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A Furious Devotion

The Life of Shane MacGowan

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A Furious Devotion

By: Richard Balls
Narrated by: Dan Calley
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Punk protagonist, legendary drinker, Irish musical icon. The complete and extraordinary journey of the Pogues' notorious front man from outcast to national treasure has never been told - until now.

A Furious Devotion: The Life of Shane MacGowan vividly recounts the experiences that shaped the greatest songwriter of his generation: the formative trips to his mother's homestead in Tipperary, the explosion of punk that changed his life, and the drink and drugs that nearly ended it.

As well as exclusive interviews with Shane himself, author Richard Balls has secured contributions from his wife and family and people who have never spoken publicly about Shane before: close associates, former girlfriends, and the English teacher who first spotted his literary gift. Nick Cave, Aidan Gillen, Cillian Murphy, Christy Moore, Sinead O'Connor, and Dermot O'Leary are on the rollcall of those paying tribute to the gifted songwriter and poet.

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A good book... Quite a lot of mispronounced names and Irish words, and a rather dodgy fake Irish accent in places, but as long as you're willing to let that slide this is a really enjoyable and generally well narrated look into the life of the great Shane MacGowan.

Leabhar maith, ach...

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Great book but the voiceover makes it a challenging listen. His poor pronunciation of names and place names is insulting.

Great book but the narration is an insult.

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I really wish someone else had narrated this book
It is a ridiculous , annoying and superbly condescending rendition
Ruined the book completely

Horrific Narration

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I absolutely loved the Pogues, the Popes and anything else Shane Macgowan was involved in. Chaotic, exhausting to read, but some absolute classics which will live on. Shame the narrator hadn’t researched a number of the pronunciations. Maybe give him a break on Maclennane, but Cillian and Cerys !! No excuse. I did wonder if I could hang in there until the end of the book, - and square away his support for the IRA - but this was no problem. And I’m happy this doesn’t include the last year or so. It helps his legacy e on. Stuart

The chaos behind the genius

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A fantastic book but a truly awful narration. The narrator continuously mispronounces names and places throughout the book. The book deserves to be read by someone with even a passing familiarity with The Pogues or with normal place names in Ireland or just people’s names in general. The shambolic effort to pronounce so many words such as Sally MacLennane, Howth, Deirdre, O’Mahony, Cillian, Ranelagh, Cuchulainn, Tralee, Castlebar etc… completely detracts from the story and the “begorrah” Irish accent put on throughout the book was an aural reminder of old Punch cartoons. Listening to an English accent making a hames of both the Irish accent and pronunciations has similar racial undertones as a white man dressing up as a “black face” character. For years Irish people would be portrayed on British TV and radio as the “thick Paddy” and would be derided, I don’t think that this was the aim of the production company, or of the narrator, but if this story was set in India or Pakistan would the narration be different? It’s obvious that the narrator didn’t put an ounce of research into the book which takes from the book’s credibility. Incredibly disappointing but the book is still a magnificent read.

Great book - awful narration.

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