Christopher Sandford

Kurt Cobain

"Renowned mystery author Arthur Conan Doyle and famous illusionist Harry Houdini first met in 1920, during the magician's tour of England. At the time, Conan Doyle had given up his lucrative writing career, killing off Sherlock Holmes in the process, in order to concentrate on his increasingly manic interest in Spiritualism. Houdini, who regularly conducted seances in an attempt to reach his late mother, was also infatuated with the idea of what he called a "living afterlife," though his enthusiasm came to be tempered by his ability to expose fraudulent mediums, many of whom employed crude variations of his own well-known illusions. Using previously unpublished material on the murky relationship between Houdini and Conan Doyle, this sometimes macabre, sometimes comic tale tells the fascinating story of the relationship between two of the most loved figures of the 20th century and their pursuit of magic and lost loved ones"--

the strange friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini

Masters of mystery

The Real Life Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle

Man Who Would Be Sherlock

The definitive biography of Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain and all-rounder?the Oxbridge graduate and vociferous campaigner; the devout Muslim whose kaleidoscopic social life flooded the gossip columns; the man who raised $60 million for cancer research and who is now one of the most important political figures in Pakistan. On one thing, Imran Khan's friends and enemies agree: it all began with the leopard print satin trousers. In November 1974, the Cricketer International published an article about the new elite group of young talented players, "into concepts like fashion and pop music," and bent on challenging cricket's eternal stereotypes. Of the five featured stars on the cover, a superbly hirsute 21-year-old wearing a tight black shirt and gaudy trousers, with a facial expression of supreme self-confidence, stood out. Imran Khan has always been a controversial figure, a man who gives rise to hot debate on account of his strong conviction and hard line views. From his achievements on the cricket field as the Pakistan captain who captured the World Cup and the game's best all-rounder in history, through to his racy social life?the practicing Muslim boogieing on the dancefloor of Annabel's; an "astonishing lovemaker," according to one overnight partner; praised by Diana Princess of Wales, close friend to his then wife Jemima Goldsmith, as a "devoted husband"?the Imran story is full of color and contradictions. Acclaimed biographer Christopher Sandford has approached a richly varied cast list of Imran associates past and present?from Geoff Boycott, Javed Miandad, Mike Brearley, David Gower, and John Major through to Nelson Mandela and close acquaintances such as Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, John Major, Keith Richards, sources close to the late Princess of Wales, and Pakistan's General Musharraf. Imran Khan himself and his ex-wife Jemima have agreed to be interviewed for the book and given Sandford exclusive access to Imran's inner sanctum.

The Cricketer, the Celebrity, the Politician

Imran Khan

The fascinating story of John F. Kennedy's lifelong love affair with England--and how it shaped him

John F. Kennedy's Special Relationship with Great Britain

Union Jack

Born in Paris to Polish-Jewish parents, Polanski dealt with the terrors of his childhood - including internment in Auschwitz - by creating an elaborate fantasy world in which he lived as a film star. He would go on to become one of the very best and most infamous directors in Hollywood's history - with a backlist that includes Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, Tess, Frantic and, more recently, the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning The Pianist. Yet, it is within his own personal life that the most dramatic story unfolds - he's been at the centre of two of the most lurid crimes ever committed in Hollywood. In August 1969 his wife Sharon Tate, eight months pregnant, and seven of the couple's friends were butchered by the Manson family; Polanski himself, who was in London at the time, was the intended target. Eight years later he was arrested by LA police on charges of drugging and raping a 13-year old model and aspiring actress He fled the country and has since lived in exile in Paris, where he complains of continual harassment by the US authorities. Polanski's latest film was the hit Oliver Twist and, Variety insists, he promises to follow it with his long-awaited version of the Tate killings. Both projects, dealing with child exploitation and murder, can only fuel the controversy that surrounds him. This biography is the first chance his fans and detractors will have to read about him in real depth. It will reveal the brilliant invention, self-destruction, talent, self-destruction, sex, drugs and wild excesses, with names and stories told for the first time. Fascinating, flawed, wildy creative, this is the full, uncut story of one of the greatest directors of our time.

Polanski

The first full-length portrait of the Grammy Award-winning pop star chronicles his eventful career, from his fractious but fecund relationship with his former bandmates in The Police, to his campaigns on behalf of Brazil's rain forest. 25,000 first printing.

Demolition Man

Sting

This is the definitive story of the complex man behind the icon of cool.

The Biography

McQueen

The period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man. ‘A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,’ The Times 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.’ Enter Victor Lustig (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. That 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. In 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.

The Man Who Conned the World

Victor Lustig

In this compelling biography, Christopher Sandford explores the full, inside story of Kurt Cobain. From 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. The result is a saga of success and corruption which John Peel has called "the ultimate rock and roll morality story".

Drawing on previously unreleased material, a dramatic biography of one of the world's most celebrated and controversial directors describes his journey from a Krakow ghetto and Holocaust survivor to Hollywood acclaim, the murder of his wife and others by Charles Manson, his sexual assault charges and exile from the U.S., and his diverse film projects. 75,000 first printing.

A Biography

Touted by fans for his charisma and scorned by critics for his egomania, Sting is one of the most commercially successful and most controversial rock artists performing today. A schoolteacher from Newcastle, Sting soared to international fame and the top of the seventies rock charts with The Police, one of the most popular bands on the planet. After the band folded, he emerged as a solo start with hit singles, critically acclaimed albums, worldwide sell-out tours, and a host of Grammys. Yet Sting's career has been turbulent — an accomplished jazz bassist and vastly talented musician, he has been charged with playing punk and reggae for careerist convenience. He has been accused of single-handedly breaking up The Police at the peak of its rock band powers. In this updated edition of the first full-length biography of Sting, Christopher Sandford examines the substance behind the cliché: the creative disagreements — and physical violence — among The Police; the musical intelligence that produced such albums as Nothing Like the Sun and Ten Summoner's Tales; Sting's ecological campaigning and financial dealings; and his numerous sexual entanglements. Here is Sting, the legend, the man, the political activist, the performer who continues to fascinate the world.

Back on the Beat

John F. Kennedy carried on a lifelong love affair with England and the English. From his speaking style to his tastes in art, architecture, theatre, music and clothes, his personality reflected his deep affinity for a certain kind of idealised Englishness. Setting his work against a backdrop of some of the twentieth century's most profound events - the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War and its arms race - noted biographer Christopher Sandford tracks Kennedy's exploits in Great Britain between 1935 and 1963, and looks in depth at the unique way Britain shaped JFK throughout his adult life and how he in turn charmed British society.

The definitive biography of Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain and all-rounder – the Oxbridge graduate and vociferous campaigner; the devout Muslim whose kaleidoscopic social life flooded the gossip columns; the man who raised $60 million for cancer research and who is now one of the most important political figures in Pakistan.

Imran Khan: The Cricketer, The Celebrity, The Politician

When he first came before a judge in the 1960s, Keith Richards heard himself described as "a moron" and read newspaper headlines announcing UGLY LOOKS! UGLY SPEECH! UGLY MANNERS! Yet Richards's strangely flamboyant personality, filled with eccentricities and contradictions, suggested a more complex character than the "elegantly wasted" junkie who wrote and played the Rolling Stones' best-known songs. In an industry notorious for its high burnout rate, Keith Richards remains a legendary survivor. This candid look at the Rolling Stones legend is being published in conjunction with Richard's sixtieth birthday celebration. Keith Richards: Satisfaction looks at the career of a man who was as admired as he was feared. In this behind-the-scenes story, employing dozens of new sources, the author charts the life and music of the shy, half-educated boy from Dartford, the writer of pop classics like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Ruby Tuesday," and "Brown Sugar"; the kohl-eyed drug addict slumped on his mattress throne at the Ritz Hotel, and the more recently contented family man who nonetheless continues to be rock's most indomitable living practitioner. It's a hard, fast, sometimes shocking saga of a flawed but wildly creative life.

Satisfaction

Keith Richards

Based on interviews with family members, colleagues, lovers, and the previously silent William Burroughs, this unsparing yet evenhanded biography guides the reader through the many personas, crises, and musical metamorphoses of David Bowie—also known as Davy Jones, the Laughing Gnome, Major Tom, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke, a drug-addled grandfather of punk, actor, art aficionado, political activist, one of rock's most resonant icons, and a totem of modern pop culture. Nowhere else is the man and musician so convincingly deconstructed and so compellingly humanized.

Loving The Alien

Bowie

Acclaimed biographer Christopher Sandford tells the engrossing story of the unlikely friendship between British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and President John F. Kennedy, a crucial political and personal relationship during the most dangerous days of the Cold War. This is the story of the many-layered relationship between two iconic leaders of the mid-twentieth century--British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and American President John F. Kennedy. Based on previously unquoted papers and private letters between both the leaders themselves and their families, more than half of which are available for the first time, critically acclaimed biographer Christopher Sandford reveals a host of new insights into the ways these two very different men managed to bring order out of chaos in an age of precarious nuclear balance. Sandford traces the emotional undercurrents that linked Macmillan and JFK--and sometimes estranged them. The author's personalized narrative delves into the maneuverings behind the scenes of major political events: dealing with the disastrous Bay of Pigs episode in Cuba, responding to the provocative Soviet act of building the Berlin Wall, the tense back-and-forth consultations during the Cuban missile crisis, and the serious disagreement between the two allies over the Skybolt nuclear deterrent, which almost caused a major rift in US-British relations. Also presented are vivid portraits of the two first ladies and many extracts from personal papers that reveal the human factor rarely glimpsed by the public. With a wealth of new information in an engaging narrative, this book offers a vividly told historical account of two key figures of twentieth-century history, whose legacy helped shape our world today.

The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy

Harold and Jack

Exactly fifty years ago, a young director named Roman Polanski made his first completed film - a two-minute student exercise which he calledMurder. In the half-century since, Polanski has become an iconic figure, widely admired for his mordant, sexually charged films and yet derided as - in his own words - 'an evil, profligate dwarf'. In January 1978, facing a possible fifty-year sentence for 'unlawful sexual intercourse' with a 13-year-old girl, Polanski fled the United States and flew to France, where he was a naturalized citizen. Thirty years later, he remains in exile: the much reveredeminencegriseof filmmakers and a criminal fugitive who complains of harrassement by the US authorities Others have told pieces of this story, but Christopher Sandford brings it all together in one lucid, gripping account, beginning with Polanski's horrific experience in the Holocaust and ending with his current life in Paris, where he provides a 'living symbol of Franco-American misunderstanding.' The book draws on dozens of interviews with actors, writers and other Polanski collaborators, previously sealed transcripts of his criminal hearings, testimony before the California grand jury and the graphic evidence of former lovers and friends. There is a wealth of unpublished material, too, on what Polanski has called the 'central tragedy' of his life - the brutal murder of his wife Sharon Tate and others by members of the so-called Manson Family - an event which, for sheer savagery, rivals anything in modern criminal history. Amidst the personal tragedy, the focus is also on the professional triumph. Polanski's films are seen here anew, with behind-the-scenes stories on everything from 1962'sKnifein the Waterto 2005'sOliver Twist. We follow the director through the backstage feuds ofRosemary's BabyandChinatown, his unflinching version ofMacbeth, described by one critic as a 'film exorcism' in the wake of the Manson murders, and his Holocaust masterpieceThe Pianist, which won Polanski his first and only Oscar. The generally downbeat themes - betrayal, corruption, satanic worship - are vintage Polanski, but there is also a lighter, knockabout side: this is the man who gave usTheFearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me but Your Teeth Are in My Neck. Fascinating, flawed, wildly creative, the 'world's most notorious artist' is seen here in full.

In 1962 Mick Jagger was a bright, well-scrubbed boy (planning a career in the civil service), while Keith Richards was learning how to smoke and to swivel a six-shooter. Add the mercurial Brian Jones (who'd been effectively run out of Cheltenham for theft, multiple impregnations and playing blues guitar) and the wryly opinionated Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, and the potential was obvious. During 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 they are now approaching their seventies and, in 2012, will have been together for 50 years. In The Rolling Stones, Christopher Sandford tells thehuman 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. Like no other book before The Rolling Stoneswill make 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.

Christopher Sandford

About

Books

Join the club