I & I


Book Description

The history of the original Wailers - Tosh, Livingstone and Marley - as never before told.




I & I: The Natural Mystics


Book Description

Discover the untold history of reggae legends of Bob Marley and the original Wailers. The perfect must-read if you loved the film One Love. Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trench Town R&B crooners, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, swapped their 1960s Brylcreem hairdos and two-tone suits for 1970s battle fatigues and dreadlocks to become the Wailers - one of the most influential groups in popular music. Now one of our best and brightest non-fiction writers examines the story of the influential reggae band. Charting their complex relationship, their fluctuating fortunes, musical peak, and the politics and ideologies that provoked their split, Colin Grant shows us why they were not just extraordinary musicians, but also natural mystics. And, following a trail from Jamaica through Europe, America, Africa and back to the vibrant and volatile world of Trench Town, he travels in search of the last surviving Wailer. 'In Grant's hands life in Trench Town in the 1960's is energetic and theatrical, rich in comedy and tragic irony...This brilliant book is not just about Jamaica, but about ourselves' Guardian




The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh, and Wailer


Book Description

The definitive group biography of the Wailers—Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston—chronicling their rise to fame and power. Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trenchtown R&B crooners swapped their 1960s Brylcreem hairdos and two-tone suits for 1970s battle fatigues and dreadlocks to become the Wailers—one of the most influential groups in popular music. Colin Grant presents a lively history of this remarkable band from their upbringing in the brutal slums of Kingston to their first recordings and then international superstardom. With energetic prose and stunning, original research, Grant argues that these reggae stars offered three models for black men in the second half of the twentieth century: accommodate and succeed (Marley), fight and die (Tosh), or retreat and live (Livingston). Grant meets with Rastafarian elders, Obeah men (witch doctors), and other folk authorities as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of Jamaica's famously impenetrable culture. Much more than a top-flight music biography, The Natural Mystics offers a sophisticated understanding of Jamaican politics, heritage, race, and religion—a portrait of a seminal group during a period of exuberant cultural evolution.




I & I


Book Description

Over one dramatic decade, a trio of Trenchtown R & B crooners, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley, swapped their 1960s Brylcreem hairdos and two-tone suits for 1970s battle fatigues and dreadlocks to become the Wailers - one of the most influential groups in popular music. This title examines the story of the Wailers.




Negro with a Hat


Book Description

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was once the most famous black man on earth. A brilliant orator who electrified his audiences, he inspired thousands to join his "Back to Africa" movement, aiming to create an independent homeland through Pan-African emigration--yet he was barred from the continent by colonial powers. This self-educated, poetry-writing aesthete was a shrewd promoter whose use of pageantry fired the imagination of his followers. At the pinnacle of his fame in the early 1920s, Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association boasted millions of members in more than forty countries, and he was an influential champion of the Harlem Renaissance. J. Edgar Hoover was so alarmed by Garvey that he labored for years to prosecute him, finally using dubious charges for which Garvey served several years in an Atlanta prison. This biography restores Garvey to his place as one of the founders of black nationalism and a key figure of the 20th century.--From publisher description.




Steppin' Razor: The Life of Peter Tosh


Book Description

The very first biography of Peter Tosh, rude boy, founder member of The Wailers and a compelling recording artist in his own right. Tosh was Jamaica’s most controversial reggae star. A fiery advocate of Rastafari and African nationalism as well as the legalisation of marijuana, his uncompromising political stance won him a reputation as Jamaica’s Malcolm X. Now revered second only to Bob Marley among reggae audiences worldwide, Tosh was awarded the Order of Merit, Jamaica’s third highest honour, as the nation celebrated 50 years of Independence. Based on hundreds of interviews with those who knew Peter Tosh best, including Bunny Wailer and close associates, here are the stories behind hits like ‘Legalise It’, ‘Equal Rights’, ‘Get Up Stand Up’ and ‘Johnny B. Goode’; Tosh’s infamous appearance at the 1978 One Love Peace Concert; and his now legendary adventures with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. One of reggae’s most extraordinary stories, the life of Peter Tosh came to an end when he was brutally murdered in 1987 amidst rumours involving the supernatural and Kingston’s criminal underworld. This is his story.




Augustown


Book Description

11 April 1982: a smell is coming down John Golding Road right alongside the boy-child, something attached to him, like a spirit but not quite. Ma Taffy is growing worried. She knows that something is going to happen. Something terrible is going to pour out into the world. But if she can hold it off for just a little bit longer, she will. So she asks a question that surprises herself even as she asks it, "Kaia, I ever tell you bout the flying preacherman?" Set in the backlands of Jamaica, Augustown is a magical and haunting novel of one woman’s struggle to rise above the brutal vicissitudes of history, race, class, collective memory, violence, and myth.




Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber


Book Description

'Fascinating . . . O'Driscoll's research is impressive' Ben Macintyre, The Times _____ The story behind the hit movie Baltimore, starring Imogen Poots. The astonishing story of the English heiress who devoted her life to the IRA. She grew up in a Chelsea townhouse and on a Devon estate. She was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace as a debutante in 1958. She trained at Oxford as an academic economist and had a love affair with a female professor (who was on the rebound from Iris Murdoch). At thirty, she commenced giving her inheritance away to the poor. In 1972, the deadliest year of the Northern Irish Troubles, she travelled to Ireland and joined the IRA. Sean O'Driscoll's Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber tells the astonishing story of Rose Dugdale, who went on to become a committed terrorist, participating in a major art heist and a bombing raid on a police and army barracks; who kept a pregnancy secret for nine months in prison and gave birth there; and who ended up at the heart of the IRA's bomb-making operation during its deadly final spasms in the 1990s. Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber is both the page-turning biography of a remarkable woman and a groundbreaking account of the inner workings of a terrorist organization. _____ 'It would be hard to overstate how good this book is . . . a fantastic read' Sunday Independent 'Superb . . . an even-handed and thrilling gallop through [Dugdale's] improbable life' Daily Telegraph 'Excellent' Michael McDowell, Irish Times 'Possibly the most extraordinary book you'll read this year' Irish Examiner 'Jaw-dropping' Joe Duffy 'Well-researched' Irish Times




Homecoming


Book Description

'A remarkable oral history of black postwar British life... Homecoming is an extraordinary and compelling book' Daily Telegraph Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race riots of the late 1950s. We hear from nurses in Manchester; bus drivers in Bristol; seamstresses in Birmingham; teachers in Croydon; dockers in Cardiff; inter-racial lovers in High Wycombe, and Carnival Queens in Leeds. These are stories of hope and regret, of triumphs and challenges, brimming with humour, anger and wisdom. Together, they reveal a rich tapestry of Caribbean British lives. Homecoming is an unforgettable portrait of a generation, which brilliantly illuminates an essential and much-misunderstood chapter of our history. ** A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week** **A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year**




A Companion to the Gangster Film


Book Description

A companion to the study of the gangster film’s international appeal spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia A Companion to the Gangster Film presents a comprehensive overview of the newest scholarship on the contemporary gangster film genre as a global phenomenon. While gangster films are one of America’s most popular genres, gangster movies appear in every film industry across the world. With contributions from an international panel of experts, A Companion to the Gangster Film explores the popularity of gangster films across three major continents, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The authors acknowledge the gangster genre’s popularity and examine the reasons supporting its appeal to twenty-first century audiences across the globe. The book examines common themes across all three continents such as production histories and reception, gender race and sexuality, mafia mythologies, and politics. In addition, the companion clearly shows that no national cinema develops in isolation and that cinema is a truly global popular art form. This important guide to the gangster film genre: Reveals how the gangster film engages in complex and contradictory themes Examines the changing face of the gangster film in America Explores the ideas of gangsterism and migration in the Hispanic USA, Latin America and the Caribbean Discusses the wide variety of gangster types to appear in European cinema Contains a review of a wide-range of gangster films from the Americans, Europe, and Asia Written for academics and students of film, A Companion to the Gangster Film offers a scholarly and authoritative guide exploring the various aspects and international appeal of the gangster film genre.