Bessie Smith: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Bessie Smith: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK Book

Bessie Smith: singer, icon, pioneer. Scotland's National Poet Jackie Kay brings to life the tempestuous story of the greatest blues singer who ever lived. Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine, she sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling shows. In 1923 she made her first recording for a new start-up called Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and made her a star. Smith's life was notoriously difficult: she drank pints of 'bathtub gin', got into violent fist fights, spent huge sums of money and had passionate love affairs with men and women. She once single-handedly fought off a cohort of the Ku Klux Klan. As a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.Read More

from£9.68 | RRP: £
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £3.60
  • BookDepository

    Bessie Smith : Paperback : Faber & Faber : 9780571362929 : 0571362923 : 18 Feb 2021 : 'She [Bessie Smith] showed me the air and taught me how to fill it ... she's the reason I started singing, really' - Janis Joplin '[Jackie Kay] offers the most vivid evocation of Bessie Smith I have ever read' - Ian Carr, BBC Music Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894.

  • 0571362923
  • 9780571362929
  • Kay, Jackie
  • 18 February 2021
  • Faber & Faber
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 224
  • Main
  • Book
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.