Based on a True Story cover art

Based on a True Story

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About this listen

 From poker to poetry, poisoners to princes, opera to the Oscars, Shakespeare to Olivier, Mozart to Murdoch, Anthony Holden seems to have rolled many writers’ lives into one. Author of 35 books on a ‘crazy’ range of subjects, this cocky Lancashire lad-turned-bohemian citizen of the world has led an apparently charmed life from Merseyside to Buckingham Palace, the White House and beyond. As he turns 70, the award-winning journalist and biographer – grandson of an England footballer, son of a seaside shopkeeper, friend of the famous from Princess Diana to Peter O'Toole, Mick Jagger to Salman Rushdie – spills the beans on showbiz names to literary sophisticates, rock stars to royals as he looks back whimsically and wittily on a richly varied, anecdote- and action-packed career – concluding, in the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, that ‘Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well’.©2021 Anthony Holden (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, UK Art & Literature Journalists, Editors & Publishers Royalty

Critic reviews

'A writer’s life told by a born writer – beautifully observed, brilliantly written, wonderfully evocative. It’s a story of our time – featuring some of the most remarkable characters of our time – funny, moving and telling; a roller-coaster of a good read, at times hilarious, at times heart-breaking. My book of the year.' (Gyles Brandreth)
‘Unputdownable … Everything Holden touches, whether Arsenal or Tchaikovsky, he lights up with a fresh eye and zest. I can’t think of a more enjoyable memoir, which is also a portrait of a man of remarkable talents, expressing his own brilliance with politicians in Washington, with the literati in London watering-holes, and pursuing a never-ending affair with Shakespeare.’ (Melvyn Bragg)
‘An absolute page turner … A latter-day Laurence Sterne hurtling through a picaresque life of creative adventure. What is truly inspiring is the way Anthony has nourished so many amazing friendships with extraordinary people. This should be read by every young person of ambition to remind them that what lasts is the love of friends and family.’ (Tina Brown)
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Oh, this is fun. It's such fun. I love the voice, I love the world, I love the people, I miss them (true, I did know them), I miss the papers and the printing presses and the glamour of travel and parties and the 70s and 80s. I envy him for the taking part (I was too young), I hate him for the misogyny and the boys' club schtick and I just couldn't get enough of hearing all about it. What a life! What a ride! What a world!

A romp through a newspaper world gone by

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