THE BOYS’ BOOK CLUB WHAT WE’RE READING Books us blokes on the Ponsonby News team are reading, or have recently enjoyed. We LOVE reading in the bath, or in bed. A real stress buster!
MARTIN LEACH ‘MARIE HELVIN – THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY’ By Marie Helvin (Phoenix/Orion)
Ideal holiday material and one that won’t let you go to sleep at night until you have had a read.
One of the very first professional supermodels, and described by Vogue magazine as the most beautiful woman in the world Marie Helvin has been an iconic image on the global fashion scene since the 1970s. I was lucky enough to interview her during the late 70s at the house on Gloucester Avenue, Regent’s Park she shared with David Bailey. 10 years later my partner ended up working on Ritz Magazine with both David Litchfield and Bailey. She has always been well connected and Paul and Linda McCartney attended their wedding party in Honolulu. David Bowie drew inspiration for his famous Aladdin Sane tour from her fashion shots for Harpers & Queen.
At the beginning of time an exotic stranger appears in an ancient village somewhere in Mesopotamia and is worshipped as a goddess until she unleashes a horror beyond anything that mankind has ever known. A mercenary unit in Northern Iraq traps a radical Islamic terrorist in a mysterious cave, when they try to extract him they discover a more ominous threat that has been lurking beneath the mountain for thousands of years. What has this to do with a Las Vegas televangelist who is intent on bringing the Middle East to its knees.
Marie entertained Salman Rushdie during the height of the fatwa, introducing Dodi Al Fayed to Princess Diana. Still at the forefront of the fashion industry, she is as much in demand as ever, most recently modeling for her seventh British Vogue cover. Marie’s autobiography candidly tells the story of friendships with – amongst many others – Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger, and Andy Warhol. She reveals the dark side of her own personality as she explains how she gradually came to believe in her own beauty and found fulfillment as an independent woman. Illustrated with images from several outstanding photographers, including Bailey, Helmut Newton, and Nick Knight, Marie Helvin’s memoir is the remarkable story of a groundbreaking woman.
At an abandoned Soviet base in the Arctic, the battle to save the world is about to begin. Dragon Island a relic from the Cold war, long forgotten but not abandoned houses a terrible weapon of mass destruction.
She remains in the forefront of the fashion industry, appearing as a judge in ‘Britain’s Next Top Model’ and recently, she returned to Japan to present a look at fashion and innovation in modern Japan in “Marie Helvin’s Tokyo”, part of the Luxury Life series on CNBC. Several years ago Marie was the face of Marks & Spencer’s new Portfolio fashion range for women over 50.
‘SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES’ By Mathew Reilly (Macmillan) Scarecrow is back and madder than ever.
A brutal terrorist force seizes Dragon Island calling itself the Army of Thieves and they have control of a sophisticated missile defence system that is able to repel any incoming threat. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. With no one near enough to stop the terrorists in time it’s up to Marine captain Schofield Call sign Scarecrow who happens to be testing equipment in the area. With no one else close enough it’s up to him to lead a team of civilians and a handful of marines to stop them at whatever cost. PN
‘LONDON CALLING: A COUNTERCULTURAL HISTORY OF LONDON SINCE 1945’ by Barry Miles (Atlantic) As someone who enjoyed three decades in London on an extended OE, this is a major and definitive history of the counterculture by our pre-eminent chronicler of the cultural underground. London has long been a magnet for aspiring artists and writers, musicians and fashion designers seeking inspiration and success in this great city. In ‘London Calling’, Barry Miles explores the counter culture that sprang up in the decades following the Second World War, focusing on the West End and Soho, where the presence of so many artists has established a unique atmosphere; creative, avant garde, permissive, anarchic - the throbbing heart of London. Here are the heady days of post-war Soho when suddenly everything seemed possible, the jazzbars and clubs of the fifties, the teddy boys and the Angry Young Men, Francis Bacon and the legendary Colony Club, the 1960s and the Summer of Love, the rise of punk and the early days of the YBAs. The vitality and excitement of these days and years of change - and the sheer creativity of London – leap off the page of this evocative and riveting book, which I found very hard to put down!
JAY PLATT ‘THE GENESIS PLAGUE’ By Michael Byrnes (Simon & Schuster) Sometimes all I really want is a fast moving, action packed thriller adventure and that’s exactly what I got in this book from Michael Byrnes. Add to the mix a touch of biblical mystery, some modern science belief alongside a touch of military paranoia and you get something pretty damn hard to put down.
116 PONSONBY NEWS+ February 2012
PUBLISHED FIRST FRIDAY EACH MONTH (except January)