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Michael Newton teaches literature and film at Leiden University. He is the author of numerous popular books on film and cultural history, including Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children (2002), and Age of Assassins (2012), both for Faber & Faber, and two BFI Film Classics - Kind Hearts and Coronets (2003) and Rosemary's Baby (2019).
Newton has subtlety, originality, and a wide range of reference. . . . He has the knack of apt quotation . . . and sharp summary. --Genevieve Valentine Sight and Sound Thorough and thoughtful, Newton's Show People is a major addition to existing literature on the subject of film stardom. I can't wait to read it a second time. --Gary D. Rhodes, author of The Perils of Moviegoing in America and The Birth of the American Horror Film Sight and Sound In Show People, professor and columnist Newton waxes rhapsodic about a century of acting, with a special fondness for performances about performance. . . . I spent a few nights rewatching movies I hadn't seen in a while, simply because of the way Newton writes about those small beats we love without knowing how to quite explain, the ones that can get reframed with new, wider context when you think about them more. --Genevieve Valentine NPR Show People, by academic Newton, examines how film stars shaped the medium, rather than vice versa. In fact, it's a collection of essays on individual actors, from Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin to Scarlett Johansson, sometimes focusing on a single film, sometimes on whole careers, and sometimes just on gossip. . . . [Made] me want to seek out some of the oddities and forgotten classics he mentions. --Genevieve Valentine Evening Standard
