{"title":"Books by Tony Nicholson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781914227363","title":"The Squire of Knotty Ash and his Lady","description":"This book, thanks to Ken’s wife, Lady Dodd, gives the first ever in-depth account of his astonishing story, and unravels ‘the other Ken Dodd’ – the fascinating, kind and complicated private man with whom she spent her life.   Sir Ken Dodd was a national institution. He worked tirelessly as one Britain’s most popular comedians for a staggering seven decades. His five hour stage shows were legendary, and he was still performing these hilarious theatrical marathons right up to the age of ninety.   Ken was the comedian’s comedian. Fellow pros idolised him and looked up to him as the guv’nor. He was also a talented ballad singer, and enjoyed a hugely successful chart-topping career in the 1960s. In fact his was the only name, apart from The Beatles, to appear in the top five best-selling singles of that iconic pop music decade.   Despite his nationwide fame and his crazy, larger-than-life stage persona, he was actually a very private person, away from the limelight. A quiet, well-read, deeply religious thinker. He consciously separated ‘the two Ken Dodds’, as he referred to them, and always declined to cooperate with biographers, in order to keep the private Ken Dodd just that – private.   This book, thanks to Ken’s wife, Lady Dodd, gives his many fans the first ever in-depth account of his astonishing story, and unravels ‘the other Ken Dodd’ – the fascinating, kind and complicated private man with whom she spent her life. If you liked Ken Dodd you will love this book. It will undoubtedly surprise and delight you.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43205640126642,"sku":"9781914227363","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57685784887669,"sku":"9781914227004","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781914227363.jpg?v=1792598971"},{"product_id":"9781914227486","title":"Great British TV Quiz Shows","description":"We all love a quiz. It's virtually impossible to hear a quiz question without blurting the answer out loud, if you happen to know it. We spend our lives accumulating useless facts, information and trivia, most of which just sits quietly in our brains gathering dust, so it's very gratifying to be able to answer quiz questions and prove all that learning wasn't a complete waste of time.   Right from the birth of commercial television, in the mid-1950s, quiz shows have been a staple of the nation's TV viewing habits. People of a certain age will remember Hughie Green's Double Your Money and Michael Miles with Take Your Pick, but, seven decades later, quiz shows are still going strong - The Chase and Pointless being two hugely successful current examples. The programmes have become more sophisticated and glitzy, the prizes have become bigger and better, but, ultimately, they are still rooted in the very simple premise of a question being asked and a person answering it either correctly or incorrectly, leading to reward or forfeit.   This fascinating, amusing and well-researched book is a personal and affectionate guide to the evolution of the TV quiz show, through all the many changes over the years, leading to the ultimate game-changer, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The book doesn't stop there, but it does give a detailed insider's view of the most important quiz show ever created.   Readers will wallow in nostalgia reading about Bullseye, Sale Of The Century and Blockbusters, and they will learn surprising facts about all the many quizzes we have watched over the years. Did you know that the format for BBC TV's Mastermind was based on its creator's experiences of wartime interrogation by The Gestapo?","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205855445170,"sku":"9781914227486","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781914227486.jpg?v=1786030562"},{"product_id":"9781914227899","title":"From Bournville to Broadway","description":"It's no exaggeration to say Laurie Mansfield has been one of the main architects of modern showbusiness. He has been talent manager and agent to some of the biggest names in UK entertainment - Ronnie Corbett, Cilla Black, Michael Crawford, Shirley Bassey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jim Davidson, Cannon \u0026amp; Ball, Cleo Laine, Peters \u0026amp; Lee, Basil Brush, Tommy Steele, Mike Yarwood - the list goes on and on. He has also been responsible for some hugely successful West End musicals, most notably Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Dreamboats \u0026amp; Petticoats, and Jolson. His astonishing career spans six decades during a time when entertainment has gone through more changes than at any other time in showbusiness history.   He mentored other young talent managers who worked for him, allowing his company, International Artists, to keep up with an ever-changing industry, by representing the next generation of comedians, like Paul Merton, Alan Davies, Julian Clary, Shane Ritchie and Brian Conley.   Laurie, as Life President of the Royal Variety Charity, has regularly played host to senior members of the Royal Family at the annual Royal Variety Performance, including Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William and King Charles.   As you can imagine he has a wealth of great stories about his glittering career in showbusiness, and the sometimes tricky stars he has had to deal with.   He has had to be a showbiz chameleon, rubbing shoulders with the highbrow musical elite and Royalty one minute, and painting the town red with Jim Davidson the next. And along the way smoothing the ruffled feathers of countless temperamental artists, not to mention Rod Hull's Emu!He started his career as a junior office boy for Cadbury in Bournville, Birmingham, and ended up as one of the chief architects of entertainment in the UK for sixty years. The pinnacle of his success, he says, was the day his personal brainchild Buddy (the musical) opened on Broadway. Hence the title of this book.   It tells the incredible story of an ordinary unambitious boy from the Midlands, with no showbusiness background whatsoever, conquering the world of entertainment on a global scale. This is Laurie Mansfield's story, and the inside stories of the many stars he has looked after.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308812611957,"sku":"9781914227899","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781914227899_02b72215-88c9-4bb9-a191-cb0cd9e9a1df.jpg?v=1786030588"},{"product_id":"9781527216365","title":"The Love of Dangerous Men","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn enormous bird’s nest is found in the attic. Hundreds of photographs and letters are tangled in its straw. The first letter begins: ‘\u003cem\u003eWell dear friend, I note all you said about Mr Bowen and that vile woman.\u003c\/em\u003e’ When Tony Nicholson and his family moved into an old house in the north of England, they discovered a treasure trove of old photographs and letters, all belonging to a mysterious woman called Annie Bowen. Who was she? And what was her story? Back Tony went to the Victorian era to find out. Soon, he found himself in Calcutta and the dark streets of Whitechapel, tracking her lover. Peeling back the layers of her story, he uncovered a lost world of moonlight dances, country vicarages and teenage ‘spooning’. In London, there were sensational spectacles, professors of swimming and illusions, glamorous dressmakers, nights at the music hall, reckless cab-drivers and drunken sailors. A rich array of vivid characters came and went - loafers and swells, impoverished aristocrats, Victorian Bluebeards, pretty barmaids and saucy actresses. And through it all, the tangled web of Annie’s life was gradually unpicked. There were illicit affairs, family secrets and scandals, fading photographs and deceitful letters. Moving from one astonishing place to another, and tracking down her descendants across the globe, Tony encountered her lovers and rivals, her friends and family, the places in her world and the secrets of her life. \u003cem\u003eThe Love of Dangerous Men \u003c\/em\u003eis a vivid social history that tells the story of ordinary lives lived in extraordinary ways.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312562450805,"sku":"9781527216365","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781527216365_7fdf31fa-e3dd-436f-bc45-71fc70e42785.jpg?v=1786022307"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-tony-nicholson.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}