Tales from the Bedroom Floor

London: Puffin, 1983 (first published 1967) Why is this book on the bedroom floor?: I was telling somebody, with great enthusiasm, about a brilliant story I once read about a bloke who saves a penalty from a star striker at his school. That story was 'The Goalkeeper's Revenge', and I wanted to read it again, so I ordered this for a few quid via eBay. About the author: Bill Naughton was born in Ireland in 1910, moving four years later to Bolton . Undertaking a variety of back-breaking manual work before starting a writing career, Naughton hit it big when his radio play Alfie Elkins and his Little Life  transferred to the stage and thence to film, becoming Michael Caine's signature character. The prolific Naughton had two more plays and a novel turned into films and he was garlanded with prizes. Naughton was a prolific writer and playwright, passing away in 1992 on the Isle of Man. Plot: Thirteen tales, including the titular story, of working-class mischief in 1930s B

London: Pushkin Press, 2014 Why is this book on the bedroom floor?: I’m a sucker for anything set in the former East Germany. Mainly because I’ve been planning to write a book set there for about fifteen years, but now it’s also a “thing” of mine. Well, y’know, some people have got Love Island . About the Author: Maxim Leo is a German journalist who trained as a laboratory assistant in the GDR before swerving completely into political science when the Wall fell. He’s worked for the network RTL and writes regularly for the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. It also appears he’s a screenwriter in Germany. Red Love is published in his homeland as Keep Your Heart Ready , which I think while it doesn’t make any sense in the context of the translation is quite nice. My translation is courtesy of Shaun Whiteside. Plot: Leo delves into his family’s history, pulling apart the thoughts and actions of his parents and grandfathers, and their worth to the socialist state. What he finds is not necessarily

London: Virgin Publishing Ltd, 2001 Why is this book on the bedroom floor?: There are innumerable books about The Beatles out there, it doesn't take long for you to stray into the lives of those they met. Unfortunately, this will sometimes include the distasteful. While macabre, I ordered this from eBay so I could get a more rounded picture of what happened that dreadful night in December 1980. About the Author: Jack Jones is an investigative journalist who has written about the American penal system for a number of years, which included a spell working undercover at Attica maximum-security prison. This led to an exclusive, conducting the first personal interviews with David Berkowitz, the notorious 'Son of Sam'. Plot: The murder of John Lennon, through the eyes of the murderer. Jones conducted over 200 hours worth of interviews with Mark David Chapman, and this is the result, helping us to understand the why, the how and the aftermath of an event we are still yet to mak

London: Bantam Press, 1988 Why is this book on the bedroom floor?: I ordered it from a bookseller on eBay, having never come across it in any library or second-hand. It’s like it was deleted from history, and be that because of its size or notoriety, the only way I was going to be able to judge it for myself was to pay a few quid. About the Author: Albert Goldman was an academic and biographer whose writings on American pop culture appeared in a number of leading publications. A widely-praised biography of Lenny Bruce was eventually followed by a notorious biography of Elvis Presley , in which critics saw reflected Goldman’s apparent dislike of his subject. At the time of his death in 1994, Goldman was working on a biography of late Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, which was unpublished. He taught at numerous universities in New York during his life, finishing his life as an associate professor at Columbia University. Plot: Without a shadow of a doubt, the most controversial biograp