Peter Sellers was a genius, whose unique mastery created enduring comic characters. But behind the man that could make the world laugh was a tragic sadness. Employing his creations as masks to hide behind, Sellers was convinced his own life was meaningless and empty. Acclaimed (On Sunset Boulevard - the story of Billy WIlder) biographer Ed Sikov has spoken to many who knew and worked with Sellers, including Sophia Loren, Goldie Hawn, and Roman Polanski. Sikov reveals how Sellers was a casualty of his own insecurities and used his public persona to mask his tormented private life, littered with four marriages (and three divorces), countless affairs, and drug and alcohol abuse. This is the authoritative and touching story of a majestic comedian, showing the very private face of a man whose world was lived through the public arena. 'An authoritative biography and a compulsive page turner.' Michael Palin, New York Times 'Sikov's book is often melancholy, but always informative, and entertaining... They don't really make 'em like that any more - you can't get the wood you know' Simon Louvish, Guardian
Peter Sellers was a man of many passions and crazes with a character as complex and diverse as the legendary screen characters he created. In this warm and intimate memoir actor Graham Stark Sellers' close friend and confidant for 35 years chronicles the real story of the man and the actor, and reveals the exraordinary times they shared together throuought their long and personal relationship.
In a reassessment of the meaning of life and death, a noted philosopher offers a new definition for life that contrasts a world dependent on biological maintenance with one controlled by state-of-the-art medical technology.
The Death and Life of Malcolm X provides a dramatic portrait of one of the most important black leaders of the twentieth century. Focusing on Malcolm X's rise to prominence and the final year of his life, the book details his rift with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, leading to death threats and eventually assassination at the hands of a death squad. In a new preface for this edition, Peter Goldman reflects on the forty years since the book's first publication and considers new information based on FBI surveillance that has since come to light.
Complex, prickly and fiercely independent, Peter Roebuck became known as a first class cricketer in England, rose to fame internationally as a writer and broadcaster and ultimately divided his time between Australia and South Africa. His long-standing feud with one of the biggest names in the sport was as infamous as it was rancorous. He engendered a widespread and loyal following for fearlessly wading into controversies – match-fixing, corruption, rotten governments – that left him exposed and vulnerable. At the end, he was accused of sexual assault and the nature of his death was horrific. In this uncompromising investigation that spans multiple continents, and features unflinching testimonies from the likes of Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Mike Atherton, Gideon Haigh, Ian Chappell, Jonathan Agnew and members of the Roebuck family, the authors have pieced together the fragments of an often brilliant yet uneasy life – and reveal how it all unravelled. 'In many ways, he was at his happiest talking about and writing about the game. It was the rest of life he didn't quite master.' The Times Tim Lane is a broadcaster and columnist with extensive experience in the electronic and print media. He worked alongside Peter Roebuck at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for twelve years. Elliot Cartledge is a writer and editor from Melbourne, Australia who has written extensively about sport, music and travel across the globe. This is his third sports book.
A new edition of the cult classic photography book by the legendary Peter Hujar. “I am moved by the purity of [Hujar’s] intentions.... These memento mori can exorcise morbidity as effectively as they evoke its sweet poetry and its panic.” —Susan Sontag Portraits in Life and Death is the only book of photographs published by Peter Hujar during his lifetime. The twenty-nine portraits of creative people—ranging from William Burroughs, Susan Sontag, and John Waters to Larry Ree, founder of the Trocadero Gloxinia Ballet Company, and T.C. (whose identity is unclear)—possess a haunting beauty and degree of psychological examination that is both offbeat and riveting. Following the portraits come eleven images that can only be described as devastating: pictures of semi-preserved, clothed bodies of nineteenth-century Sicilians found in the arid catacombs beneath a church in Palermo. There is no necessary connection in the photographs themselves or between the two sections of the book, yet the pictorial progression from life to death is an emblem of the journey we all take. The living subjects seem to be meditating on the mortality that is limned with such profound effect in the catacomb pictures. In different ways, both groups of images speak to the basic fears and emotions that we carry with us, somewhere beyond our consciousness. After viewing this extraordinary book, it is almost impossible not to make those connections and interpretations or be moved by Hujar’s consistent ability to convey what appears to be the inner spirit of his subjects. Even so, an air of nonchalance, even gaiety, hovers over the photographs. The book is odd, oblique, sometimes opaque, and certainly deeply felt; but it sticks to the mind like a burr. It will be noticed. Once seen, it cannot be forgotten.
Written by the only son of the late actor, with the cooperation of the other two Sellers children, this candid biography portrays Sellers's tormented private life and his extreme emotional vulnerability and insecurity
Throughout the world, people regard Peter Sellers purely as a comedic genius: surely, one of the greatest ever to have lived. But, the astute observer will notice that he always appeared to be acting, even when being interviewed. So, who was Peter Sellers?Sellers once said, "I could never be myself you see. There is no 'Me'. I do not exist. There used to be me, but I had it surgically removed." Clearly, this was not intended to be taken literally. Instead, the inference is that somehow, he had lost his sense of identity.To discover the real Peter Sellers is no easy task, and when we do, what we encounter is a totally different persona from the comedic characters that he portrayed on the screen.Sellers had celebrity status: a succession of beautiful wives; immense wealth; magnificent motor cars; expensive yachts; a house in Mayfair, and various palatial residences. But far from being happy, he was plagued by self-doubt; ambitious, but never satisfied. And so, he resorted to superstition, clairvoyance, and drugs to get himself through the day.For all Sellers' worldwide fame as 'Inspector Clouseau', many regard the film Being There, in which he played the character 'Chance', a gardener, as his masterpiece. In fact, the film was a damning indictment of the false god of materialism.Sellers' obsession with the character of 'Chance', makes it seem likely that this was the kind of person he aspired to be, and wished that he had been.
On January 30, 1933, hearing about the celebrations for Hitler’s assumption of power, Erich Ebermayer remarked bitterly in his diary, “We are the losers, definitely the losers.” Learning of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which made Jews non-citizens, he raged, “hate is sown a million-fold.” Yet in March 1938, he wept for joy at the Anschluss with Austria: “Not to want it just because it has been achieved by Hitler would be folly.” In a masterful work, Peter Fritzsche deciphers the puzzle of Nazism’s ideological grip. Its basic appeal lay in the Volksgemeinschaft—a “people’s community” that appealed to Germans to be part of a great project to redress the wrongs of the Versailles treaty, make the country strong and vital, and rid the body politic of unhealthy elements. The goal was to create a new national and racial self-consciousness among Germans. For Germany to live, others—especially Jews—had to die. Diaries and letters reveal Germans’ fears, desires, and reservations, while showing how Nazi concepts saturated everyday life. Fritzsche examines the efforts of Germans to adjust to new racial identities, to believe in the necessity of war, to accept the dynamic of unconditional destruction—in short, to become Nazis. Powerful and provocative, Life and Death in the Third Reich is a chilling portrait of how ideology takes hold.