My impression of Sir Laurence Olivier is a sort of vague one of him playing Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, or declaiming Shakespeare effortlessly. Either that or I associate him with Vivien Leigh, to whom he was married for several years.…
Category: Entertainment
Fascinating trip down memory lane of advertising
Sell, by Hazel Phillips (Penguin, RRP $45): Advertising plays a big role in our memories of growing up and this book looks at how New Zealand’s advertising industry has grown up with us. Subtitled “tall tales from the legends of…
Well-tuned mix of Kiwi songs
On Song: Stories Behind New Zealand’s Pop Classics, by Simon Sweetman (Penguin, RRP $65): Every song has a story to tell and New Zealand’s pop classics are full of great stories. Freelance music writer and Stuff blogger Simon Sweetman had…
Fresh insight into gifted Cohen
I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen By Sylvie Simmons (Johnathan Cape, RRP $38): Leonard Cohen is many things to many people: a poet, a prophet, singer, songwriter, author, peacemaker and all-round good bloke. Cohen has been touring the…
Memoir tells of turbulent past
This is a Call: the life and times of Dave Grohl, by Paul Brannigan (HarperCollins, RRP $40): Back in 1990, when Dave Grohl joined a little-known band as the new drummer, few people would have expected the band was about…
Hard rocker plays it straight now
No Regrets: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, by Ace Frehley, with Joe Layden and John Ostrosky (Simon & Schuster, RRP $40): You probably know the name better than you know the face. In fact, it’s safe to say that at…
Author pronounces on happiness and stuff
Seriously . . . I’m Kidding, by Ellen Degeneres (HarperCollins, RRP $40): I missed all the Ellen excitement when she first hit our screens back in the 1990s, because I worked nights and didn’t really watch a lot of television…
Pegg’s humour shines through
Nerd Do Well, by Simon Pegg (Century, RRP $39.99): Quirky British comedian Simon Pegg has tried his hand at writing and the result is an autobiography that feels like the perfect mix of professional overview and personal emotion. Pegg is…
New insights but no juicy gossip
What Was I Thinking: A Memoir, by Paul Henry (Random House, RRP $40): There’s no denying personality Paul Henry has a knack for grabbing headlines and stirring controversy, but he also has a knack for being interesting. And funny –…
Sleeping Dogs and other fine stories
Mune: An Autobiography, by Ian Mune (Craig Potton Publishing, RRP $49.99): Ian Mune is something of the elder statesman of acting here in New Zealand, with a pedigree that covers film, television and theatre. In this autobiography, the actor, writer…