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Godforsaken Grapes: A Slightly Tipsy Journey through the World of Strange, Obscure, and Underappreciated Wine
by Jason WilsonA New York Times and Smithsonian Magazine best book, this &“genial excursion&” to little-known wine destinations &“will make you curious and thirsty.&” (Eric Asimov, The New York Times). Eighty percent of the wine we drink is made from only twenty grapes. Yet, there are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world—from altesse to zierfandler. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the &“noble grapes,&” hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink. A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine. &“You&’ll walk away with a better understanding of the wine industry and an itch to book a ticket to destinations you&’ve never heard of before.&” —Imbibe Magazine &“Funny, enlightening [and] prodigiously researched.&” —San Francisco Chronicle &“Wilson offers a spirited, highly personal argument for drinking more adventurously.&” —Punch &“A delightful dive into more esoteric grapes.&” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune &“Wonderful . . . [you&’ll] never order another pinot noir again.&” —Tom Bissell, author of Apostle and The Disaster Artist &“Original, obsessive, and wildly insightful. Drink it down!&” —Andrew McCarthy, actor, director, and author of the New York Times bestselling travel memoir The Longest Way Home
Godot 4 Game Development Cookbook: Over 50 solid recipes for building high-quality 2D and 3D games with improved performance
by Jeff JohnsonExplore the latest features of Godot 4 using advanced techniques and recipes to create professional-grade games with increased efficiencyPurchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBookKey FeaturesTake advantage of the new Vulkan renderer and 3D physics in Godot 4 to create high-quality gamesStreamline your game development workflow with Godot's new TileMap, TileSet, and Animation Editor featuresDiscover what's changed in GDScript 2.0 and Shader additions to enhance your game development skillsBook DescriptionWant to transition from Godot 3 to 4? Look no further than the Godot 4 Game Development Cookbook. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to become proficient with the latest GUI, GDscript 2.0, Vulkan 2D/3D rendering, shaders, audio, physics, TileSet/TileMap, importing, sound/music, animation, and multiplayer workflows. With its detailed recipes, the book leaves no stone unturned. The Godot 4 Cookbook begins by exploring the updated graphical user interface and helps you familiarize yourself with the new features of GDscript 2.0. Next, it delves into the efficient rendering of 2D and 3D graphics using the Vulkan renderer. As it guides you in navigating the new Godot 4 platform, the book offers an in-depth understanding of shaders, including the latest enhancements to the shader language. Moreover, it covers a range of other topics, including importing from Blender, working with audio, and demystifying the new Vulkan Renderer and the physics additions for 2D and 3D. The book also shows you how the new changes to TileSet and TileMap make 2D game development easy. Advanced topics such as importing in Godot 4, adding sound and music to games, making changes in the Animation editor, and including workflows for multiplayer in Godot 4 are covered in detail. By the end of this game development book, you'll have gained a better understanding of Godot 4 and will be equipped with various powerful techniques to enhance your Godot game development efficiency.What you will learnSpeed up 2D game development with new TileSet and TileMap updatesImprove 2D and 3D rendering with the Vulkan RendererMaster the new animation editor in Godot 4 for advanced game developmentEnhance visuals and performance with visual shaders and the updated shader languageImport Blender blend files into Godot to optimize your workflowExplore new physics system additions for improved realism and behavior of game objectsExperience innovative features by building multiplayer games in Godot 4Who this book is forThe Godot 4 Game Development Cookbook is for seasoned game developers who want to acquire skills in creating games using a contemporary game engine. It is an invaluable resource for indie game developers and Godot developers who are familiar with Godot 3 and have some level of expertise in maneuvering the interface.
Gods Like Us
by Ty BurrWITH 8 PAGES OF BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHSHow--and why--do we obsess over movie stars? How does fame both reflect and mask the person behind it? How have the image of stardom and our stars' images altered over a century of cultural and technological change? Do we create celebrities, or do they create us? Ty Burr, film critic for The Boston Globe, answers these questions in this lively and fascinating anecdotal history of stardom, with all its blessings and curses for star and stargazer alike. From Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin to Archie Leach (a.k.a. Cary Grant) and Marion Morrison (a.k.a. John Wayne), Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, and such no-cal stars of today as the Kardashians and the new online celebrity (i.e., you and me), Burr takes us on an insightful and entertaining journey through the modern fame game at its flashiest, most indulgent, occasionally most tragic, and ultimately, its most revealing.ine celebrity (i.e., you and me), Burr takes us on a brilliantly insightful and entertaining journey through the modern fame game at its flashiest, its most indulgent, occasionally its most tragic and, ultimately, its most culturally revealing.From the Hardcover edition.
Gods and Monsters: A Queer Film Classic
by Noah TsikaGods and Monsters, one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, deals with the acclaimed 1998 film about openly gay film director James Whale, best known for the Frankenstein films of the 1930s.<P> Written and directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls), Gods and Monsters stars Ian McKellen as Whale in the final days of his life during the 1950s. Moving from the slums of Britain in the early twentieth century to the new era of "talkies" in Hollywood and beyond, Gods and Monsters trains a gay eye on the historical events that helped shape Whale and his films. The result was widely acclaimed, winning an Oscar for Condon's screenplay and nominations for both McKellen and costar Lynn Redgrave.<P> This book examines Gods and Monsters from a variety of perspectives, highlighting the complexity and significance of its achievements, including its fusion of fantasy and biography. It also delves into a history of gay Hollywood during this era, including both its homophobic surface and its queer underpinnings.
Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art
by Kajri JainGods in the Bazaar is a fascinating account of the printed images known in India as "calendar art" or "bazaar art," the color-saturated, mass-produced pictures often used on calendars and in advertisements, featuring deities and other religious themes as well as nationalist leaders, alluring women, movie stars, chubby babies, and landscapes. Calendar art appears in all manner of contexts in India: in chic elite living rooms, middle-class kitchens, urban slums, village huts; hung on walls, stuck on scooters and computers, propped up on machines, affixed to dashboards, tucked into wallets and lockets. In this beautifully illustrated book, Kajri Jain examines the power that calendar art wields in Indian mass culture, arguing that its meanings derive as much from the production and circulation of the images as from their visual features. Jain draws on interviews with artists, printers, publishers, and consumers as well as analyses of the prints themselves to trace the economies--of art, commerce, religion, and desire--within which calendar images and ideas about them are formulated. For Jain, an analysis of the bazaar, or vernacular commercial arena, is crucial to understanding not only the calendar art that circulates within the bazaar but also India's postcolonial modernity and the ways that its mass culture has developed in close connection with a religiously inflected nationalism. The bazaar is characterized by the coexistence of seemingly incompatible elements: bourgeois-liberal and neoliberal modernism on the one hand, and vernacular discourses and practices on the other. Jain argues that from the colonial era to the present, capitalist expansion has depended on the maintenance of these multiple coexisting realms: the sacred, the commercial, and the artistic; the official and the vernacular.
Gods in the Time of Democracy
by Kajri JainIn 2018 India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated the world's tallest statue: a 597-foot figure of nationalist leader Sardar Patel. Twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, it is but one of many massive statues built following India's economic reforms of the 1990s. In Gods in the Time of Democracy Kajri Jain examines how monumental icons emerged as a religious and political form in contemporary India, mobilizing the concept of emergence toward a radical treatment of art historical objects as dynamic assemblages. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork at giant statue sites in India and its diaspora and interviews with sculptors, patrons, and visitors, Jain masterfully describes how public icons materialize the intersections between new image technologies, neospiritual religious movements, Hindu nationalist politics, globalization, and Dalit-Bahujan verifications of equality and presence. Centering the ex-colony in rethinking key concepts of the image, Jain demonstrates how these new aesthetic forms entail a simultaneously religious and political retooling of the “infrastructures of the sensible.”
Gods of the Ancient World: A Kids’ Guide to Ancient Mythologies
by Marchella WardUncover the stories of gods and goddesses from around the world, in this dynamic anthology of ancient myths.Discover 23 captivating stories of gods and goddesses from civilizations around the world in this book that introduces children to ancient cultures with colorful illustrations and incredible storytelling. Young readers will delight in myths that explain the beginning of the world, the way gods helped humans, the divine's power over weather and other natural phenomena, and much more. Gods of the Ancient World is a perfect global introduction to the most fascinating stories about gods and goddesses from ancient history. Further featuring: - The incredible myths and legends behind each god or goddess with real-world art references. - Illustrations bring each god and goddess to life for a young audience.- Fact boxes call out key information to draw the reader in.- A global look at mythologies, with Maya, Japanese and Yoruba deities as well as Ancient Greek and Roman gods.Authored by Classics expert Marchella Ward, a researcher at the University of Oxford, this beautifully illustrated treasury of ancient mythologies is perfect for children age 9-12, with amazing real-life photos of ancient objects which show how people worshipped the gods through art.
Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters
by William TsutsuiThis year, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his first appearance on the screen, the original, uncut version of Godzilla was released in American theaters to the delight of Sci-Fi and B-Movie fans everywhere. Ever since Godzilla (or, Gojira, as he is known in Japan) crawled out of his radioactive birthplace to cut a swath of destruction through Tokyo, he has claimed a place alongside King Kong and others in the movie monster pantheon. He is the third most recognizable Japanese celebrity in the United States, and his fan base continues to grow as children today prove his enduring appeal. Now, Bill Tsutsui, a life-long fan and historian, takes a light-hearted look at the big, green, radioactive lizard, revealing how he was born and how he became a megastar. With humorous anecdotes, Godzilla on My Mind explores his lasting cultural impact on the world. This book is sure to be welcomed by pop culture enthusiasts, fans, and historians alike.
God’s Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century
by Karl KinsellaHow modern architectural language was invented to communicate with the divine—challenging a common narrative of European architectural history.The architectural drawing might seem to be a quintessentially modern form, and indeed many histories of the genre begin in the early modern period with Italian Renaissance architects such as Alberti. Yet the Middle Ages also had a remarkably sophisticated way of drawing and writing about architecture. God&’s Own Language takes us to twelfth-century Paris, where a Scottish monk named Richard of Saint Victor, along with his mentor Hugh, developed an innovative visual and textual architectural language. In the process, he devised techniques and terms that we still use today, from sectional elevations to the word &“plan.&”Surprisingly, however, Richard&’s detailed drawings appeared not in an architectural treatise but in a widely circulated set of biblical commentaries. Seeing architecture as a way of communicating with the divine, Richard drew plans and elevations for such biblical constructions as Noah&’s ark and the temple envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel. Interpreting Richard and Hugh&’s drawings and writings within the context of the thriving theological and intellectual cultures of medieval Paris, Karl Kinsella argues that the popularity of these works suggests that, centuries before the Renaissance, there was a large circle of readers with a highly developed understanding of geometry and the visual language of architecture.
God’s Song and Music’s Meanings: Theology, Liturgy, and Musicology in Dialogue (Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts)
by Vernon White James Hawkey Ben QuashTaking seriously the practice and not just the theory of music, this ground-breaking collection of essays establishes a new standard for the interdisciplinary conversation between theology, musicology, and liturgical studies. The public making of music in our society happens more often in the context of chapels, churches, and cathedrals than anywhere else. The command to sing and make music to God makes music an essential part of the DNA of Christian worship. The book’s three main parts address questions about the history, the performative contexts, and the nature of music. Its opening four chapters traces how accounts of music and its relation to God, the cosmos, and the human person have changed dramatically through Western history, from the patristic period through medieval, Reformation and modern times. A second section examines the role of music in worship, and asks what—if anything—makes a piece of music suitable for religious use. The final part of the book shows how the serious discussion of music opens onto considerations of time, tradition, ontology, anthropology, providence, and the nature of God. A pioneering set of explorations by a distinguished group of international scholars, this book will be of interest to anyone interested in Christianity’s long relationship with music, including those working in the fields of theology, musicology, and liturgical studies.
Goering’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World
by Jonathan PetropoulosA charged biography of a notorious Nazi art plunderer and his career in the postwar art world "[Petropoulos] brings Lohse into sharper focus, as a personality and axis point from which to explore a network of art dealers, collectors and museum curators connected to Nazi looting. . . . What emerges from Petropoulos&’s research is a portrait of a charismatic and nefarious figure who tainted everyone he touched."—Nina Siegal, New York Times&“With meticulous precision Jonathan uncovers the inner workings of the Nazi looting machine, exposing a network that lasted well into the 1960s. Indeed Göring&’s Man still casts a long shadow.&”—Simon Goodman, author of The Orpheus Clock Bruno Lohse (1911–2007) was one of the most notorious art plunderers in history. Appointed by Hermann Göring to Hitler&’s art looting agency in Paris, he went on to help supervise the systematic theft and distribution of more than thirty thousand artworks, taken largely from French Jews, and to assist Göring in amassing an enormous private art collection. By the 1950s Lohse was officially denazified but was back in the art dealing world, offering masterpieces of dubious origin to American museums. After his death, dozens of paintings by Renoir, Monet, and Pissarro, among others, were found in his Zurich bank vault and adorning the walls of his Munich home. Jonathan Petropoulos spent nearly a decade interviewing Lohse and continues to serve as an expert witness for Holocaust restitution cases. Here he tells the story of Lohse&’s life, offering a critical examination of the postwar art world.
Goggles & Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days
by The Horton CollectionDrawn from the one of the world's finest collections of cycling artifacts, Goggles & Dust collects over 100 stunning photographs from competitive cycling's heyday. Spanning the 1920s and '30s, Goggles & Dust: Images from Cycling's Glory Days celebrates the grit and determination of the bicycle racing pioneers who established the records, traditions, and distinct flavors of Europe's most hallowed races. The spirit of these hardy competitors was perhaps matched only by the resolve of the remarkable photographers who prevailed in all imaginable conditions, situations, altitudes and latitudes to capture unforgettable prints of the racers at work and play. From Alpine panoramas to hair-raising crashes and idyllic roadside celebrations, the gorgeous restored photographs in Goggles & Dust--most unseen since their original publication in the newspapers and magazines of the day--provide an indelible and delightful record of a more carefree and adventurous time.
Gogo Breeze: Zambia’s Radio Elder and the Voices of Free Speech
by Harri EnglundWhen Breeze FM, a radio station in the provincial Zambian town of Chipata, hired an elderly retired schoolteacher in 2003, no one anticipated the skyrocketing success that would follow. A self-styled grandfather on air, Gogo Breeze seeks intimacy over the airwaves and dispenses advice on a wide variety of grievances and transgressions. Multiple voices are broadcast and juxtaposed through call-ins and dialogue, but free speech finds its ally in the radio elder who, by allowing people to be heard and supporting their claims, reminds authorities of their obligations toward the disaffected. Harri Englund provides a masterfully detailed study of this popular radio personality that addresses broad questions of free speech in Zambia and beyond. By drawing on ethnographic insights into political communication, Englund presents multivocal morality as an alternative to dominant Euro-American perspectives, displacing the simplistic notion of voice as individual personal property—an idea common in both policy and activist rhetoric. Instead, Englund focuses on the creativity and polyphony of Zambian radio while raising important questions about hierarchy, elderhood, and ethics in the public sphere. A lively, engaging portrait of an extraordinary personality, Gogo Breeze will interest Africanists, scholars of radio and mass media, and anyone interested in the history and future of free speech.
Goin' Crazy with Sam Peckinpah and All Our Friends
by Max Evans Robert NottAlmost as famous for the legendary excesses of his personal life as for his films, Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984) cemented his reputation as one of the great American directors with movies such as The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Max Evans, one of Peckinpah&’s best friends, experienced the director&’s mercurial character and personal demons firsthand. In this enthralling memoir we follow Evans and Peckinpah through conversations in bars, family gatherings, binges on drugs and alcohol, struggles with film producers and executives, and Peckinpah&’s abusive behavior—sometimes directed at Evans himself.Evans&’s stories—most previously unpublished—provide a uniquely intimate look at Peckinpah, their famous friends (including Lee Marvin, Brian Keith, Joel McCrea, and James Coburn), and the business of Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s.
Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories
by Gary Smith Sports Illustrated EditorsA collection of essays by the award-winning Sports Illustrated writer highlights twenty of his most powerful pieces that range from "Shadow of a Nation," the story of a young Crow Indian basketball player and his efforts to escape the reservation, to "Blindsided by History," a saga of football, racism, and segregation.
Going Digital: Simple Tools and Techniques for Sharing and Enjoying Your Digital Photos and Home Movies
by Alex L. GoldfaynGet digital prints that look better than film, create amazing photo and video DVDs, and even learn to use your camera phone to its maximum potential with this non-technical, easy-to-understand guide Imagine displaying your photos on your television in big-screen glory, set to your favorite music. Imagine digitizing your old home movies, editing out unwanted parts, and sharing them on DVDs. And imagine sharing photos and movies of your child's first steps moments after they happen -- online, over the cell phone, or even on an electronic picture frame half a world away. With today's technology, all that is possible -- and more! Going Digital will arm you with the tools and techniques you need to share your digital memories with friends and family -- online and offline, on the computer, and in the living room. Written in down-to-earth language for people with all levels of technological knowledge, it's a user-friendly guide that will change your life -- and your family's.
Going Global: A World of Marvels
by Marcia Amidon LustedA quick tour of amazing man-made structures in China, Europe, and West Asia.
Going Global: See the World Without Leaving Home
by Marcia Amidon LustedBefore radio, television, and movies, expositions or world fairs such as the World's Columbian Exposition, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, and the St. Louis World's Fair offered glimpses into faraway cultures and people.
Going Off Alarming: The Autobiography: Vol 2
by Danny BakerThe dazzlingly funny second volume of Danny Baker's memoirs: the television years.Since my first book was published I have had countless friends and family members get in touch to say how come I hadn't included this story or that tale. Was I ashamed of being shot twice, once up the arse, in Jamaica Road? How long should a man live with such a secret? If by retrospectively dropping my trousers every few pages I can reveal a fuller picture of myself during these years, then so be it.Besides. Being shot up the arse. In front of your mates.What else did I forget?
Going Off Script
by Jen WildeA TV writer's room intern must join forces with her crush to keep her boss from ruining a lesbian character in this diverse contemporary YA romance from the author of Queens of Geek.Seventeen-year-old Bex is thrilled when she gets an internship on her favorite tv show, Silver Falls. Unfortunately, the internship isn't quite what she expected... instead of sitting in a crowded writer's room volleying ideas back and forth, Production Interns are stuck picking up the coffee. Determined to prove her worth as a writer, Bex drafts her own script and shares it with the head writer—who promptly reworks it and passes it off as his own! Bex is understandably furious, yet...maybe this is just how the industry works? But when they rewrite her proudly lesbian character as straight, that's the last straw! It's time for Bex and her crush to fight back. Jen Wilde's newest novel is both a fun, diverse love story and a very relevant, modern take on the portrayal of LGBT characters in media.Praise for Jen Wilde: "The book deals head on with issues of mental health, body shaming, sexuality, and internet celebrity, handling them with a delicate and skillful touch." —Teen Vogue on Queens of Geek "This is the geeky, queer book of our dreams." —Seventeen on Queens of Geek
Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer
by Skip Cohen Scott BourneYou've got the gear, the training, and the technology. You're ready to make the leap from aspiring to professional photographer. Now what? With today's affordable, high-quality cameras, Internet technology, and training, any weekend warrior can hang a shingle and open a photography business. But what then? While anyone can buy a professional quality camera, few have the skills to turn their dreams into a profitable business.Going Pro is the essential guide to leaping successfully into any genre of professional photography. Industry powerhouses Scott Bourne and Skip Cohen share invaluable advice on defining your niche, putting together a portfolio, pricing and showing your work, marketing, positioning your brand, and, most important, building an online social media platform from the ground up. Throughout, advice and tips are offered from 25 of the biggest names in the industry, including Chase Jarvis, Vincent Laforet, Matthew Jordan Smith, Jeremy Cowart, Jules Bianchi, Bambi Cantrell, Tony Corbell, Kevin Kubota, Jerry Ghionis, and more.Hundreds of thousands of photographers are already tuning in to the Going Pro podcast and blog (goingpro2011.com). Going Pro, the book, now joins the movement, giving amateurs everywhere the confidence and tools they need to make the leap into professional photography.
Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World
by Dahlia SchweitzerOutbreak narratives have proliferated for the past quarter century, and now they have reached epidemic proportions. From 28 Days Later to 24 to The Walking Dead, movies, TV shows, and books are filled with zombie viruses, bioengineered plagues, and disease-ravaged bands of survivors. Even news reports indulge in thrilling scenarios about potential global pandemics like SARS and Ebola. Why have outbreak narratives infected our public discourse, and how have they affected the way Americans view the world? In Going Viral, Dahlia Schweitzer probes outbreak narratives in film, television, and a variety of other media, putting them in conversation with rhetoric from government authorities and news organizations that have capitalized on public fears about our changing world. She identifies three distinct types of outbreak narrative, each corresponding to a specific contemporary anxiety: globalization, terrorism, and the end of civilization. Schweitzer considers how these fears, stoked by both fictional outbreak narratives and official sources, have influenced the ways Americans relate to their neighbors, perceive foreigners, and regard social institutions. Looking at everything from I Am Legend to The X Files to World War Z, this book examines how outbreak narratives both excite and horrify us, conjuring our nightmares while letting us indulge in fantasies about fighting infected Others. Going Viral thus raises provocative questions about the cost of public paranoia and the power brokers who profit from it. Supplemental Study Materials for "Going Viral": https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/going-viral-dahlia-schweitzer Dahlia Schweitzer- Going Viral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xF0V7WL9ow
Going on the Turn
by Danny BakerIn this book my father dies. I almost die.*** My showbiz career winds down. And yet everyone keeps telling me it's the funniest book I've ever written. If I'd known that's what the public wanted, I'd have cancelled Pets Win Prizes and just got sick sooner. Along the way this time we encounter, among others, David Bowie, Kanye West (I think), John Cleese, Peter O'Toole, and have several adventures in the Fourth Dimension. Oh, and I can reveal the Man With The Foulest Mouth In All Show Business. Plus assorted high-kicking hoopla and a whole lot of rather stark stuff about what it's like to be told you could be On The Way Out. *** (SPOILER ALERT: I don't actually die.)
Going on the Turn: Being the Extraordinary Stories of My Life and Dodging Death's Door
by Danny BakerDanny Baker's third volume of memoirs barrels along at the same cracking pace as its predecessors, the bestselling Going to Sea in a Sieve (the inspiration for the major TV series Cradle to Grave and subsequent nationwide tour) and Going off Alarming. With his trademark exuberance, he recalls the years which included six years' involvement in the massive TV hit TFI Friday ('piling it up with hellzapoppin' ideas') - during which time he stalked John Cleese in New York, entertained David Bowie and Paul McCartney, bizarrely reunites with Sir Michael Caine, gets befriended by Peter O'Toole and becomes a member of Led Zeppelin for 35 minutes. However, the tales are not reliant on celebrity alone, and the book comes packed with the usual quota of Baker family jewels, including Spud's attitude to doctors, Danny's trip to Amsterdam to get stoned for the first time (he fails), getting caught up in football rioting, and the now infamous 'kaboom' of an outburst following his despatch from BBC London. And then there's the cancer. Spoiler alert: this is the one in which he almost dies. Further spoiler alert: he doesn't.Going on the Turn is a rollicking read that fizzes with wit, warmth and enviable joie de vivre.Written and Read by Danny Baker (p) Orion Publishing Group 2017
Going on the Turn: Being the Extraordinary Stories of My Life and Dodging Deaths Door
by Danny BakerDanny Baker's third volume of memoirs barrels along at the same cracking pace as its predecessors, the bestselling Going to Sea in a Sieve (the inspiration for the major TV series Cradle to Grave and subsequent nationwide tour) and Going off Alarming. With his trademark exuberance, he recalls the years which included six years' involvement in the massive TV hit TFI Friday ('piling it up with hellzapoppin' ideas') - during which time he stalked John Cleese in New York, entertained David Bowie and Paul McCartney, bizarrely reunites with Sir Michael Caine, gets befriended by Peter O'Toole and becomes a member of Led Zeppelin for 35 minutes. However, the tales are not reliant on celebrity alone, and the book comes packed with the usual quota of Baker family jewels, including Spud's attitude to doctors, Danny's trip to Amsterdam to get stoned for the first time (he fails), getting caught up in football rioting, and the now infamous 'kaboom' of an outburst following his despatch from BBC London. And then there's the cancer. Spoiler alert: this is the one in which he almost dies. Further spoiler alert: he doesn't.Going on the Turn is a rollicking read that fizzes with wit, warmth and enviable joie de vivre.