{"title":"Books by Sylvia Patterson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780349727455","title":"Same Old Girl","description":"\u003cb\u003e'There's no mistaking the writing of Sylvia Patterson' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow does the big stuff in life truly change us?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In late 2019, Sylvia Patterson was a celebrated pop journalist, still merrily writing about the musical greats. But with the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease, a global pandemic and the collapse of her industry, life was about to take a drastic turn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was a misadventure that would teach her many things. The power of friendship, the shock of mortality and what happens when love is tested. How a walk in the park, a spontaneous dance and a TV hero can save your life. How your perspective can shift on everything, from work, family and music, to what truly makes you happy. And what really happens when your body, never mind your kitchen, falls apart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The follow-up to the Costa-shortlisted \u003ci\u003eI'm Not with the Band\u003c\/i\u003e, this is Sylvia's unflinching, poignant and gallows-funny odyssey through the mid-life trials we all face, as she tries to answer the big question: would it all change her, or would she stay that same old girl?","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128913690802,"sku":"9780349727455","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349727455.jpg?v=1786013518"},{"product_id":"9780751558708","title":"I'm Not with the Band","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDON'T MISS SYLVIA PATTERSON'S BRAND NEW MEMOIR, SAME OLD GIRL, COMING SPRING 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2016 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Celebratory and elegiac' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A roller-coaster memoir' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Funny, anecdote-packed, nostalgic but also very touching'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Pool\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Patterson fillets out the pretentious bones of pop, leaving its glistening meat' \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis is a three-decade survivor's tale . . . a scenic search for elusive human happiness through music, magazines, silly jokes, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003estupid shoes, useless blokes, hopeless homes, booze, drugs, love, loss, A\u0026amp;E, death, disillusion and hope.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1986, Sylvia Patterson boarded a train to London armed with a tea-chest full of vinyl records, a peroxide quiff and a dream: to write about music, for ever. She got her wish.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Escaping a troubled home, Sylvia embarks on a lifelong quest to discover The Meaning of It All. The problem is she's mostly hanging out with flaky pop stars, rock 'n' roll heroes and unreliable hip-hop legends. As she encounters music's biggest names, she is confronted by glamour and tragedy; wisdom and lunacy; drink, drugs and disaster. And Bros.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Here is \u003cb\u003eMadonna\u003c\/b\u003e in her Earth Mother phase, flinging her hands up in horror at one of Sylv's Very Stupid Questions. \u003cb\u003ePrince\u003c\/b\u003e compliments her shoes while \u003cb\u003eEminem\u003c\/b\u003e threatens to kill her. She shares fruit with \u003cb\u003eJohnny Cash\u003c\/b\u003e, make-up with \u003cb\u003eAmy Winehouse\u003c\/b\u003e and several pints with the Manics' lost soul-man \u003cb\u003eRichey Edwards\u003c\/b\u003e. She finds the \u003cb\u003eBeckhams \u003c\/b\u003efragrant in LA, a \u003cb\u003eGallagher \u003c\/b\u003emadferrit in her living room and \u003cb\u003eShaun Ryder\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eBez\u003c\/b\u003e as you'd expect, in Jamaica.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e From the 80s to the present day, \u003ci\u003eI'm Not with the Band \u003c\/i\u003eis a funny, barmy, utterly gripping chronicle of the last thirty years in music and beyond. It is also the story of one woman's wayward search for love, peace and a wonderful life. And whether, or not, she found them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311904993653,"sku":"9780751558708","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780751558708_24297e1c-13b6-47a1-9693-316e031ce107.jpg?v=1786016429"},{"product_id":"9780349728070","title":"I'm Not With the Man","description":"Whatever happened to the weirdos? The rock'n'roll rebels? The children of The Revolution who not so much raged against The Man as barely acknowledged the concept of authority? Like vividly plumed birds of paradise whose habitat is gone, they're practically extinct. In their place? The communal voice of the on-trend musical activist, forever saying and doing The Right Thing. The opposite, in fact, of what we used to know as the free-wheelin' rock 'n' roll nutter...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sylvia Patterson remembers them. The freaks, geeks and oddballs who picked up microphones and instruments not to become rich or famous but because they were too mad (or unemployable) to do anything else. The true radicals and loose cannon lunatics who pandered to zero PC tropes, and even less societal rules, determined to live their \u003ci\u003eworst\u003c\/i\u003e lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI'm Not With The Man\u003c\/i\u003e is the freaky flipside to her award-winning memoir \u003ci\u003eI'm Not With The Band\u003c\/i\u003e, celebrating the era of 'the rock 'n' roll nutter' through her own encounters with some of music's most uncompromising mavericks. From a cursing Adam Ant to a formidable Chrissie Hynde, from a carousing Liam Gallagher to a coruscating Sinead O'Connor, from a comedy Wu Tang Clan to an unrepentant Marianne Faithfull, from a fragile Evan Dando to a furious Thom Yorke... and many, many more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hilarious, revealing and poignant, \u003ci\u003eI'm Not With The Man\u003c\/i\u003e is a farewell fanfare to the heroically unhinged, who lived on the edge of not only society but their own precarious sanity. Deliberately. We will not see their like again.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56367993127285,"sku":"9780349728070","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682655052149,"sku":"9780349728094","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349728070_d07ad8a0-0645-4049-9b29-eafe63fee3e2.jpg?v=1792511562"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-sylvia-patterson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}