Death of a Lioness

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in Amy Winehouse, Music

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Death of a Lioness: Amy Winehouse 1983 – 2011

In late 2003, I was thirty-one, and living in a council house in Derby with my husband and two sons, a three-year old and a six-month-old baby. One afternoon, in the kitchen, I heard a song called ‘Take the Box’ on the radio, and was instantly transported to the streets of my not-so-distant past.

“Your neighbours were screaming
I don’t have a key for downstairs
So I punched all the buzzers
Hoping you wouldn’t be there…”

The soaring voice of Amy Winehouse, set to a jazz background, set me wondering. I’d loved torch singers ever since I discovered Billie Holiday in my teens. Continue reading →

‘Black Dahlia and White Rose’

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Books, Fiction, History, Marilyn Monroe

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L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories

L.A. Noire is styled like a detective movie of the 1940s. Aesthetically, it pays homage to film noir, while adapting new technologies like real-time action and multiple camera angles. Set in post-war Los Angeles, it also features a jazz soundtrack. Publication of an e-book of eight short stories by some of the world’s leading writers – in genres ranging from literary to pulp fiction – was announced in May. Each piece is set in 1947, the same year that casino owner Bugsy Siegel  and Elizabeth Short (‘The Black Dahlia’) were murdered. Continue reading →