Romany and Tom - A Memoir

Ben Watt's father, Tommy, was a working-class Glaswegian jazz musician, a politicised left-wing bandleader and a composer. His heyday in the late fifties took him into the glittering heart of London's West End, where he broadcast live with his own orchestra from the Paris Theatre and played nightly with his quintet at the the glamorous Quaglino's. Ben's mother, Romany, the daughter of a Methodist parson, schooled at Cheltenham Ladies' College, was a RADA-trained Shakespearian actress, who had triplets in her first marriage before becoming a leading showbiz columnist in the.sixties and seventies. They were both divorcees from very different backgrounds who came together like colliding trains in 1957. Both a personal journey and a portrait of his parents, is a vivid story of the post-war years, ambition and stardom, family roots and secrets, life in clubs and in care homes. It is also about who we are, where we come from, and how we love and live with each other for a long time.

Product details

• Authors: Ben Watt, Watt Ben
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2015
• EAN: 9781408845103
• ISBN: 978-1-4088-4510-3
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 196 mm x 26 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Humanities, art, music > History > Contemporary history (1945 to 1989); FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / General, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Family history, tracing ancestors, Biography: arts and entertainment, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period)