{"title":"Books by Craig Brown","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780008340032","title":"One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eWINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020SHORTLISTED for the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners awardA Spectator Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Times Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Telegraph Book of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Sunday Times Book of the YearFrom the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four.John Updike compared them to ‘the sun coming out on an Easter morning’. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them ‘little sissies’. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, ‘Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.’One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher.From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201234501810,"sku":"9780008340032","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008340032.jpg?v=1785658808"},{"product_id":"9780007360642","title":"One on One","description":"\u003cp\u003e101 chance meetings, juxtaposing the famous and the infamous, the artistic and the philistine, the pompous and the comical, the snobbish and the vulgar, told by Britain’s funniest writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife is made up of humans meeting one another. They speak, or don’t speak. They get on, or fall out. They laugh, they cry, are excited, are indifferent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne on One is a chain of 101 extraordinary but true encounters, from Tolstoy rumbling Tchaikovsky in 1876 to George Galloway baiting Michael Barrymore in 2006. The Royal Family giggle at T.S. Eliot, Walter Sickert draws the curtains on the carol-singing Edward Heath, Youssoupoff assassinates Rasputin, Marilyn Monroe commissions Frank Lloyd Wright.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCircular in its construction, panoramic in its breadth, One on One is a book like no other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Brown’s glorious book is an original and a complete delight’Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times, Books of the Year\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56220259385717,"sku":"9780007360642","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007360642_9ce8603c-9c82-48b7-a6b3-33de8d6d4f40.jpg?v=1785658609"},{"product_id":"9780008203634","title":"Ma’am Darling","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize, the funny and tragic, bestselling biography of The Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret. Perfect for fans of Netflix’s The Crown.A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR‘I honked so loudly the man sitting next to me dropped his sandwich’ ObserverShe made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando clam up. She cold-shouldered Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine and Pablo Picasso lusted over her. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. Ma’am Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a kaleidoscopic biography, and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.'Jaw-dropping' The Times'Hilarious' Sunday Telegraph'Brilliant' Evening Standard'A masterpiece' Country Life\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56221126689141,"sku":"9780008203634","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008203634_92f9f93a-63f6-42ac-a423-25edf78f21e3.jpg?v=1785658861"},{"product_id":"9780008557447","title":"Haywire","description":"\u003cp\u003e‘Our greatest living satirist’ \u003cem\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The most screamingly funny living writer’ \u003cem\u003eMail on Sunday \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the bestselling and award-winning author of \u003cem\u003eMa'am Darling\u003c\/em\u003e and\u003cem\u003e One Two Three Four\u003c\/em\u003e, a selection of Craig Brown's finest writing collected together for the first time.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eHaywire\u003c\/em\u003e presents a survival guide to the 21st century.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe acclaimed biographer of Princess Margaret and The Beatles considers such diverse topics as gloves, outer space, the Marx Brothers, Richard Dawkins, Hitler’s hair, John Stonehouse, Katie Price, tongue-twisters, Bruce Springsteen, Harry and Meghan, Stanley Spencer, Brian Epstein, Downton Abbey, Sigmund Freud and Karl Lagerfeld’s cat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the full battery of the humourist's armoury – clerihews, tongue twisters, whimsy, parody, farce, satire, social observation, nonsense – Brown skewers the fads and delusions of the contemporary world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685834989941,"sku":"9780008557485","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56221699309941,"sku":"9780008557447","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008557485.jpg?v=1792599041"},{"product_id":"9780008557492","title":"A Voyage Around the Queen","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BEST MEMOIR OF 2024 …\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'GENIUS 'A BOOK OF THE YEAR for the SPECTATOR, MAIL ON SUNDAY, NEW STATESMAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY EXPRES Sand THE TABLET.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning author of One Two Three Four and Ma'am Darling turns his attention to Queen Elizabeth II in an unforgettable and fascinating biography.'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA crown jewel among royal biographies' OBSERVER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Extraordinarily original, enlightening and fresh’ SPECTATOR\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Absolutely fascinating' Ruth Langsford, LOOSE WOMEN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'A very unusual masterpiece' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Brilliantly funny and well-researched' FINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVirginia Woolf compared her to a caterpillar; Anne Frank kept pictures of her on the wall of her annex; Jimi Hendrix played her tune; Haile Selassie gave her a gold tiara; Dirk Bogarde watched Death in Venice with her; Andy Warhol envied her fame; Donald Trump offended her; E.M. Forster confessed he would have married her, if only she had been a boy. Queen Elizabeth II was famous for longer than anyone who has ever lived. When people spoke of her, they spoke of themselves; when they dreamed of her, they dreamed of themselves. She mirrored their hopes and anxieties. To the optimist, she seemed an optimist; to the pessimist, a pessimist; to the awestruck, charismatic; and to the cynical, humdrum. Though by nature reserved and unassuming, her presence could fill presidents and rock gods with terror. For close to a century, she inhabited the psyche of a nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining biography, essays, cultural history, dream diaries, travelogue and satire, the bestselling and award-winning author of Ma'am Darling and One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this most public yet private of sovereigns.–'An unconventional tribute that offers a snapshot of almost a century of social history with a mix of royal insanity, and superior anecdotes, from farts and corgis to Paul McCartney and poets laureate' THE TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024'An enthralling reverie on memory, identity, coincidence and meaning – testing, teasing, charming, moving and deceptively wise' RORY STEWART\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘An entertaining and revealing digest … fascinating …\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCraig Brown has captured something essential about Britain’s curious relationship with royalty’TLS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Completely and utterly brilliant and exquisitely funny and fascinating. This book is, dare I say, majestic. Craig Brown has no peers – I would curtsey to him if I met him' MARINA HYDE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Wonderfully readable … At once sympathetic but clear-eyed, kind but sharp' NEW STATESMAN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Brown is as sharp and dryly funny as his subject 'EVENING STANDARD\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'You wouldn’t think the world needed another book about Queen Elizabeth – but how wrong you’d be. Craig Brown’s wholly original and enthralling biography is absolute heaven from start to finish’ INDIA KNIGHT\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Craig Brown continues to reinvent the art of biography… utterly fascinating' JASON COWLEY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCraig Brown's book One Two Three Four won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685680456053,"sku":"9780008557539","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56221802889589,"sku":"9780008557492","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008557539.jpg?v=1792598825"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-craig-brown.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}