Robert Shelton

Patrick Humphries

Elizabeth Thomson

A re-release of an unauthorized 1986 classic is based on the author's access to the iconic musical artist's family, friends and classmates, in a 70th birthday tribute that restores significant parts of the author's original manuscript, updates a selective discography and incorporates new photographs.

The Life and Music of Bob Dylan

No Direction Home

Since she stepped onstage unannounced at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Joan Baez has occupied a singular place in popular music. Within three years, she had recorded three best-selling albums and had embarked on a tour of southern US campuses, playing to integrated audiences in an era of segregation. When Time magazine chronicled the folk revival in November 1962, her portrait was on the cover. Her voice was "as lustrous and rich as old gold." She has mentored generations of singer-songwriters, most famously Bob Dylan. But Joan Baez has always been much more than simply a singer. Even before she stepped on to the podium beside Dr Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, her voice was raised in sorrow and anger as well as in song. The causes for which she has campaigned are legion and it's no surprise that she was chosen to open Live Aid in Philadelphia in 1985. In 1993, amid the siege of Bosnia, she donned a flak jacket to sing for the citizens of Sarajevo offering, as so many times before and since, "an act of love, sharing, witness and music". Now approaching 80, Baez has stepped down from the stage following a worldwide farewell tour and a final Grammy-nominated album. The Last Leaf is a celebration of a timeless figure whose music and influence will endure long after her voice is silenced.

The Last Leaf

Joan Baez

David Gutman

David Bowie was one of the most important and influential artists to emerge from the 1970s and yet he remains one of the most elusive figures in rock. This book views his career through nearly three decades of popular cultural commentary. Giving full weight to Bowie's stage and screen career as well as his music, the book includes some contemporary articles from the British and American press and material written from the benefit of hindsight. Gordon Burn offers a backstage look at The Elephant Man, Philip Norman pens a critique of Absolute Beginners, Lindsay Kemp reminisces on his years as Bowie's friend and mime teacher, Anne Rice and Jon Savage examine the question of Bowie and gender, and Craig Copetas catches a curious conversation between Bowie and William Burroughs. Other contributors include the late Marc Bolan, Michael Bracewell, Simon Frith, Pauline Kael, John Rockwell, Leslie Thomas and Ellen Willis.

Elizabeth Thomson

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