Art & Entertainment

During his thirty years, Jeff Scott Buckley lived many lives: suburban loner, music school misfit, rock and roll gypsy. His real life was only revealed after his tragic death, more than 10 years ago in the Mississippi river, hours before he was due to start rehearsals for the follow up album to "Grace". Buckley's friends, peers, enemies, lovers, collaborators and others all speak to author Jeff...

A rock solid colour edition to coincide with the upcoming Black Ice world tour. A hundred and fifty million albums ago, AC/DC were delivering unforgettable performances - Bon Scott dressed as the schoolgirl from hell on one occasion, Angus Young somewhere inside a gorilla costume on another. In the thirty years since, the band has signposted the sexual encounters, drunken adventures, fights,...

When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world′s most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christie′s output - 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and...

Denise L'Estrange Corbet is one half of the dynamic husband and wife team that makes up WORLD, one of NZ's leading fashion businesses. This is Denise's honest and frank account of her turbulent life - from her difficult childhood through to her successful business life today. She covers the emotional landscape of her childhood, her malevolent grandmother, her dysfunctional family and most of all...

AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE is the second book of Janet Frame's three-volume autobiography, described by Michael Holroyd as 'one of the greatest autobiographies written this century.' It follows her life as a student and years of incarceration in mental hospitals. First published in 1984, it won the Non-fiction Prize of the New Zealand Book Awards. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Janet Frame was born in Dunedin in...

From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama it was her performance in her twenties as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's memorable Old Vic production that turned her into a star. In the theatre since she has played every classic role from Titania (three times, most...

Sam Hunt's life as a poet and performer has always strayed far off the straight and narrow, more akin to following a series of winding backroads that have led to places and people away from the mainstream. As a child, Hunt was surrounded by 'a lot of words, a lot of poems,' and from the age of eight, he knew he wanted to live the life of a poet. His parents and grandparents were his earliest...

Billy T James was a larger-than-life comedian who gave us some of our best belly laughs. An accomplished singer and musician, he created enduring characters, poking the borax at the oh-so-delicate state of race relations in New Zealand in a way that stood him head and shoulders above other performers of his era. Like John Clarke's Fred Dagg, Billy T's characters were Kiwi through and through and...

Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Loved for her irreverent humour, Dawn has achieved massive mainstream success while continuing to push boundaries and challenge stereotypes. Here she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps...

This is the intimate, first-person chronicle of the life and work of Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter in Brooklyn's notorious Marcy Projects, now known to many as the greatest rapper alive. Told through lyrics, images and personal narrative, Decoded shares the story of Jay-Z's life through the 10 codes that define him, giving an unparalleled insight into his background, influences and the artistic...

Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter (for the Two Ronnies, David Frost etc). Monty Python was just around the corner. This first volume of his diaries reveals how Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys - Jones and Gilliam - and Eric Idle, came together...

Bob Dylan stands out with Elvis Presley and The Beatles in a triumvirate of popular-music artists of unparalleled achievements, influence and public fascination. He changed popular music in the 1960s, and helped define that decade with songs "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Like a Rolling Stone". Yet he resisted those who attempted to define him. An artist of indomitable energy and...

It's been a long journey for Maurice Micklewhite - born with rickets in London's poverty-stricken Elephant & Castle - to the bright lights of Hollywood. With a glittering career spanning more than five decades and starring roles which have earned him two Oscars, a knighthood, and an iconic place in the Hollywood pantheon, the man now known to us as Michael Caine looks back over it all. Funny,...

Alongside contemporaries Slayer, Megadeath and Anthrax, Metallica came to prominence in the eighties as one of the 'big four' of thrash metal. Metallica were to thrash, though, what the Sex Pistols were to punk. Nearly thirty years on, their tale is one of alcohol, rule breaking and tragically early death. But allied to that are colossal sales figures for their records -- they are the...

The long awaited autobiography by one of the world's best-loved actors and directors. The story begins in 1983 with a famously weeping Attenborough accepting two Oscars when his film" Gandhi "broke all previous records to win a total of eight Academy awards. Hawkins, 67, is Attenborough's publicist, confidante, co-producer and long-term business partner. Attenborough will reflect on the...

Eric Clapton is far more than a rock star. Like Dylan and McCartney he is an icon and a living legend. He has sold tens of millions of records, played sell-out concerts all over the world and been central to the significant musical developments of his era. His guitar playing has seen him hailed as 'God'. Now for the first time, Eric tells the story of his personal and professional journeys in...

Despite being in the limelight for over 20 years and selling nearly 200 million records, Freddie Mercury was a very private person - avoiding interviews as he was painfully shy and uncomfortable in the company of anyone who might intrude upon his famous '

The second volume of Michael Palin's diaries covers the 1980s, a decade in which the ties that bound the Pythons loosened as they forged their separate careers. After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, they made their last performance together in 1983 in the hugely successful Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Writing and acting in films and television then took over much of Michael's life,...

Hayley's first performance as 'Little Star' in a Christmas play was perfectly pitched, beautifully sung and enthusiastically received. She was six years old. Now, at the tender age of twenty, she is the fastest-selling debut classical artist ever. Her string of musical accolades is astonishing and her audiences range from royalty to premiers. This is her story, from her first performance, through...

When Groucho Marx was well into his eighties, Charlotte Chandler approached him about writing a profile of him for a magazine. Groucho invited Charlotte to meet and that meeting grew into a friendship that lasted until Groucho's death in August 1977. Groucho was surrounded by a group of friends - some old timers like George Burns and Jack Benny - some younger comedians, like Woody Allen, who...

Over the years Julie Andrews has been much interviewed in the press and on television, but she has never before revealed the true story of her childhood and upbringing. In HOME she vividly recreates the years before the movies. An idyllic early childhood in Surrey was cut short when her parents divorced and her mother remarried. The family moved to London, and there are vivid scenes of life...

Has there ever been a more extraordinary rock-star story than Ozzy Osbourne's? Born into a life so poor that the whole family slept in one room, Ozzy endured a tough upbringing. Music was his salvation and his band Black Sabbath went on to change the music scene forever. But along with the rock and roll came the inevitable sex and drugs and Ozzy fell into a long relationship with addictive...

This is the definitive biography of Ian Dury, published on the tenth anniversary of his death. Widely described as 'punk's poet laureate', Ian Dury is a cultural icon. With his band The Blockheads, he exploded onto the television screen in 1978, appearing on Top of the Pops with his hit single "What a Waste", followed later that year by "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". By now...

One of the most fascinating rock bands ever, Pink Floyd was formed in 1965. After a year in the London 'underground' experimenting with revolutionary techniques like lights which matched their music, they released their first single in 1966. Their breakthrough album, THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, was released in 1973 and stayed in the charts until 1982, the longest a record has ever been...

'One of the greatest autobiographies written this century." MICHAEL HOLROYD Janet Frame brings the skill of an extraordinary novelist and poet to these vivid and haunting recollections, gathered here in a single edition and complemented by previously unpublished photographs. From a childhood and adolescnece spent in a materially poor but intellectually intense railway family, through its...

Jim Morrison's electrifying live performances, and appetite for sexual and psychedelic experience enflamed the spirit of a generation. In Jim Morrison, critically acclaimed journalist Stephen Davis brings together insights gleaned from dozens of original interviews, long-lost recordings, and Morrison's own unpublished journals to create a vivid portrait of a misunderstood genius. Each page brims...

JIMI HENDRIX: AN ILLUSTRATED EXPERIENCE illuminates the life of the musical icon who pioneered a new generation in rock and roll with his explosive electric style. With exclusive access to the private family archives, co-authors Janie Hendrix and John McDermott tell a vibrant and unique story of Jimi's life, from his formative years in hardscrabble Seattle through his short-lived days in the eye...

From his beginnings as a cult actor in quirky films like "Edward Scissorhands" and "Benny and Joon," Johnny Depp has attained a level of stardom and a fan base unlike that of any other modern-day screen star -- he's equally adored by adults who swoon over "the sexiest man alive" and children who love him as Willy Wonka. The "Johnny Depp Photo Album"...

This fascinating biography provides a detailed portrait of a man who has become a rock god. Jon Bon Jovi is Bon Jovi's focus and figurehead and the book charts his relationship with the other band members who have their fair share of rock and roll stories - sex, booze, burnouts, health and women problems. Jon Bon Jovi is a high-energy, charismatic international superstar and one of the top...

Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award Patti Smith's evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. A prelude to fame, Just Kids recounts the friendship of two young artists - Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe - whose passion fueled their lifelong pursuit of art. In 1967, a chance meeting between two young...

Peter Falk came to prominence as an actor in 1956 in the highly successful off-Broadway revival of "The Iceman Cometh" with Jason Robards. Although he worked continuously for the next three years, bouncing from one off-Broadway theatre to the next, a theatrical agent advised him not to expect much work in motion pictures because of his glass eye. Later, a talent scout for Columbia...

When the first edition of this book was published in 2004, it caused enormous controversy, with author Joel McIver's account of Metallica's rise and fall exposing the multiple myths that had surrounded the band for years. For the first time, a book dared to tell the unvarnished truth about their early life on the San Francisco circuit, their heyday as the world's most uncompromising metal band...

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, better know as Lady Gaga, was always destined to be different. She was a talented musician as a child, learning piano at age 4, and writing her first ballad at age of 13. But she turned her back on the world of typical teenage girls, instead running off to party hard, make friends with gogo dancers and drag queens, much to the despair of her parents. But she...

This electrifying biography explores Stefani Germanotta's rapid rise to global stardom in the guise of the outrageous Lady Gaga. Hers has been a triumph achieved with the help of wild image-making, infectious pop hits and a teasing strand of ambiguous sexuality that has turned her into a gay icon. At heart it's the story of a unique self-made phenomenon – a Madonna for today. As an adoring fan of...

They never released any singles; most of their albums have no lettering or titles of any description; they spent their early years touring in America -- but all that aside, Led Zeppelin remain probably the greatest, biggest- selling heavy rock band of all time. Their early sound was heavily blues-influenced, but every schoolboy (and many a schoolgirl) can immediately identify 'Stairway to Heaven'...

LET IT BLEED takes you where no Rolling Stones book has before. Author and photographer Ethan Russell was one of only sixteen people--including the Rolling Stones -who made up the 1969 tour. He was with them in their hotel rooms, at rehearsals, and on stage. He tells the story of this monumental and historic tour firsthand, including recollections from band members, crew, security, and other...

With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done. Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life....

'The ten years since my diagnosis have been the best ten years of my life and I consider myself a lucky man' - Michael J Fox When Michael J. Fox announced to the world that he had Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological condition, he had been secretly fighting it for almost ten years. By the time the public started grieving for him, he had stopped grieving for himself. Far from being...

Madonna is the biggest female pop star in the world yet there is no serious biography of her, and no biography at all by a woman. Existing books are either gossipy style manuals or rehashes of press cuttings and they all end in 2001 with Madonna's marriage to Guy Ritchie. Yet her story hardly ends there, as evinced by her two record breaking world tours since then...Lucy O'Brien's extensive and...

In 1968, an acoustic duo called Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared on the UK music scene. Their singer was an elfin-faced flower child who sang songs about dwarves and unicorns. Two years later, Marc Bolan shortened the band's name to T.Rex, bought a gold lame jacket and an electric guitar, and wrote a song called 'Ride a White Swan'. Overnight he became a teenage idol, his live appearances provoking...

The incredible, moving and hilarious story of Cheeta the Chimp, simian star of the big screen, on a behind-the-scenes romp through the golden years of Hollywood. The greatest Hollywood Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller, died in 1984. Maureen O'Sullivan, his Jane, died in 1998. Weissmuller's son, who first played Boy in the 1939 film 'Tarzan Finds a Mate', has gone too. But Cheeta the Chimp, who starred...

A lavishly illustrated tribute to the greatest entertainer of a generation. 'The world has lost one of the greats but his music will live on forever' - Madonna Michael Jackson was the undisputed King of Pop and his untimely death has provoked tributes from around the world. With a colourful life spanning from 1968 when Michael was a member of the Jackson 5 to his recent announcement of a final...

Michael Jackson was one of those rare human beings who can truly be described as a legend. As with Elvis and John Lennon, everyone will remember where they were when they heard about the death of Michael Jackson. He was just fifty when he died, but had become a superstar by the time he was eleven, ensuring his music was part of the fabric of everyone's life. Though his days of greatest success...

Despite its evergreen, cross-generational fan base, there hasn't been a new Monty Python book by all the (surviving) Pythons in thirty years. On their fortieth anniversary, Monty Python Live! focuses primarily on their stage show and includes original material written for the book -- oral histories, essays -- from all living members, as well as much archival material never before in print. Books,...

Russell Brand grew up in Essex . His father left when he was three months old, he was bulimic at 12 and left school at 16 to study at the Italia Conti stage school. There, he began drinking heavily and taking drugs. He regularly visited prostitutes in Soho, began cutting himself, took drugs on stage during his stand-up shows, and even set himself on fire while on crack cocaine. He has been...

There are always regrets in life, among them things we've done that we wish we could take back and erase. I have significant ones that will haunt me forever and which I hope I have been brave enough to confront in this book' Jane Fonda in the preface to My Life So Far. Now in her 60s, Fonda looks back over her life but also forward to the future. With unflinching honesty she addresses, amongst...

He's one of America's most recognisable and acclaimed actors - a star on "Broadway", an Oscar nominee for "The Aviator", and the only person to ever win Emmys for acting, writing, and directing during his eleven years on MASH. Now Alan Alda has written a memoir as elegant, funny, and affecting as his greatest performances. 'My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was...

More of the wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of Richard Hammond - TV presenter, adventurer and general drawer of the Short Straw. Continuing where AS YOU DO left off, OR IS THAT JUST ME?  focuses on just a few of the many hair-raising stunts, expeditions and encounters experienced by Richard Hammond over the last eventful year.

More of the wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of Richard Hammond - TV presenter, adventurer and general drawer of the Short Straw. Continuing where AS YOU DO left off, OR IS THAT JUST ME?  focuses on just a few of the many hair-raising stunts, expeditions and encounters experienced by Richard Hammond over the last eventful year.

Here is ultimate illustrated discography of Pink Floyd, covering everything from their first single to their most recent album "The Division Bell". Also included are separate sections on the work on Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. Features include... TimelineAn album by album, track by track listingInformation on when and where the music was recordedExpert commentary and analysis...