Dimensions
128 x 198 x 32mm
In 1954, Shirley Bassey was seventeen years old. She had just returned from a cheesy revue tour called Hot from Harlem. Depressed, disillusioned and four months pregnant, she decided that her dream of being a professional singer was over. A mere ten years later, she was one of the biggest stars in the world.
Miss Shirley Bassey explores this remarkable transformation, both of an individual and of the British society and British psyche that made it possible. From the vibrant, multicultural oasis of Tiger Bay in the Cardiff docklands through the club-lands of Soho and Las Vegas to New York's Carnegie Hall, it is a journey from mere mortal to international icon.
John L. Williams draws on original research and interviews to provide a portrait of a young woman on the cusp of stardom, whose rise to fame was in many ways symbolic of a changing world. This is the story of a woman who set out to be extraordinary and - against all the odds - succeeded.
