mail from a name I recognised, that I’d talked to a day or so before, asking me to check a list. They got me. An endless merry-go-round of IT “refresher” courses followed. None as insightful as reading “Hacked”.

“Hacked” walks readers through a cornucopia of online evils, from phishing to malware, spyware to deepfakes. There’s plenty of statistics, some sobering stories and lots of sensible advice. Barker details how giants like Facebook and Google have been phished, and how even the » Continue Reading.

Author:Debbie Harry

I was never a huge fan of Blondie, although I liked them. Along with Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and XTC they were for me the best of the late 70s “new wave” bands. I listen to the audio book version of this, which Debbie reads in a very appealing way, kind of detached, a bit like her singing, but also very honest, straightforward and informative. She’s upfront about the fact that her God-given looks have played a part in her success (hence the title) and she paints a vivid picture of 70s NYC – the grunge, drugs, crime but also the punk spirit and the weird and wonderful charcaters she encountered along the way. She also talks a lot about her love/friendship with Chris Stein, looking after him and their separation.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Blondie, 70s NY punk and new wave

One thing you’ve learned

It’s OK to like dressing up

Author:Anthony Horowitz

This is now the fifth novel featuring enigmatic private investigator Daniel Hawthorne, who is assisted by the author himself who appears as a character in his own story. On this occasion, the plot revolves around a case from Hawthorne’s somewhat mysterious past, a dispute among neighbours that gets out of control. A neighbour from hell disrupts life in a quiet gated community, where all the residents seemingly hold a grudge against him. One of them – or perhaps more – eventually takes matters into their own hands with a tragic outcome. There’s an interconnected series of issues and relationships going on beneath the surface, which gradually emerge as the investigation progresses, with all the residents apparently having both motives and alibis. As Horowitz reexamines Hawthorne’s original investigation, it places unexpected strains on their own friendship as hidden secrets are revealed, leading to a dramatic and unexpected climax. Along the way, there’s plenty of deception and red herrings before the seemingly impossible puzzle is finally solved. An excellent entertaining thriller that certainly lives up to the high standards of the previous novels in this series.

Length of Read:Medium

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Whodunnit thrillers in the old » Continue Reading.

Author:Opher Goodwin, Chris Sutton, Peter Braidis, Manny Grillo

There’s no shortage of books on Bob Dylan and his music, but this short volume, the second title in the Rock Classics series, takes an in depth look at the seminal 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. I’m certainly no expert on Dylan’s sixties output, so I found this book useful background to this album, which contains enduring songs such as Mr Tambourine Man, Maggie’s Farm, It’s Alright Ma, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue and of course Subterranean Homesick Blues. Even relatively lesser-known pieces like Gates of Eden still stand up today. The book provides a look at the background to the album’s making, the recording process and of course delves into the songs themselves. Short as the book is, it does provide some interesting insights for the casual reader like myself, although I would assume the more hardcore follower will already be up to speed on all this. All in all, a well put together potted history on this true classic of an album that is rapidly approaching its sixtieth anniversary.

I’m certainly not averse to a bit of AC/DC, great rock music, but I’m not sure their songs » Continue Reading.

Author:Gary Stevenson

“I was a clever, poor, ambitious kid, who just didn’t want to be poor any more.” An unusually gifted mathematician, Stevenson beats the odds first by getting into the London School of Economics, and then wins a trading game to get internship at Citibank. He has no idea what kind of job it would lead to – just that it would give him the chance to make a lot of money. And it does. Not bad for an unsuccessful grime musician (MC Gaz) who was expelled from school for drug dealing.

Ironically, it’s not Stevenson’s numeric skills that enable him to advance. Initially perplexed that he can’t understand how trading works, he quickly realises that he’s far from alone, and that many longer serving traders are as clueless as he initially is. Knowing that many interns are never offered jobs, he makes himself useful in the best way he can think of – fetching lunches, coffees, at his desk by 6am, and always ready to take note as and when a dealer decides to share a few gems of wisdom. Gems like you won’t necessarily make money by being right, but you can really cash in by being » Continue Reading.

Author:Becky Holmes

It might seem surprising that that a former PR Manager living in Warwickshire would become a romantic interest for not just Keanu Reeves and Liam Neeson but also Princes Harry, Wills and even Andrew, but these were just some of the celebrity names that slid into Becky Holmes direct messages after she joined Twitter at the start of the pandemic.

Holmes found it surprising too. So much so that she decided to post her exchanges with her love struck suitors on Twitter, gathering over 150,000 followers in a matter of months. It didn’t seem to matter how absurd her answers were, the DM’s kept rolling in, even after a few of them spotted her piss taking tweets. She was even once contacted by someone claiming to be her sister. Called Becky.

Although not a victim herself, her Twitter feed led to a number of victims to get in touch, prompting Holmes to investigate further (one of the few jokes she doesn’t make at her own expense*). Given the books origins in Holmes role reversing Twitter feed, it invites us to continue to laugh at scammers getting rinsed, but there’s quite a shift in mood required when reading » Continue Reading.

Author:Euron Griffith

A Casual Life tells the tale of Griffith’s love affair with music, starting in his pre-teens, through university to a relentless four year stint leading a band in the shallow end of the music business and a final realisation that he needed to find a proper job. As he says in the Preface, his musical career, in contrast to Brian May’s, was one “of struggle, pain, determination and sheer hard graft that led to…absolutely fucking nowhere.”

An interest in salacious gossip is a normal part of the human condition. The biggest-selling autobiographies are those written by the most recognisable names in show business, sport, politics and music, and most of the readers who pick them up are hoping they’ll tell the stories behind the headlines. What about the life stories of ordinary people? Everyone’s story is unique, of course, but the non-famous have to make sure they tell theirs well. With a sales pitch like that, Griffith has to entertain.

Each chapter hangs on the flimsy shoulders of a band T shirt, ending with a playlist to fit on a cassette tape, effectively carbon-dating the narrative. He began disadvantaged, growing up in North West Wales outside the » Continue Reading.

Author:Richard Lawrence Jordan

This lengthy book takes a very detailed look at the music that emanated from Northern Ireland during the mid to late seventies, against a background of political and cultural upheaval and suburban violence. The punk movement seemed to provide the seeds of hope and perhaps an alternative revolution for those in their youth that largely eschewed politics. The book devotes a good deal of space to the work and influence of Terri Hooley and the Good Vibrations label, and bands such as The Undertones and particularly Stiff Little Fingers feature heavily and really form the epicentre of the book. That’s not to say that lesser bands are ignored – there are many others, such as The Defects, whose star shone briefly but brightly before being extinguished completely who now get their long overdue moment in the spotlight. The author also delves into the social history and political background of Northern Ireland, which personally I found less interesting, although I suppose this background is essential to even begin to understand the context of what was going on during these turbulent times. The author provides a very in depth look at the social, political and cultural climate which formed » Continue Reading.

Author:Eamonn Forde

“The Web will be a great place to find music. It will make the music of the world more accessible” – Todd Rundgren, 1998

“We will never be in the business of making our music digital and degrading its value dramatically as long as we are continuing to sell CDs” Sir Colin Southgate, EMI CEO, 1996

For some lucky people, listening to music is all they need. Some don’t even bother to collect all the releases, like that rare Portuguese CD single with the extra hidden live tracks. A somewhat smaller number, like Eamonn Forde, and like me (I think there must be more of us) are also fascinated by the business of music. This is Forde’s third industry focused tome, having previously written about the demise of EMI (The Final days of EMI: Selling The Pig) and the management of musical estates (Leaving The Building: The Lucrative Afterlife of Music Estates). It’s a lot more of an engaging read than it sounds, honest. This time Word and Q alumni Forde has chosen 1999 as the tipping point that saw the record industry not so much disrupted, but dumped on it’s head, as the internet and digital music » Continue Reading.

Author:John van der Kiste, G Mick Smith, Opher Goodwin, Alan Draper

The first in a new series taking an in depth look at selected classic albums. First up is The Stones 1969 effort Let It Bleed, the second of a run of four consecutive releases between 1968 – 1972 which arguably mark the band’s creative peak. It certainly does befit the ‘classic’ tag with songs such as Gimme Shelter, Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want. This is a slim volume of 75 pages, but it does cram in a lot of detail on the album – the background to the recording, the inspiration for the songs and of course their recording, including a track by track look at the whole shooting match. A promising start to what looks like a very interesting series. I don’t feel I know as much of Ian Hunter’s back catalogue as I should. I’m pretty strong on the early efforts and the latter ones, but with quite a big void in the middle years where I lost touch with his work. Following the tried and trusted song by song analysis of each album, the book does a good job of giving » Continue Reading.

Author:Mark Perry

In July 1976, Glam Rock fan and Bank Clerk Mark Perry was wandering his favourite record stores when he asked at the Rock On Stall in Soho Market if they had any magazines about this new “Punk thing” he’d been reading about in the NME – his interest piqued by the first Ramones album, The Flamin’ Groovies at the Roundhouse, and the spying of familiar faces at Gigs. The Rock On Stall had nothing to offer other than an American publication, but nothing about what was clearly happening in London. The man on the stall – half-jokingly – suggested that he start one himself if he can’t find what he was looking for. So that’s just what he did – he returned to his bedroom in Deptford, armed himself with a ream of paper, a cheap typewriter, and some felt tip pins and produced Issue 1 of Sniffin’ Glue. He went back to Rock On with the 50 copies he’d photocopied, and to his surprise they sold and Rock On gave him some money to produce more.

Issue 1 was pieced together on enthusiasm and adrenaline, rather than a journalistic ideal. And it was this DIY style that » Continue Reading.

Author:Benji Waterhouse

Graham thinks he’s Jesus but ends up being sectioned after nearly drowning in a swimming pool trying to walk on water. Barbara flies to the UK in a bridal gown so that she can marry Harry Styles, and it’s only the death threats made to Styles then girlfriend (Taylor Swift) that result in her sectioning. Jamal knows that the psychiatric ward is in fact a TV set because it’s so shitty and real ones would be much nicer. Damien unintentionally outs himself after drinking hand gel by announcing his illness, thereby proving himself sufficiently sane to remain at large. Benjamin senses his mental heath worsening, uncertain he’s really fit to do his job, struggling to come to terms with an attention seeking mother and an angry father. He’s also the psychiatrist responsible for treating all the preceding characters and author of this “fly on the padded wall” book.

Mental illness is no laughing matter, but for the most part Waterhouse makes himself the target of the jokes. It’s a personal book, as much about this relationship with his parents and his girlfriend as it is the people he works with or tries to heal each day. His patients » Continue Reading.

Author:Derek Taylor, Ben L Connor

In his forty-page introduction and overview of this genre, the author sums up easy listening as a combination of big band and orchestral music that came to the fore in the post war world of the forties onwards. He focuses on instrumental music, so there’s nothing on the renowned easy listening vocalists. There are chapters on the likes of Henry Mancini, James Last, Mantovani and Herb Albert, his method being to select a single key recording of each artist and look at that in some detail, and then to recommend some further listening. This area of music isn’t something I know much about and isn’t really my cup of tea, and so I’m not really qualified to be assess how good this overview is, but if this type of music floats your boat then take a look at this book which attempts to give a comprehensive overview of the genre, and place in a historical context its big names and innovators.

I suppose everyone knows at least one White Stripes song, the now ubiquitous Seven Nation Army. However, there’s a lot more to them than that as a listen to the White Blood Cells and » Continue Reading.

Author:Andrew Rooney, Paul Tornbohm, Emma Stott

I’m not the world’s biggest Oasis fan – in fact I haven’t heard any of the music they’ve released this century give or take the odd single. However, you can’t deny the quality of their output in the mid nineties – the first two albums still stand up today, not to mention the numerous top quality songs they put out as non-album tracks. This book takes a comprehensive look at all their music, including the singles, and isn’t afraid to cast a critical eye over the below par efforts when called for, In hindsight, perhaps they carried on for too long, managing another full decade, with seemingly ever diminishing returns, after the Knebworth show in 1996 which was arguably their zenith. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book _ it’s well written and in a very readable format, and if you’re after a potted history of the band’s music you could do a lot worse than start here.

I think everyone knows at least some of The Carpenters songs. Between 1969 and 1981 the brother and sister duo were seemingly a daily presence on the radio, and sold over 100 million albums. » Continue Reading.

Author:Barney Hoskyns and Jasper Murison-Bowie

“Phew” is a celebration of Tom Hibbert’s irreverent skewering of musicians, and other assorted celebs, which gained notoriety at Smash Hits and flourished with Q Magazine’s “Who The Hell Does” pieces, The book has been complied by music journalist and author Barney Hoskyns and a chap called Jasper Murison-Bowie, who could have been a Hibbert creation but in fact works with Hoskyns at Rock’s Backpages, where most of Hibbert’s work can be found, albeit behind a paywall.

The book features articles from every era of his writing (bar his first gig with a DIY magazine) intermingled with reflections from colleagues, friends and family. Because it’s an appreciation of Hibbert’s work and not a biography, calling the book “Who The Hell Did Tom Hibbert Think He Was” must have been ruled out, but pleasingly it is used for the first section which focuses on Hibbert the man rather than his writing. An autobiographical piece Hibbert wrote for a book called “Love Is The Drug” (edited by John Aizlewood) explains how Hibbert’s early musical tastes focused on the Byrds and then Moby Grape, who he admits to becoming infatuated with, not least because by the time he » Continue Reading.

Author:Gerald Seymour

This is the fourth novel in the ongoing series featuring the elderly, rather eccentric and taciturn spymaster Jonas Merrick. This time the Chinese state apparatus is in his sights in a complex storyline featuring a number of interlinked characters and storylines as he attempts to gain the upper hand in a treacherous game of geopolitical chess. Seymour uses the novel to reintroduce a few familiar names from the previous three books, nicely tying up some ongoing loose ends along the way. As always, the plot is a slow burner, which gradually ratchets up the tension as the story progresses until he expertly brings all the elements together in a very exciting and satisfying conclusion. If you’ve read and enjoyed Seymour’s work previously then you won’t be disappointed, although if this is the first time you’ve encountered Jonas Merrick then I’d recommend you read this after you’ve devoured the earlier tales.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Thrillers, espionage based novels.

One thing you’ve learned

Seymour is in his eighties now, and it’s approaching fifty years since the appearance of his debut novel, Harry’s Game, but the quality of his novels rarely falters. I fact, I » Continue Reading.

Author:Louise Welsh

Scottish author Louise Welsh returns with her tenth novel. I haven’t read them all by any means but I very much enjoyed her debut The Cutting Room and its belated sequel The Second Cut. This one is however a completely new venture, although it follows the same path of a gritty but darkly comic plot. A successful highflying university professor’s life is suddenly derailed when his son is arrested on drugs charges. Men he thought had been left behind in his working class past as his past as a the son of an underworld hard man suddenly reappear. Has he truly escaped his family’s reputation and cut ties with his old life, or is he more like his father than he cares to admit? As he tries to outrun his family history, organised crime and institutional corruption dog his heels at every step and he must decide how far he’s prepared to compromise his morals to preserve the life, reputation and career he’s so painstakingly built. This is a really interesting read that paints an intriguing portrait of contemporary Glasgow and the politics of campus life, and is well worth checking out if you want to sample the » Continue Reading.

Author:Aaron Badgley

Subtitled The Story of George Harrison’s Post Beatles Record Label, this is a book that over its 200 or so pages does exactly what it says on the tin. With Apple Records in a state of flux, Harrison opted to set up a new label on a smaller scale with the aim of promoting new artists as well as eventually releasing his own music. Things got off to a decent start with the band Splinter (remember Costafine Town?), but they soon faded without achieving the success that was predicted, and signings such as Ravi Shankar, Jiva, Attitudes and Henry McCullough failed to take off. When the label moved from the auspices of A&M to Warners many of the artists were quietly dropped, and the label became mainly a vehicle for releasing Harrison’s own music – in fact it was announced that his whole back catalogue would be reissued on the label earlier this year. After his death, the label was eventually reactivated by his son, Dhani, and has been given a new lease of life, signing artists such as Cat Stevens and Billy Idol. This very well researched and written book chronicles the rise and fall and rebirth » Continue Reading.

Author:Daryl Richard Lawrence, Stan Jeffries. Duncan Harris

I’m not a big fan of the West Coast country sounds of Linda Ronstadt, but given that she’s sold over 100 million albums I’m obviously in a minority! This book covers the first twenty years of her career, which saw the release of 17 albums – a pretty impressive work rate. The only two records I really know are Living in the USA and Heart Like a Wheel, but dipping into her back catalogue in the course of reading this book confirmed my thoughts that pleasant as her music is, it all rather washes over me. Nevertheless, she successfully crossed over into both the rock and country markets and attained huge commercial success over a sustained period. Fans will enjoy the in depth track by track breakdown of the albums and might even rediscover some long forgotten gems, while it also provides a good introduction for newcomers to her music.

The Jam was a band I was quite a fan of back in the day. From 1977’s In The City single through to their last hurrah with 1982’s Beat Surrender they produced some fantastic music that still sounds as good today as it » Continue Reading.

Author:Kenneth Womack

Even if you don’t recognize the name, you will have seen pictures with him in. According to Kenneth Womack, Evans was quite deliberate, sticking close to his charges, knowing there would be a very good chance he’d end up in the finally published picture. Hard to miss at 6ft 3, he’s ever present throughout the 8 hours of “Get Back”, the man with the guitar picks, tea and toast. Getting arrested at the end of the rooftop concert was a perfect encapsulation of his role – the friendly giant who always stood between the Fab Four and those that wanted to get to them.

Author Womack has written numerous books on the Beatles and was chosen by Evans son Gary and daughter Julie to tell their fathers story. Womack was given Evans diaries, the autobiographical manuscript Evans never managed to get published in his lifetime, and a treasure trove of memorabilia that he had squirreled away having worked with The Beatles from their days at the Cavern to beyond the split and the collapse of Apple into their solo careers.

Hired at George’s suggestion because of his imposing presence, Evans was unusual as a bodyguard and roadie » Continue Reading.

Author:Sophie Hannah

A fifth instalment in the author’s loving recreation of Hercule Poirot and his famous little grey cells. A Christmas based mystery presents itself to the Belgian detective and his colleague Inspector Catchpool, who is a sort of amalgam of Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp. Set in the early 1930s in a crumbing mansion by the coast, the home of Catchpool’s overbearing mother, the pair investigate a murder in the supposed safety of a ward in a nearby hospital. When a friend is admitted to the same place his wife is convinced he will meet the same fate, but refuses to elaborate. Poirot must work fast to solve the case before the killer strikes again, or face the horrific consequences – having to spend the whole festive period with the Catchpools! There’s a large cast of quite eccentric characters with complex interrelationships, which are gradually revealed as the plot progresses, and of course there’s the usual quota of red herrings. Hannah nicely evokes the atmosphere of England and its inhabitants in that pre-war era, and expertly recreates Poirot’s familiar character with all its foibles. As with the earlier novels, my one grumble is I would have liked more Poirot » Continue Reading.

Author:Geddy Lee

The Rush vocalist and bass player gives the reader an in depth look at his life both in and out of the band in this fascinating lengthy autobiography. Initially we learn of his parents’ traumatic experiences as teenagers in World War Two and the murder of his grandfather in The Holocaust. Against this background, he describes a loving childhood environment and the introduction to music that eventually led to him dropping out of High School. However, it’s the time with Rush that most fans will want to turn to, going from their earliest days through the classic late seventies/early eighties albums and on to the very end of their long career with the vastly underrated Clockwork Angels album, one of their very finest efforts that for some reason often gets overlooked when assessing their music. The most interesting part of the book though is his close relationship with his two co-members in the group – they really were a band of brothers, as evidenced most in terrible times such as when Neil Peart tragically lost his daughter and then wife, and ultimately when he himself became terminally ill. Even now, it’s obvious Lee is still deeply affected by » Continue Reading.

Author:Terry Hayes

Ten years ago Terry Hayes wrote a novel titled I Am Pilgrim which went on to become a massive international bestseller. The Year of The Locust is a book that has been delayed so many times I began to wonder if it would ever see the light of day. It’s not a sequel but a standalone novel, although the subject matter is in broad terms in the same vein, ie a secret agent based action thriller. A CIA agent is sent into the badlands of Iran to uncover details of an atrocity being planned by a terrorist organisation – no spoilers, but basically it’s non-stop action from that point onwards. This is one of those books with short punchy chapters that beg you to carry on and just read one more even though it’s already way past bedtime. The pages fly by in this fast paced thriller, and the author never allows the pace and excitement to drop as the tension inexorably ratchets up. This is without doubt the best book of this genre that I’ve read for a very long time, and surely it’s crying out for a movie adaptation. If this type of action thriller is » Continue Reading.

Author:Terry Pratchett

When Terry Pratchett passed he decreed that all his unfinished and unpublished work be destroyed, emphatically achieved by symbolically running over his computer’s hard drive with a steamroller! However, if you can’t go forward then go back – and hence we have a collection of twenty recently unearthed short stories from the very beginnings of his writing career, written under pseudonyms, which have been excavated from the archives of the newspapers they originally appeared in during the 1970s and 80s. These are by their nature short pieces, constrained presumably by the word count imposed by the editors, so each story is by neccesity compact and makes its point without prevarication. They are very much the writings of a young author still cutting his teeth and seeking a direction, but they are none the worse for that. There’s nothing of Discworld here of course, although there are a few hints here and there of that epic comic universe that was to come further down the line. Nevertheless, there are some really good humorous stories here that will raise a smile – the discovery of fire by a caveman, defiant evicted ghosts haunting the local council, a clay golem developing » Continue Reading.