’Absolutely fabulous!’ - Sir Ray Davies.The Kinks
‘We Danced On Our Desks offers a window on another lost world, a silver age of journalism when a magazine could please itself and celebrities would wait to be invited into its charmed circle. It’s also an unbeatable portrait of a writer finding his voice amid the distractions of a dementedly sybaritic decade.’ – The Observer
‘It’s wonderful. It intrigued and amused and delighted … done with wit, verve, charm and self-deprecation.’ – bestselling author Anthony Quinn
‘A classic of its genre.’ – author David Taylor
WE DANCED ON OUR DESKS is a compelling, entertaining and thrilling look at acclaimed journalist and writer Philip Norman’s experiences working on the Sunday Times Magazine at the height of its popularity in the 60s and 70s. From incredible interviews with the Beatles to Bob Dylan, Gaddafi to Indira Ghandi, and through seismic historical events such as the Vietnam War, Philip provides a vibrant cultural insight into the Swinging Sixties and uniquely documents key events in his own incredible life.
- provides a unique front row seat to the seminal events and the people who defined a generation and continue to impact us today
- it’s a compelling story of an extraordinary life, as a young man moves from a provincial existence headfirst into the heady world of the Swinging Sixties in all its provocative glory
- gives an addictive first-hand account of work and life at The Sunday Times Magazine, one of the world’s most influential publications
- Includes interviews with many icons of the rock, film, political and media worlds, including Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, P.G. Wodehouse, J.R.R Tolkein, Truman Capote, David Hockney, Philip Roth, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, the Everly Brothers, King Hussein of Jordan, Indira Gandhi, and President Gadaffi.
Philip has led – and is leading – an extraordinary life, full of drama, emotion, experience and positivity. His book is not simply a snapshot of a particular time in history, or remembrances of famous people and places, but a genuinely revealing and compelling account of a life lived and lived well.
Table of Content
Part One
1 – What’s a byline?
2 – Says Philip Norman
3 – Which college, Sir?
4 – If it was only a threepenny bus fare, you should have
walked
5 – It’s a lovely life down here
Part Two
6 – By catheter, do you mean spinnaker?
7 – What you can accomplish with a crochet hook
8 – A bountiful, mirthful, pink-shirted Ghost of Christmas
Present
9 – That young man seems very libel-prone
10 – How would you like to go to America?
Part Three
11 – Take it from me, kid, Godfrey runs the warmest stall
in town
12 – Richard and Elizabeth send their love
13 – Keep it up, old top
14 – We’ve hit the button first time
15 – The Beatles are the biggest bastards in the world
16 – Help Bob Dylan sink the Isle of Wight
Part Four
17 – Why was everyone passing round a spot remover?
18 – I’ll stay out here with you if you’ll stay out here with me
19 – Sketches by Bosnia
20 – You should have hung on to that sheep’s eye, mate
21 – Colonel Gaddafi says that’s so not cool
22 – Bowie’s wonderful line about sitting in a tin can
23 – Why didn’t I bring him back his shirts?
Epilogue – The characters pop off the page with some
verisimilitude
About the author
PHILIP NORMAN has an international reputation as a chronicler of pop music and culture. Shout!, his ground-breaking biography of the Beatles, has remained continuously in print, selling more than one million copies, and was recently listed by Waterstones bookshops as one of the 100 best biographies in any genre. He has since written acclaimed books about the Rolling Stones. Elton John, Buddy Holly John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Sir Paul Mc Cartney, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Philip is also an award-winning fiction-writer (included among the first Top 20 ‘Best of Young British Novelists’) and a playwright whose works have appeared on BBC2 and Radio 4. He has also written two musicals. Philip currently lives in London.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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