Backstairs Billy

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Backstairs Billy

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849548935
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (495 download)

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Book Synopsis Backstairs Billy by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book Backstairs Billy written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "William Tallon was a creature of extremes: though intensely loyal, he was also a dangerous risk-taker; though charming, he could also be vicious; though considerate and amusing, he could be ruthless and predatory. For much of his life he was driven by two demons: a powerful sex drive and an intense, almost pathological love for the Queen Mother..." From humble beginnings as a shopkeeper's son in Coventry to 'Page of the Backstairs' at Clarence House, William Tallon, or 'Backstairs Billy' as he came to be known, entered royal service at the age of fifteen. Over the next fifty years, he became one of the most notorious and flamboyant characters ever to have graced the royal household - the one servant the Queen Mother just could not do without. While others came and went, he remained by her side, becoming one of her most trusted friends and confidants. The fascinating life story of the man who spent more than half a century working for one of the world's most elusive institutions, Backstairs Billy provides a rare glimpse of what the royals really get up to behind closed doors...

Mrs Keppel

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1785901532
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (859 download)

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Book Synopsis Mrs Keppel by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book Mrs Keppel written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Alice Keppel, it was all about appearances. Her precepts were those of the English upper classes: discretion, manners and charm. Nothing else mattered - especially when it came to her infamous affair with King Edward VII. As the King's favourite mistress up until his death in 1910, Alice held significant influence at court and over Edward himself. But it wasn't just Edward she courted: throughout her life, Alice enthusiastically embarked on affairs with bankers, MPs, peers - anybody who could elevate her standing and pay the right price. She was a shrewd courtesan, and her charisma and voracity ensured her both power and money, combined as they were with an aptitude for manipulation. Drawing on a range of sources, including salacious first-hand eyewitness accounts, bestselling author Tom Quinn paints an extraordinary picture of the Edwardian aristocracy, and traces the lives of royal mistresses down to Alice's great-granddaughter, the current Duchess of Cornwall. Both intriguing and astonishing, this is an unadulterated glimpse into a hidden world of scandal, decadence and debauchery.

Little Billy Tallon

Author : T. Y. MUNROE
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781980714170
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (141 download)

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Book Synopsis Little Billy Tallon by : T. Y. MUNROE

Download or read book Little Billy Tallon written by T. Y. MUNROE and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-26 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about William Tallon who was The Queen Mother's Page (Butler). It is not an exposé, but a memoir of working with William at Clarence House by bringing his voice and experiences alive in the way he was, using conversations and events taken from real life. For years as the personal 'Butler' (His ancient job title was Page of the backstairs) to the last Empress of India he enjoyed the high life, drinking Her Majesty's Champagne and cavorting with the guests, paying none or little attention to protocol, either inside or outside palace walls. He loved it! He may have thought he was invincible but of course he was not. He was just a boy from Newcastle. The Press hounded him when Queen Elizabeth died. Not as bad as they hounded Princess Diana but same old thing.'Backstairs Billy' was his nickname created by the Press and used by them ever since. He never gave in, he kept his mouth shut until he died.We go inside Clarence House to join him and his staff over the 100th birthday, and in preparations for a summer trip to Balmoral in Scotland. Then we go with him to serve dinner in the royal box at the ballet at The Royal Opera House.Then we go to Sandringham and eventually back to London in 2002.All this and having to quickly train up a handsome new footman. The new boy is finding it difficult to fit in to such an old fashioned and competitively camp establishment, and as there is no formal training the place is run under its own rules. After all, nobody can tell Queen Elizabeth what to do.Perhaps William's notorious reputation over the years was deserved, as he ran the place on his own terms, but his life suddenly begins to unravel.The book sets out to create a real life time capsule of how it was to work there with William and others, using first hand experience of conversations with William.He worked 50 years but he was not required around Queen Elizabeth for the last few weeks of her life, which tormented him to the last, yet from the adulation to the agony, he would probably love to do the whole thing all over again!

The Reluctant Billionaire

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1785904248
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (859 download)

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Book Synopsis The Reluctant Billionaire by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book The Reluctant Billionaire written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Gerald Grosvenor, sixth Duke of Westminster, died in August 2016 he was one of the world's richest men, his fortune estimated at just under £10 billion. Yet he hated his wealth and spent long periods suffering from severe depression, much of it brought on by a feeling that his whole life had been a failure and that his money had destroyed any chance of happiness. At the same time, he could be ruthless in running the business while often feeling he was only a mascot. Gerald Grosvenor came into the line of succession by mere chance – or 'rotten bad luck' as he put it. The third Duke was childless and the title passed to a cousin, who became fourth Duke in 1963 and then, when he died four years later, to his younger brother, Gerald's father, Robert Grosvenor, who lived on an island in Lough Erne where Gerald grew up. Tom Quinn interviewed the sixth Duke on a number of occasions as well as people who knew the duke socially or had at various times worked with or for him. He discovered a complex man tortured by what he saw as his failures. He was a man who longed to return to his idyllic rural childhood yet was only really happy as an adult in the company of call girls. The book looks at the long and often eccentric history of the Grosvenor family and its wealth and the complex means by which that wealth has been shielded from the taxman, as well as the bizarre life of a man who was that strangest of things: The Reluctant Billionaire.

The Final Curtsey

Author : Margaret Rhodes
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 0857901915
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (579 download)

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Book Synopsis The Final Curtsey by : Margaret Rhodes

Download or read book The Final Curtsey written by Margaret Rhodes and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling behind-the-scenes memoir of the royal family by a cousin who served in MI5—and as one of the Queen’s bridesmaids. Includes photos! A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she “lodged” at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth, to Prince Philip. Three years later, the King and Queen attended her own wedding, in which Princess Margaret was a bridesmaid. In 1990, she was appointed as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion, which she describes in touching detail. In the early months of 2002, she spent as much time as possible with her ailing aunt and was at her bedside when she died. The next morning, she went to Queen Elizabeth’s bedroom to pray, and in farewell dropped her a final curtsey. The Queen Mother regarded Margaret Rhodes as her “third daughter,” and she has been extremely close to her cousins, the Queen and Princess Margaret, throughout their lives. Full of charming anecdotes, fascinating characters, and personal photographs, this is an unparalleled insight into the private life of the British monarchy. “Surprisingly addictive.” —New Zealand Herald

Kensington Palace

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1785905910
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (859 download)

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Book Synopsis Kensington Palace by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book Kensington Palace written by Tom Quinn and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 300 years, Kensington Palace has played host to a colourful cast of kings, queens and assorted aristocratic hangers-on. A stone's throw from the bustling streets of central London, this grand building has served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and bizarre events in the history of the royal family. It was here that the young Queen Victoria was held a virtual prisoner for eighteen years; and it was here that George II installed both his wife and his mistress, giving the latter rooms so damp that there were said to be mushrooms growing on the walls. More recently, the palace has witnessed an extraordinary series of scandals, from Princess Diana's bombshell TV interview with a journalist smuggled into the palace disguised as a salesman, to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's shock departure – first for Frogmore Cottage, and then for America – amid rumours of a rift with William and Kate. With exclusive interviews with palace staff past and present, fascinating historical details and a fully updated postscript considering what life after Kensington holds for Harry and Meghan, Kensington Palace: An Intimate Memoir from Queen Mary to Meghan Markle offers a rare behind-the-scenes insight into one of Britain's most iconic residences.

Crumbs from the Table of Joy

Author : Lynn Nottage
Publisher : Dramatists Play Service Inc
ISBN 13 : 9780822215721
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Crumbs from the Table of Joy by : Lynn Nottage

Download or read book Crumbs from the Table of Joy written by Lynn Nottage and published by Dramatists Play Service Inc. This book was released on 1998 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: Recently widowed Godfrey, and his daughters Ernestine and Ermina, move from Florida to Brooklyn for a better life. Not knowing how to parent, Godfrey turns to religion, and especially to Father Divine, for answers. The girls absorb their

Mastercrafts

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780715336434
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (364 download)

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Book Synopsis Mastercrafts by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book Mastercrafts written by Tom Quinn and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a major new exploration of traditional British craftsmanship, accompanying the prime time BBC TV series presented by Monty Don. Mastercrafts; gave the opportunity for apprentices in six traditional crafts to learn intensively from a master.

Wings Over the World

Author : Tom Quinn
Publisher : White Lion Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Wings Over the World by : Tom Quinn

Download or read book Wings Over the World written by Tom Quinn and published by White Lion Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nowadays air travel is as routine as catching a bus. But before the war, it was truly extraordinary. A giant Handley-Page biplane bound for Paris, bouncing along Croydon Aerodrome's grass runway, meant seat belts were primarily needed before take-off. Africa by Empire flying boat was a five-day aerial voyage via lakes that had to be cleared of hippos before touchdown. On a wartime Boeing flying boat crossing the Atlantic, the navigator plotted his course by the stars. Now, historian Tom Quinn records the remarkable reminiscences of British pilots, navigators, stewardesses, and station commanders. Abundantly illustrated with period posters, photos, and memorabilia, this is stirring social history from the edge of living memory.

The Cook's Tale

Author : Nancy Jackman
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780750537674
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (376 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cook's Tale by : Nancy Jackman

Download or read book The Cook's Tale written by Nancy Jackman and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nancy Jackman was born in 1907 in a remote Norfolk village. Her father was a ploughman, her mother a former servant. Nancy left school at the age of 12 to work for a farmer and continued to work as a cook until the 1950s, sustained by her determination to escape and find a life of her own.

Roots, Radicals and Rockers

Author : Billy Bragg
Publisher : Faber & Faber
ISBN 13 : 0571327761
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (713 download)

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Book Synopsis Roots, Radicals and Rockers by : Billy Bragg

Download or read book Roots, Radicals and Rockers written by Billy Bragg and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC BOOK PRIZERoots, Radicals & Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World is the first book to explore this phenomenon in depth - a meticulously researched and joyous account that explains how skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it. It's a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch-hunts. Billy traces how the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early '50s, skiffle was adopted by kids who growing up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. These were Britain's first teenagers, looking for a music of their own in a pop culture dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of 'Rock Island Line' and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year. Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, skiffle was a do-it-yourself music. All you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.

Becky Nurse of Salem (TCG Edition)

Author : Sarah Ruhl
Publisher : Theatre Communications Group
ISBN 13 : 1559369469
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (593 download)

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Book Synopsis Becky Nurse of Salem (TCG Edition) by : Sarah Ruhl

Download or read book Becky Nurse of Salem (TCG Edition) written by Sarah Ruhl and published by Theatre Communications Group. This book was released on 2024-05-14 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America’s foremost playwrights. Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who’s just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She’s also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven’t they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family’s legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era. Becky Nurse of Salem received its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in December 2019, in a production directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will receive its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater in the fall of 2022.

Whose life is it anyway?.

Author : Brian Clark
Publisher : Dramatic Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780871293718
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (937 download)

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Book Synopsis Whose life is it anyway?. by : Brian Clark

Download or read book Whose life is it anyway?. written by Brian Clark and published by Dramatic Publishing. This book was released on 1980 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suite à un accident d'auto, un jeune sculpteur de talent, Ken Harrisson, se retrouve à l'hôpital, paralysé des épaules aux pieds. Le chirurgien qui l'a opéré lui annonce que son état est incurable et que, pour survivre, il lui faut rester à l'hôpital, et subir des traitements continuels. Ken exige que l'on cesse ces traitements, rabrouant avec ironie ceux qui cherchent à le réconforter. Par l'entremise d'un avocat, il obtient que se tienne une commission judiciaire qui aura à se prononcer sur son cas.

Like a Virgin

Author : Gordon Steel
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849436339
Total Pages : 58 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (494 download)

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Book Synopsis Like a Virgin by : Gordon Steel

Download or read book Like a Virgin written by Gordon Steel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A romp through the bubble-gum years of teenage life. Angela and Mazine, besotted with Madonna, play truant from school, form a band, attempt to write songs and, with hairbrushes in hand, live out their adolescent dreams of becoming famous. Meanwhile Angela's mother, Viv, struggles to come to terms with her marriage break-up and her daughter's explosive lifestyle, as the play rollercoasters through hope, sex, ambition, despair, and, most of all, love.

Something Happened

Author : Greg Logsted
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416950788
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (169 download)

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Book Synopsis Something Happened by : Greg Logsted

Download or read book Something Happened written by Greg Logsted and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of his father's unexpected death, thirteen-year-old Billy Romero feels he has no one to talk to until his English teacher, the young and beautiful Miss Gate, offers support and friendship, but soon he is wondering if something more is going on.

Orphans

Author : Dennis Kelly
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849439532
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (494 download)

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Book Synopsis Orphans by : Dennis Kelly

Download or read book Orphans written by Dennis Kelly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helen and Danny keep themselves to themselves. But the outside world comes crashing into their lives one day when Helen's brother turns up. Covered in blood. Dennis Kelly's new play is a thrilling contemporary suspense story which takes its audience on a chilling journey into a world just outside the front door. This disturbing urban drama has it's world premiere at the Traverse Theatre on 31st July 2009, reuniting the team that brought Kelly's play After The End to the Traverse Theatre in 2005. After a month's run at the Traverse, it transfers to Birmingham Rep and the Soho Theatre (London).

Tabloid Secrets

Author : Neville Thurlbeck
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1849549338
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (495 download)

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Book Synopsis Tabloid Secrets by : Neville Thurlbeck

Download or read book Tabloid Secrets written by Neville Thurlbeck and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-12 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In nearly twenty years at the top of the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck - chief reporter, news editor and scoop-hunter extraordinaire - served up some of the most famous, memorable and astonishing headlines in the paper's existence. They lit up the world of tabloid journalism and featured names such as David Beckham, Fred and Rose West, Jeffrey Archer and Robin Cook, among many others. Along the way, Thurlbeck was drawn into encounters with Cabinet ministers, rent boys, sports stars, serial killers, drug lords and, on one occasion, a devil-worshipping police officer. He worked with MI5 and the National Criminal Intelligence Service, foiled a murder and gave Gordon Brown a tongue-lashing to remember, all in the name of journalism. Now, in Tabloid Secrets, he reveals for the first time the truth about how he broke the stories that thrilled, excited and shocked the nation, and secured the paper up to fifteen million readers every week. The result is a fascinating, scandalous, swashbuckling insight into some of the biggest and most sensational scoops by Fleet Street's most notorious reporter.