Biography
Elizabeth David: A Mediterranean Passion
Lisa Chaney
Macmillan
November 1998
In the 1950s, Elizabeth David (1913-1992) helped transform British attitudes to cooking and eating with the publication of A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950), followed by French Country Cooking (1951), Italian Food (1954), Summer Cooking (1955) among many others.
This biography takes the reader behind the hints of autobiography in her own titles, and reveals how the cookery writer’s experiences shaped her outlook from her career as a Paris actress to her daring 1940 escape across the Mediterranean to her passionate affairs in wartime Egypt.
Lisa Chaney traces the story of her extraordinary life and the impact she had on British food to this day.
Star in the East: Krishnamurti, the Invention of a Messiah
Roland Vernon
Sentient Publications
July 2009
The extraordinary story of JIddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), hailed early in life as the messiah for the 20th century, is told here in the light of a century of changing spiritual attitudes. It is a tale of mysticism, sexual scandals, religious fervor and chicanery, out of which emerged one of the most influential thinkers of modern times.
He ultimately had a career that spanned six decades, founded seven schools, published 50 books and encompassed thousands of talks.
Pablo Casals
Robert Baldock
Gollancz
September 1994
The greatest of all cello virtuosi, Pablo Casals (1876-1973) had a huge life, in all senses. In Fritz Kreisler’s words he was ‘the greatest musician ever to draw a bow’. But for Casals artistic principles were part of a broader perspective. In protest against the West’s complicity in Fascism, he effectively silenced his cello for the last thirty years of his life, becoming a living symbol of freedom and conscience.
Robert Baldock’s much praised biography uncovers the complexities of Casals’ extraordinary life, including his intense relationship with his mother, crises, risks and sacrifices, and analyses the sources of his musical inspiration.