**INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE MONTH** **GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY** **FINANCIAL TIMES 'BEST SUMMER BOOKS 2022' PICK** 'Incredibly moving.' - Guardian 'Entertaining.' - Telegraph 'Most books about pop stars focus on the way we turn average human beings into demi-gods. In writing a book about how they have to turn back into humans Nick Duerden has done both us and them a service.' - David Hepworth 'Funny, poignant and often inspirational.' - Mat Osman The desire for adulation is a light that never goes out. We live in a culture obsessed by the notion of fame - the heedless pursuit of it; the almost obligatory subsequent fallout. But what's it like to actually achieve it, and what happens when fame abruptly passes, and shifts, as it does, onto someone else? This is the point at which pop stars are at their most heroic, because they don't give up. They keep on striving, keep making music, and refuse simply to ebb away. Some sustain themselves on the nostalgia circuit, others continue to beaver away in the studio, no longer Abbey Road, perhaps, so much as the garden shed. But all of them, in their own individual ways, still dare to dream. Exit Stage Left features tales of drug addiction, bankruptcy, depression and divorce, but also of optimism, a genuine love of the craft, humility and hope. This is a candid, laugh-out-loud and occasionally shocking look at what happens when the brightest stars fall back down to earth. 'Exit Stage Left is the book I've long wanted to read about the PTSD-like after-effects of pop stardom - and Nick Duerden is the perfect writer for the job. The pop star's bittersweet lot is represented with flair and empathy.' - Pete Paphides, author of Broken Greek 'Exit Stage Left is a funny and poignant book, drawing on Duerden's considerable experience as a journalist and interviewer . . . he understands what motivates this strange bunch of people.' - Andy Miller, Spectator 'Fame is the brightest candle, but in this brilliant collection of interviews, Nick Duerden answers the question: what does a candle do after it's burned out?' - David Quantick 'Duerden finds fascinating layers of humanity, pathos, humour and wisdom in equal measure. A brilliant book, for artists and fans alike.' - Frank Turner Featuring brand new interviews with the likes of: Bob Geldof, Shaun Ryder, Robbie Williams, Roisin Murphy, Stewart Copeland, Billy Bragg, Wendy James, Alex Kapranos, Joan Armatrading, Leo Sayer, Gary Lightbody, Lisa Maffia, Tim Booth, Bill Drummond, Rufus Wainwright, David Gray, and Justin Hawkins.

2019 GLAAD Media Award Winner for Outstanding Comic Book Drama! Comedy! Tragedy! For the renowned Southern playwright called Snagglepuss, these are the ingredients that have made him a star of the New York stage and the glittering world that surrounds it. But the year is 1953, and behind the bright lights, darkness is brewing. Snagglepuss is gay... and his enemies are out to destroy him for it. As Snagglepuss prepares for his next hit play, there's already a target on his back. The Red Scare is in full effect, and the House Un-American Activities Committee is hunting down every last subversive in show business. So far, Snagglepuss has stayed out of their spotlight. One by one, his best friends are being blackballed, from legends like Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker to his fellow Southern gentleman Huckleberry Hound. Can Snagglepuss' reputation survive the rampage of the right wing long enough for him to stage his next masterpiece? One thing's for sure: the show must go on! Hot off his surprise-hit reimagining of The Flintstones, writer Mark Russell joins artist Mike Feehan to unleash the fire and fury of his sharp-witted political satire in Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles--a powerful look at what it means to be an American, no matter who or what you are. Collects Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #1-6, plus a Snagglepuss story from Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Special #1.

It’s 1953. While the United States is locked in a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, the gay Southern playwright known as Snagglepuss is the toast of Broadway. But success has made him a target. As he plans for his next hit play, Snagglepuss becomes the focus of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. And when powerful forces align to purge show business of its most subversive voices, no one is safe! Drama! Humor! Tragedy! It all starts in Exit Stage LEFT: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #1, a new miniseries from the writer who brought you the Flintstones.

In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. That lack of direction lead him on a 5

The author takes you from the marvelous memories of her early childhood to the realities that she faced in adulthood. For fifty-one years, from the ages of eleven to sixty-two, she fought waves of suicidal thinking to come out on top. While six months pregnant with her first child, she was hospitalized for something that kept her awake for seven consecutive days and nights. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder (mania) followed. Finally, after forty-two years, she triumphantly overcame her psychosis. She tells you her inside story and the tools she discovered to conquer all her challenges. Her life of joy and purpose is what she wants to share with you today.

Detective Chief Inspector Brock investigates the murder of a well-known actor When the body of Lancelot Foley, a well-known actor, is discovered in an excavation in a fashionable Chelsea street one snowy February morning, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Brock is assigned the case. Is the dead man’s wife, fellow actress Vanessa Drummond, as innocent as she would like the police to believe? As Brock – aided by Detective Sergeant Dave Poole and Kate Ebdon, his Australian-born detective inspector – investigates, the case takes him from London to Paris, and there will be more than one death before the shocking case is solved.

Charlie Sparks brought a whole new meaning to dying on stage... Charlie Sparks had it all. A former primetime television personality, his outdated style has seen him relegated to the scrapheap. When he collapses and dies during a stand-up routine at a local pub, mysterious bystander Kempston Hardwick is compelled to investigate his suspicious death. As Hardwick begins to unravel the mystery, he quickly comes to realise that Charlie Sparks's death throws up more peculiar questions than answers.