Tag: James Harman

Reviewsrevues is 8!

On By philshanklinIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Today I am celebrating 8 years and 891 posts and a big thank you to those of you who have stuck with me or joined me along the way or even just discovered one or two posts randomly when looking for something else!  I thought I would celebrate by looking at the top 10 most read posts of the last year – some of which were written quite a long time ago now and which have continually appeared on my most-read lists (in fact only number 3 was read and reviewed in 2022).  I admit I do continue to  find it fascinating to see what  people are reading.  So here goes:

10. Diary Of Two Nobodies – Giles Wood and Mary Killen

Posted back in 2018 and has been one of the most read posts ever since.  The musings of the couple from “Gogglebox” has certainly been of interest- although it has slipped down from its number 5 spot in 2020.

9. Scott And Bailey – Series 5

When I last looked at the top posts back in 2020 this was  the most read even though this last series of the ITV police show was first shown in 2016.  Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp certainly made a lasting impression.

8. Past Caring – Robert Goddard

I reviewed this 1986 novel in 2018.  This was the debut novel from the much loved British crime writer and despite me saying at the time “I am convinced, however, that there will be some real gems in the 25 or so works of his that I am still to encounter” I haven’t got around to reading him since.  I do have a copy of his 2020 novel “The Fine Art Of Invisible Detection” looking across at me from the bookshelves as I write this so I might very well find myself rediscovering this author this year.

7. This Is Going To Hurt – Adam Kay

I read and reviewed this in 2018 when it was dominating best seller lists.  It’s just reminded me that I have not got around to watching the BBC TV adaptation which was so well received  and which starred Ben Whishaw- I have the whole series recorded on Sky but never seem to be in the mood to get started with it.  Looking back at my review I’m wondering if that is because I said “I haven’t read anything before with so much bodily fluids sloshing around”.  It’s one thing reading about it but another when you are watching it whilst eating your tea!

6. Kathy Kirby: Secrets Lives And Lipgloss – James Harman

Obviously one of my guilty pleasures which is 60s songstress Kathy Kirby has had a bit of renewed interest in the last year as she features twice in my most read list.  At number 6 we have this four star 2005 memoir which I reviewed in 2016.  Harman shines a light on a woman who found fame under the shadow of her lover and mentor the much older celebrated band leader Bert Ambrose but who after his death went into free fall.  Exploited by both the music business and the press her naivety ran alongside a determination to bounce back.  Harman knew her well and conveys the 1960s showbusiness world she inhabited as well as the vulnerability of some who rose to the top.  It might be a struggle to get hold of this book now which may explain why fans are searching for my review of it.

5. Sanditon – Jane Austen and Another Lady

Another consistent top 5 performer is this 2019 five star review of a 1975 publication of the completion of Jane Austen’s unfinished fragment which was completed by the “Another Lady” in this case Australian-born author Marie Dobbs.  I’m sure the ITV series has helped maintain the interest in what I thought about this.

4. The Very Best Of – Kathy Kirby

Number 79 in my Essential CD lists is the 2016 review of a 1997 20 track release on the Spectrum label.  I’m pleased to see this getting a good number of reviews – I wouldn’t want this singer who was once reputedly the highest paid woman on British television being forgotten.  By the mid 60’s when Beatlemania was at its height her chart career was over yet within these twenty tracks there are some fine examples of British pop music.

3. The Whalebone Theatre – Joanna Quinn

My four star review of this 2022 novel meant that it was out of the running when I came to choose my Top 10 books of the year as I had read so many 5 star titles but this is a book which remained with me throughout the year that I am wondering if my original four star rating was not a little stingy.  A splendid Dorset-set debut and I am pleased that so many people have wanted to find out more about it.  A book which achieved a very good level of critical and commercial success.

2. 20 Of The Best – Shirley Bassey

This budget Music For Pleasure CD spans the years 1960-73 and made it to number 80 in my Essential CD countdown.  This has tended to hover around the lower half of the Top 10 most read posts since publication but has had a real surge this year to become my second most read post.  This is surely because of the continued love and support for this now 86 year old Dame of the Realm, living legend and national treasure. 

1. The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne

How delighted am I to see this at the very top of my most read pile as this is one of my favourite books of all time and I don’t miss  many opportunities to mention this and recommend it so I do hope that readers have found their way to this book through my promotion of it.  I reviewed this back in 2017 and in the eight years I have been writing this book I think only this year’s Book Of The Year “Young Mungo” by Douglas Stuart has come close to toppling this off my favourite book pedestal.  Thank you for seeking this review out in considerable numbers and thank you for reading this book. 

Where are you reading from?

The Top 10 countries for visitors to reviewsrevues.com.  The figures in brackets relate to 2020 when I last published this list.

1(1) UK

2(2) US

3 (7) Australia

4(-) Italy

5 (6) Canada

6(4) Germany

7(-) China

8(-) France

9(5) Netherlands

10 (-) Ireland

Welcome to the new countries in the Top 10.  Not sure what has happened to my Belgian visitors who have slumped from the number 3 position.  Hopefully they will be back before I celebrate reviewsrevues 9th birthday.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Kathy Kirby – Secrets, Loves And Lip Gloss – James Harman (2005)- A Real Life Review

On By philshanklinIn Real Life, Uncategorized1 Comment

realives

kirby15

This is a very British tale.  The story of the singer dubbed “The British Marilyn Monroe” who at one point in the mid 1960’s was reputed to be the highest paid woman on UK television – and then it all went wrong.  I think this is what is termed a “published on demand book” (I got my copy from Amazon ) by Harman, a life-long fan who went one step further and for a short time believed he could engineer a comeback when he became Kathy Kirby’s manager.  It didn’t turn out quite the way he planned it.

                                    Kathy Kirby   and Ambrose at the peak of their fame                                                      

 Essex-born Kirby was discovered by Bert Ambrose, a band leader, big in the 1940’s, who by this time was really from another era who saw her as a way of bringing a younger audience to his venues.  Her look, the obvious glamour and the fantastic voice made her a television regular and she was very much a household name even before she began a run of chart hits in 1963-5.  Kirby was very much controlled by the much older Ambrose and they became lovers.  He reputedly financially exploited her, gambling away her money whilst all the time convincing her she was a great star.  When Ambrose died Kathy went into free fall- a catalogue of bankruptcy, incarceration in a mental hospital, inappropriate relationships, attempted comebacks and increasing mental health problems.  For the last years of her life she lived very much as a recluse, shunning the limelight she once craved.  She died in 2011, but throughout Harman’s work there is the hope that she would return and shine in show business again.

The structure of the book is odd.  It begins with an extended series of tributes from those in the business, wishing her well.  Frank Ifield uses it as an excuse to plug his autobiography and when you get to singer from much the same era, Julie Rogers, beginning “Kathy and I never met” you do begin to question this format.  The narrative throughout is brokn up by italicised sections of Harman’s own words and reminiscences, rather needlessly as the whole book is surely his own words and reminiscences.  That aside, this book is a permanent fixture on my bookshelves because of the absolutely fascinating story he tells.  I re-read this to remind myself of some of the incredible things that happened to her before reviewing the Essential CD – The Very Best Of Kathy Kirby.  Kathy was obviously too naive for a life in show-business but kept attempting to bounce back – a real survivor.  She was also too honest for the press and many  way hastened her own “downfall” by the things she told them.  The media treated her very much as the girl who found fame and lost it, creating a self perpetuating myth which got her selling stories but probably didn’t do her much good.  If anyone wanted a view on the fickleness of fame it was Kathy they turned to.  The Sunday press were always keen on stories about her and scandal made good reading- her every mistake and misery was taken apart by the press.

Kathy was really just a victim of changing tastes in popular culture.  By the 1960’s fame was not a life-long thing it had maybe been the generation before  and Kathy became one of the many casualties of changes in pop music at this time and yet she railed against this.  She was determined to remain a star, her legion of fans saw her always as a star but bookings diminished to bingo halls and restaurants as, despite the talent, she was just no longer in vogue and that had a serious effect.  As time went by she became deemed to be“difficult” which further compounded things.

For anyone who wonders “Whatever happened to Kathy Kirby?” Harman’s tale is an eye-opener and very much a tale of the shallow world of showbusiness and the vulnerability of some who rose to the top.

fourstars

Kathy Kirby- Secrets, Loves and Lip Gloss was published by Mediaworld in 2005