{"title":"Books by Christopher Sandford","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780752844565","title":"Kurt Cobain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this compelling biography, Christopher Sandford explores the full, inside story of Kurt Cobain.  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the disruptive childhood which had such a crucial impact on Cobain's personality to the ambitious career musician who, as a friend said, \"lunged for success\", and the worldwide breakthrough of Nirvana's Nevermind, Sandford also writes about Cobain's stormy marriage to Courtney Love, his heroin addiction, and how he became more and more of a recluse.  Finally, he writes of the crisis when, in April 1994, Cobain turned a shotgun on himself and became a martyr for disaffected youth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe result is a saga of success and corruption which John Peel has called \"the ultimate rock and roll morality story\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297886712181,"sku":"9780752844565","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752844565_8de847b1-6c45-4853-bbb4-5c4298691fda.jpg?v=1786015701"},{"product_id":"9781398520325","title":"The Rolling Stones: Sixty Years","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new, updated edition of Christopher Sandford's classic biography of the band, \u003ci\u003eThe Rolling Stones\u003c\/i\u003e is a gripping account of the band's remarkable 60 years at the top of the rock industry. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1962 \u003cb\u003eMick Jagger\u003c\/b\u003e was a bright, well-scrubbed boy (planning a career in the civil service), while \u003cb\u003eKeith Richards\u003c\/b\u003e was learning how to smoke and to swivel a six-shooter. Add the mercurial \u003cb\u003eBrian Jones\u003c\/b\u003e (who'd been effectively run out of Cheltenham for theft, multiple impregnations and playing blues guitar), the wryly opinionated \u003cb\u003eBill Wyman\u003c\/b\u003e and drummer \u003cb\u003eCharlie Watts\u003c\/b\u003e, and the potential was obvious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the 1960s and 70s the Rolling Stones were the polarising figures in Britain, admired in some quarters for their flamboyance, creativity and salacious lifestyles, and reviled elsewhere for the same reasons. Confidently expected never to reach 30, the band is now celebrating \u003cb\u003e60 years together\u003c\/b\u003e with a European tour, \u003cb\u003eSixty\u003c\/b\u003e, to mark the occasion. Of the original line-up, only Jagger and Richards remain, along with 'new boy' \u003cb\u003eRonnie Wood\u003c\/b\u003e, who joined the band in 1975. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Rolling Stones\u003c\/i\u003e, Christopher Sandford tells the human drama at the centre of the Rolling Stones story. Sandford has carried out interviews with those close to the Stones, family members (including Mick's parents), the group's fans and contemporaries - even examined their previously unreleased FBI files. \u003cb\u003eLike no other book before \u003ci\u003eThe Rolling Stones\u003c\/i\u003e makes sense of the rich brew of clever invention and opportunism, of talent, good fortune, insecurity, self-destructiveness, and of drugs, sex and other excess, that made the Stones who they are.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298551050613,"sku":"9781398520325","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781398520325_c7fc0305-cdf6-4bf9-b809-4395648fe3b8.jpg?v=1786019437"},{"product_id":"9781803997711","title":"Victor Lustig","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Fascinating.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e - \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘An incredible story\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e’ - \u003cem\u003eDaily Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man.\u003c\/strong\u003e ‘A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,’ \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e wrote in 1919. ‘He is prone to the most detestable tactics, and is a stranger to charity and public spirit. One may nonetheless note his acuity in separating others from their money.’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEnter \u003cem\u003eVictor Lustig\u003c\/em\u003e (not his real name). An Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, by the age of sixteen he had learned how to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse. By nineteen he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a narrative that thrills like a crime caper, best-selling biographer Christopher Sandford draws on newly released documents to tell the whole story of the greatest conman of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306887491957,"sku":"9781803997711","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803997711_84b8a366-f7dc-47f2-8817-189048442900.jpg?v=1786027366"},{"product_id":"9781801500869","title":"Laker and Lock","description":"Laker and Lock is the first dual biography of Surrey and England 'spin twins' Jim Laker and Tony Lock, who helped their county and Test teams to an unparalleled run of dominance in the 1950s. Besides their peerless achievements on the field, the two men had little in common. Laker, the elder by seven years, was Yorkshire born, cool, phlegmatic, known to sulk, and not greatly enamoured with the class distinctions then inherent in English cricket and society as a whole. Lock, a southerner, was dynamic, ebullient, indefatigable both on and off the field, and tended to wear his heart on his sleeve, an attitude no less at odds with the prevailing social order. Both men courted controversy. Laker's post-retirement autobiography caused such a furore that he was made unwelcome at Lord's and the Oval for years afterwards. Lock suffered the stigma of being labelled a 'chucker' and ultimately moved to Australia, where his retirement was clouded by allegations of sexual abuse. This is the full story of the pair's uneasy partnership.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306990449013,"sku":"9781801500869","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781801500869_938da724-c71e-46a0-9363-455f9e7534ad.jpg?v=1786026925"},{"product_id":"9781803999579","title":"1976","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSearing heat, political turmoil, revolution in popular culture: relive the scorching year of 1976 in all its glory.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the political scene, Harold Wilson abruptly resigned as prime minister; Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe resigned in advance of his arrest and sensational Old Bailey trial for conspiracy and incitement to murder; and the Tories elected 'Milk Snatcher' Margaret Thatcher as their party leader. The IRA’s long-running demands for the reunification of Ireland exploded into a campaign of wholesale terrorism on the British mainland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile, the Black Panther was finally arrested and brought to justice, and the curious case of John Stonehouse, the UK’s last Postmaster General, came to its climax.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrow in the fact that Southampton defied 500:1 odds to win the FA Cup, and the irresistible rise of punk rock, triggered by the iconic moment when the Sex Pistols were let loose on an unsuspecting teatime-television audience, and 1976 proves itself a truly pendulum year that divides the old from the new - recaptured here in fully living, human detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInside \u003cem\u003e1976\u003c\/em\u003e:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eSeason-by-season account of the events\u003c\/strong\u003e of this bumper year\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eStories from across the \u003cstrong\u003eUK, USA, Europe\u003c\/strong\u003e and the \u003cstrong\u003eSoviet Union\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cstrong\u003ePolitical rivalries\u003c\/strong\u003e in a Cold War era, including the early rise of \u003cstrong\u003eMargaret Thatcher\u003c\/strong\u003e and the demise of \u003cstrong\u003eHarold Wilson\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eCelebrities of the era, including \u003cstrong\u003eDavid Bowie, Sid James and the Sex Pistols, ABBA\u003c\/strong\u003e and the \u003cstrong\u003eBee Gees\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eMassive breakthroughs in criminal justice, such as the arrest of the \u003cstrong\u003eBlack Panther\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the conclusion of the case of \u003cstrong\u003epostmaster general John Stonehouse\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeaving no stone unturned and no story untold, *1976* is a book of pure nostalgia for those who lived through it, and an eyeopening experience for those who didn't: a page turner right to the end.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307282805109,"sku":"9781803999579","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781803999579_aa9e4d18-517b-430b-99d8-18a256e7ff8a.jpg?v=1786034630"},{"product_id":"9781801507578","title":"The Cricketers of 1945","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e The Cricketers of 1945\u003c\/i\u003e is the compelling, poignant, and above all human, story of the reawakening of English cricket in the immediate aftermath of the world's most destructive war.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book brings to life the summer's Victory Tests, played on home soil between England and Australia, as well as the personal stories of the players and their families, plus those of some of the hundreds of thousands of spectators who flocked to the matches to celebrate the return of something approaching normal life after the ordeal and sacrifice of the war years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis vivid account is illuminated by fresh archival research, encompassing the diaries and personal letters of both cricketers and cricket lovers, giving the reader a strong sense of what it was like to be alive at this unique time as much of the world awoke, or was still awakening, from the nightmare ordeal of the long years of conflict.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312947081589,"sku":"9781801507578","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781801507578_f328d462-ff84-4e9d-8945-1545ffbc724d.jpg?v=1786027132"},{"product_id":"1964","title":"1964","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStep back in time to 1964, a year of cultural upheaval and political transformation.\u003c\/strong\u003e From the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the United States to the global phenomenon of Beatlemania, this was the year that gave us bold fashion, unforgettable music and social change that continues to shape society across the world today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile Britain’s new Labour government promised the ‘white heat of technology’, on the world stage 1964 saw the escalation of the Vietnam War, Nelson Mandela’s sentence to life imprisonment and the continued brinkmanship of the global arms race. 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