With Billie

Julia Blackburn

$32.99

Paperback

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Sicilian

Vintage
01 May 2006

Jazz; Biography; Autobiography: general; Biography: arts & entertainment

'Julia Blackburn has an extraordinary talent for thinking herself into other worlds...

So vivid are her conjurings of lives lived elsewhere or long ago, you begin to suspect she sees ghosts' - Evening Standard

'This is a raw, true book that evokes not just the life of the great singer Billie Holiday but an entire jazz era....' Mail on Sunday

Julia Blackburn's brilliant and haunting book is a life of Billie Holiday told in the voices of those who knew her.

During the 1970s a young woman called Linda Kuehl, planning to write a biography of Billie, recorded interviews with more than 150 people. Kuehl died in 1978 and her book never came out, but her recordings survived to provide the raw material for this extraordinary account of the life of America's First Lady of Jazz.

These same recordings have been used as the basis for the 2020 film, Billie.

Billie Holiday is usually portrayed as a tragic victim of her own vices. These intimate stories give us a much deeper picture of her personality - we witness scenes from her chaotic childhood; we see her when she first arrives in Harlem at the age of fourteen; and we follow her through her rise to fame and into the notoriety that came so close on its heels.

Billie's friends and lovers and fellow musicians talk about her troubles and her addictions, but they also have a lot to say about her warmth and her courage, and the ones who were really close to her understood that although she had a lot of men and drugs and booze in her life, all that really mattered was the singing.

PRAISE FOR WITH BILLIE- 'Gives a far more complete idea of Holiday as an artist than anything else I have read, GuardianJulia Blackburn's book gives a far more complete idea of Holiday as an artist than anything else I have read' Guardian 'This addition to the tide of Billie Holiday books is extremely welcome. Nowhere else is the context of her life and work so vividly captured' Toni Morrison 'Full of vigour and colour...

Ms Blackburn's portrait of a unique artist is moving, revealing and quite unforgettable' Economist

By: Julia Blackburn
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 256g
ISBN: 9780099483656
ISBN 10: 0099483653
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 01 May 2006
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Language: Sicilian
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Julia Blackburn is the author of four books of non-fiction, Charles Waterton, The Emperor's Last Island, Daisy Bates in the Desert and Old Man Goya, and two novels, The Book of Colour and The Leper's Companions, both of which were shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Reviews for With Billie

Julia Blackburn's book gives a far more complete idea of Holiday as an artist than anything else I have read Guardian This is a raw, true book that evokes not just the life of the great singer Billie Holiday but an entire jazz era... Blackburn's compelling tale is of whores, drug-pushers, bent policemen and crooked lawyers as well as brilliant musicians, and she brings alive everything she touches Mail on Sunday This addition to the tide of Billie Holiday books is extremely welcome. Nowhere else is the context of her life and work so vividly captured Toni Morrison Full of vigour and colour...Ms Blackburn's portrait of a unique artist is moving, revealing and quite unforgettable Economist Julia Blackburn...has contributed much to the legacy of a remarkable human being New Statesman 20050502

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With Billie

Julia Blackburn

$32.99

Paperback

Reviews for With Billie

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