Administrator
Tuesday, 28 February 2012 12:25
Plexus Secure Rights for New Whitney Houston Biography
Plexus have secured the UK rights for a new biography of the late Whitney Houston, whose sudden death from an alcohol and prescription drug overdose on 11 February 2012 – aged only 48 – sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry and left millions of fans mourning the loss of the iconic and once ubiquitous superstar.
Author Mark Bego, described by Publisher’s Weekly as the “number-one bestselling pop biographer”, was the first writer ever to publish a biography of Huston back in 1986. He has written 58 books on rock’n’roll and show business, including a 1984 biography of Michael Jackson – entitled Michael! – that sold three million copies in the United States alone. Having followed her career since the very beginning, he is perfectly placed to tell Whitney’s story.
You can pre-order the book from Amazon here. A more detailed description of the book can be read below:
Whitney Houston was one of the biggest and most influential stars of the past 30 years. Her list of chart-topping songs, from “Saving All My Love for You” to “I Will Always Love You,” provided the soundtrack for a generation. And films like The Bodyguard, Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife turned her into a global sensation.
Whitney was born into music royalty: her mother, Grammy Award-winning soul and gospel singer, Cissy Houston; her cousin, the incomparable Dionne Warwick; and her godmother, the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin. Gifted with a voice like no other, Whitney was always destined for greatness, and in the hands of music industry legend Clive Davis, she was groomed for superstardom.
However, after more than a decade of astonishing success, Whitney’s life began to unravel. Behind the scenes, a nightmare of pills, drugs and liquor eroded her health, her looks, and her once-glorious voice. No one could have predicted that America’s Sweetheart would fall so far, so fast.
New York Times best-selling author Mark Bego traces Whitney’s spectacular rise and fall, recounting Whitney’s journey from background singer, to model, to Grammy-winning recording artist, to movie star. He chronicles her slow decline, beginning with her controversial marriage to singer Bobby Brown, her storming 2009 comeback, and her tragic end in February 2012.
Published in
News
Tagged under
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 15:47
Publication of "Guide to the Hunger Games" and "Beyond District 12: The Stars of the Hunger Games"
The Hunger Games – the long-awaited Hollywood adaptation of the first book in author Suzanne Collins’s multi-million-selling Young Adult trilogy – is released in cinemas on 23 March 2012.
Plexus publish two books that are essential reading for fans of the film and book series. Guide to the Hunger Games by Caroline Carpenter is a comprehensive guide to the world of Panem and the characters who inhabit it, covering all three books in the series. Written by a Hunger Games fan, for Hunger Games fans, it features:
Illuminating profiles of the trilogy’s main players
In-depth coverage of the 74th and 75th Hunger Games
Beautiful, original illustrations and detailed maps
Mind-bending quizzes, crosswords and tests to determine your own strategy for winning the Hunger Games
A collection of thought-provoking fact boxes, uncovering the literary and historical sources that inspired Collins’s work
You can order Guide to the Hunger Games from Amazon here .
Beyond District 12: The Stars of the Hunger Games by Mick O’Shea is a glossily illustrated three-in-one biography of the stars of the forthcoming Hunger Games film, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Featuring over 100 full-colour photographs, plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip, and detailing exactly how Jennifer, Josh and Liam got where they are today, this book tells you everything you need to know about the young stars bringing Katniss, Peeta and Gale to life onscreen.
You can order Beyond District 12 from Amazon here.
Watch the trailer for The Hunger Games here.
Published in
News
Friday, 27 January 2012 15:46
Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game Author Mick O'Shea Interviewed On Resonance FM
Click here to listen to Mick O'Shea, author of Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game, being interviewed by Henry Scott-Irvine of London's Resonance FM. Mick discusses Amy's life and music, and chooses some of his favourite tracks from Amy's posthumous album, Lioness: Hidden Treasures.
You can order Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game from Amazon here.
Published in
News
Tagged under
Monday, 21 November 2011 14:40
Digitally Remastered Edition of "No One Here Gets Out Alive"
Plexus are set to release a digitally remastered edition of No One Here Gets Out Alive. A former New York Times number-one bestseller, this acclaimed biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison was adapted by director Oliver Stone for his 1991 film The Doors, which starred Val Kilmer as Morrison.
Written by Jerry Hopkins, a veteran Rolling Stone journalist and author who interviewed Morrison on multiple occasions, and Danny Sugerman, a long-time confidant of Morrison’s, No One Here Gets Out Alive is the definitive account of Morrison’s life and death, and upon its original publication in 1980 was the first music biography ever to become an international bestseller. There are now more than two million copies of the book in print.
As well as an updated Discography and Film and Book lists, the forthcoming digitally remastered edition of the book features restored and enhanced photographs, a new Foreword by Danny Sugerman, an Epilogue by Jerry Hopkins and an Afterword by poet Michael McClure (who was a good friend of Morrison’s during his lifetime).
For a more detailed description of the book, see below:
Jim Morrison — singer, philosopher, poet, delinquent — is here in all his complexity, the brilliant and the obsessive disciple of darkness who rejected authority and probed ‘the bounds of reality to see what would happen’. Jim Morrison was lead singer of the Doors, one of the most popular and controversial rock groups of the late sixties.
Worshipped by the fans, hated by the establishment, hounded by the media, Morrison stood for all the unpredictable and forbidden excitement that youth dreamed of. No One Here Gets Out Alive strips bare the facts from the fantasies of his life and mysterious death in Paris in 1971, exposing the myth-maker who was both hailed as a poet of the counter culture and reviled as a corruptor of youth.
The authors are uniquely qualified to write this modern tragedy; Jerry Hopkins is an experienced rock writer and author of the best-selling Presley biography Elvis, Daniel Sugerman is a long-time Doors expert and a confidant of Jim Morrison during the singer’s lifetime. Together they tell the story of a reckless genius who shot like a rocket through the musical sky and fell into burning fragments as his life finally went out of control.
Buy it from Amazon now!
Published in
Forthcoming Titles
Friday, 04 November 2011 10:52
A Sneak Peak Inside "Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game"
Click on the above image for a sneak peak inside Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game by Mick O'Shea. You can pre-order the book from Amazon here.
Published in
Forthcoming Titles
Tuesday, 01 November 2011 13:43
Amy Winehouse: Announcement of Posthumous Album and Publication of "Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game"
It has been announced that Island Records will release a posthumous album of Amy Winehouse material, entitled Lioness: Hidden Treasures, on 5 December 2011. Comprising cover versions, demos, new songs, and reinterpretations of previously released material, the album features 12 tracks chosen by Winehouse's long-time producers and collaborators Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, and according to her label is "faithful to her legacy".
One of the new tracks, "Between the Cheats", described by the Guardian as a "big and brassy song", is thought to be about her ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil. "Tears Dry" a slowed-down version of the Back to Black-era single "Tears Dry on Their Own", sees Amy make “a direct connection with the listener”, according to Remi. While “Like Smoke” a collaboration with New York rapper Nas, and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, a cover of the ’60s Shirelles classic, are also featured.
Amy Winehouse: A Losing Game, a richly illustrated biography of Winehouse by Mick O’Shea, is forthcoming from Plexus. You can pre-order the book from Amazon here. A more detailed description of the book can be read below:
Pint-sized, acid-tongued and velvet-voiced, Amy Winehouse was more than just the Queen of Camden. Within an industry of pretenders, Amy was the ‘real deal’ – a uniquely gifted artist who remained true to herself till the end. Channelling the soulful divas of the 1960s, her timeless anthems of heartbreak – laced with a healthy dose of the songstresses’s own street-smart sass – touched the hearts and minds of millions.
Laying bare drunken misadventures, her rocky romance with Blake Fielder-Civil and the deepening addiction she simply couldn’t seem to shake, Amy’s brutally honest lyrics won her hearts and awards alike. Yet, as sales of Back to Black (the stunning sophomore album that made her a star) soared, the deadly excess that fuelled her talent was threatening to consume it once and for all. By July 2011, it seemed Amy had turned a corner, determined to stay clean for the sake of all those who loved her. The world waited eagerly for Amy’s comeback album – only to be cruelly disappointed. Newly in love with life, Amy died before this final recording ever saw the light of day. She was just 27 years old.
In this richly illustrated biography, Mick O’Shea delves into every aspect of Amy’s life – from childhood through to her tragic early death – capturing the legacy of her raw and heartfelt music, along with everything that made her so very special.
Published in
Forthcoming Titles
Monday, 31 October 2011 09:52
"Breaking Dawn - Part 1" Arrives in Cinemas
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, the hotly anticipated fourth film in the Twilight series, arrives in cinemas on 18th November 2011. The latest instalment of the vampire romance, based on the first half of Stephenie Meyer's phenomenally successful novel, sees human Bella and vampire Edward finally marry, and the conflicts that ensue between the Cullens, the Quileute Tribe and the Volturi when Bella becomes pregnant with a vampire-human child. Plexus publish three books about the the film's leading men, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner: The Robert Pattinson Album, by Paul Stenning; The Taylor Lautner Album, by Amy Carpenter; and Bonded by Blood, a two-in-one biography of Pattinson and Lautner by Garrett Baldwin. All three titles are available from Amazon.
Watch the official Breaking Dawn trailer here.
Published in
News
Tagged under
Monday, 10 October 2011 09:06
Press for Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa
Pauline Butcher, author of Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa, has been interviewed by the the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Reading Post, the Express and BBC World Service. She discusses her new memoir, the years she spent working for and living with Frank Zappa during the 1960s and '70s, and the legacy of that extraordinary time. "The book describes a formative time in the life of an innovative musical artist, which Zappa most certainly was. But it also captures a particularly intense experience of a very brief, yet enormously influential, period in the evolution of western womanhood," writes the Guardian's Deborah Orr.
Buy it from Amazon now!
Read Pauline's regular updates on Facebook
Buy it from Amazon now!
Read Pauline's regular updates on Facebook
Published in
News
Tagged under