Marc Burrows

The London Boys by Marc Burrows is not so much a biographical look at Bowie and Bolan (though that is a central element) as it is a look at how a generation born into the destructive aftermath of war transformed themselves, their city, their country, and indeed the world through their music and their taking on and shedding of various personae.

If you're of a certain age (as in old, like me) this will be nostalgic to some degree. Most of the stories involving Bowie and Bolan will be familiar, but probably not in the detail or contextualizing Burrows gives you. It is that extra specificity of relationships coupled with the broader societal situating of events that makes this a truly enjoyable book.

Even those who know a good bit about these musicians will learn a lot. I am no expert, maybe a dozen books about Bowie and a couple about Bolan/T Rex, but I didn't expect a lot of new information, mostly I was looking forward to new perspective on things I might already know. I gained those new perspectives and also a lot of very interesting details which were new to me. You gotta love when a book gives you what you want, plus a whole lot more.

Certainly a must read for fans of Bowie, Bolan, and the music of the late 60s and 70s, but also a great read for those with an interest in social and cultural history more generally. And for old folk like me, a great trip down memory lane.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (altro)

A biography of the prolific, successful, brilliant, beloved, and all-around-amazing Sir Terry Pratchett, author of, among other things, the long-running series of Discworld novels.

It's very much a biography of Pratchett's public life and career; his personal life is really only touched on when it's relevant to those subjects, which seems entirely appropriate to me. And Marc Burrows does a good job with his subject. His writing is clear and readable, and he pays a bit of homage to Pratchett by including humorous footnotes which are, I'm pleased to note, actually funny, and which help to keep things interesting even in the middle sections which are mostly about publishing deals and such. I also appreciate the way he handles a particular trait of Pratchett's that makes the biographer's job noticeably more difficult. Namely that, master of narrative that he was, he consistently and unrepentantly edited his personal anecdotes to make for the best possible stories. Burrows is always careful to note when Pratchett's account of something doesn't match up with the actual timeline of events, for instance, but he does it without judgment and in a way that still lets us enjoy the anecdotes as Pratchett told them, leaving it up to the readers which version of events we'd prefer to take away with us.

He also offers up some decent, if of necessity not terribly in-depth, commentary on Pratchett's work, and while he clearly is a great fan, he's not a mindlessly uncritical one. Indeed, he's quite interested in the ways in which Pratchett's work matured over time.

Ultimately, while I don't think this is at all a must-read for Pratchett fans -- there probably isn't a whole lot in here that anyone who's paid much attention doesn't already know -- I found it a worthwhile one, nonetheless. It's also made me think I really should get back to re-reading the Discworld books, even if my TBR shelves are groaning under the weight of volumes still patiently waiting to be read the first time. And it's also made me miss him all over again, of course. GNU Terry Pratchett.… (altro)

Marc comes across as a great fan of Terry's, yet isn't by any means oblivious to his less than positive aspects. The research is really detailed, and he's obviously put a lot of effort into trying to track down the truth behind some of the true stories that Terry told (well he his a story teller). He manages to give a flavour of many of the books Terry wrote so if you're not familiar with all of Terry's work you can pick and choose where to begin. There will in time be a biography from Terry's "representative on earth", Rob, but I don't think it's worth waiting for that one - you might as well get this one.… (altro)