Books by Craig Brown
Craig Brown is a British satirist and journalist, and the author of 18 books. He has been writing his parodic diary in Private Eye since 1989. He is the only person ever to have won three different British Press Awards – for best humorist, columnist and critic – in the same year. He has been a columnist for, among others, The Guardian, The Times, The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph. He currently writes for The Daily Mail and the The Mail on Sunday. His biography of The Beatles on the 50th anniversary of their break-up, One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time, has been a Sunday Times bestseller. His previous book, Ma’am Darling: Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret was an international bestseller, and won several awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Award and the South Bank Sky Arts Literature Award.
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown
🏆 Winner of the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
☆ Shortlisted for the 2023 Winner of Winners Prize, which aims to pick out the best nonfiction book of the past 25 years
Craig Brown's One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time is a quirky and interesting biography of the Fab Four, full of surprising information and interesting reflections on the 1960s, the Beatles' career trajectories and the joys and pitfalls of fame. Anything by Craig Brown is always worth reading.
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
by Craig Brown
Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret tells the story of princess Margaret, the Queen’s younger sister, through her appearance in the diaries and memoirs of well known people over the course of her life—1930-2002.
The princess was always in a difficult position. She had no constitutional role to fulfil, but was obliged—or certainly felt obliged—to keep up royal appearances. Her husband, Lord Snowdon, was a photographer, and she knew and partied with everyone who was anyone, not just in high society, but in artistic circles, too.
However, despite her bohemian streak, she was punctilious in matters of royal protocol. George Harrison once plucked up the courage to ask her if she wouldn’t mind leaving an after-show party, as protocol decreed that no one was allowed to eat before she left and the Beatles were starving. She left, but most people weren’t so brave.
Ma’am Darling shows how the bohemian and royal worlds clashed in the person of Princess Margaret. But it also reveals the limits of the 1960s’ social revolution. Princess Margaret may have enjoyed the company of artists and writers, but most of the artists and writers were at least as desperate to be seen at the same parties as the Queen’s sister, as she ever was to be entertained by them. This is a brilliantly original book, as much a portrait of the age as of the princess.
Benedict King, Contributing Editor
Interviews with Craig Brown
-
1
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock
by Nik Cohn -
2
British Hit Singles and Albums
ed. David Roberts -
3
John Lennon in My Life
by Nicholas Schaffner & Pete Shotton -
4
Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette
by Ronnie Spector & Vince Waldron -
5
I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie
by Pamela Des Barres
The best books on Rock and Roll, recommended by Craig Brown
The best books on Rock and Roll, recommended by Craig Brown
We might console ourselves with the thought that rock stars are generally miserable, but the truth is that most of them seem to have a great time. Journalist, satirist and Beatles biographer Craig Brown selects five of the best books on that rock and roll lifestyle.
The best books on Diaries and Autobiography, recommended by Craig Brown
The Private Eye satirist and author recommends five entertaining published diaries, from Andy Warhol to Harpo Marx – and tells us why parody is a pickpocket
Interviews where books by Craig Brown were recommended
-
1
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous
by Christopher Bonanos -
2
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
by Craig Brown -
3
Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History
by Yunte Huang -
4
The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century
by Mark Lamster -
5
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created
by Jane Leavy
The Best Biographies: the 2019 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies: the 2019 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Biography is booming, says the longtime book critic and biographer Elizabeth Taylor. Here she highlights the five fantastic books shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle 2019 biography award, and how historical lives provide insight into contemporary culture.
-
1
Peacemakers: Six Months That Changed the World
by Margaret MacMillan -
2
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
by James Shapiro -
3
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
4
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest
by Wade Davis -
6
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
by Craig Brown
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
The Best Nonfiction of the Past Quarter Century: The Baillie Gifford Prize Winner of Winners, recommended by Sophie Roell
“All the best stories are true” runs the tagline of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, the UK’s pre-eminent nonfiction book award. This year, to celebrate the prize’s 25th birthday, a panel of judges picked out books for a winner of winners award, making for an excellent collection of nonfiction books from the last quarter of a century, as Five Books editor Sophie Roell explains.
