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Last Kids on Earth Series by Max Brallier only £22.99
Last Kids on Earth Series by Max Brallier only £22.99

Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay

Original price £10.99 - Original price £10.99
Original price £10.99
£10.99
£10.99 - £10.99
Current price £10.99
Availability:
Only 8 left!

Extended Range Product | Free Delivery | UK Only

This product is part of our extended range. It will be dispatched separately from the rest of your order.

It is not included in promotions available to our main range products, as stated in our terms of service.

Gift wrap is not available. Product images are for illustrative purposes only; the cover supplied may vary.

SKU 9780571362929 ISBN: 9780571362929
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A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKBessie Smith: singer, icon, pioneer. Scotland's National Poet Jackie Kay brings to life the tempestuous story of the greatest blues singer who ever lived. 'A gem of a book . . . beautiful.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO'A wonderful writer on a magnificent singer.' ROBERT WYATT'Kay's book is the amplifier that Smith's voice deserves.' SUNDAY TIMES'The most vivid evocation of Bessie Smith I have ever read.' IAN CARR, BBC MUSICBESSIE 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. 'Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately.' PEGGY SEEGER'What a life! What gulpable storytelling! Exactly the kind of writing about music we need: personal, ardent, playfully confrontational, questioning, undogmatic. A love song to a complicated idol.'KATE MOLLESON'Pure joy: one trailblazing woman pays tribute to another. Jackie Kay finds the music in the short, dazzling, capricious life of Bessie Smith.'HELEN LEWIS; 224 pages; Published: 18/02/2021

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We sometimes split orders between multiple parcels. Items from our extended range section are dispatched separately.

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Single Books and items under 750g

Standard Delivery: £1.99 (2-4 working days)

Orders Under £40

Standard Delivery: £3.99 (2-4 working days)
Express Delivery: £5.99 (1-2 working days)

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Standard Delivery: Free (2-4 working days)
Express Delivery: £3.99 (reduced rate, 1-2 working days)

Orders over £100

Express Delivery: Free  (1-2 working days)

These delivery times are the maximum delivery periods that a purchase can take to reach our customers. Delivery may be sooner than this. These times are an estimation, not a guarantee.

There are no deliveries on Saturdays, Sundays or Bank Holidays.

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