Johnny Mercer – författare

The seventh volume in Knopf’s critically acclaimed Complete Lyrics series, published in Johnny Mercer’s centennial year, contains the texts to more than 1,200 of his lyrics, several hundred of them published here for the first time.Johnny Mercer’s early songs became staples of the big band era and were regularly featured in the musicals of early Hollywood. With his collaborators, who included Richard A. Whiting, Harry Warren, Hoagy Carmichael, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen, he wrote the lyrics to some of the most famous standards, among them, “Too Marvelous for Words,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Skylark,” “I’m Old-Fashioned,” and “That Old Black Magic.”During a career of more than four decades, Mercer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song an astonishing eighteen times, and won four: for his lyrics to “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe” (music by Warren), “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” (music by Carmichael), and “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses” (music for both by Henry Mancini).You’ve probably fallen in love with more than a few of Mercer’s songs–his words have never gone out of fashion–and with this superb collection, it’s easy to see that his lyrics elevated popular song into art.From the Hardcover edition.

‘Remarkable. Deeply personal, moving and funny. Johnny is not your typical person or politician’ – Alastair Campbell‘An extraordinary book by an extraordinary person’ – Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest Is PoliticsBrutally honest, insightful and darkly funny, No Way to Run a Country is former Cabinet minister Johnny Mercer’s account of a tumultuous nine years in Parliament, under five prime ministers including Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.In this deeply personal memoir, he reveals what Westminster and government is really like and neatly skewers its many absurdities.Johnny, who fought in Afghanistan in 29 Commando Regiment, was fired up with anger at the poor treatment of veterans by successive governments. Determined to do something about it, in 2015 he stood for election in his beloved city of Plymouth. This political outsider was on a mission to change the country.Johnny’s experiences in Westminster veer from hilarious to infuriating as he refuses to accept the gap between what governments say and what they do. As a result he is threatened, briefed against and sacked as a minister – twice! Politics is a blood sport, whatever your party.He sees a system riven with infighting, incompetence and inertia, struggling through Brexit, the fall of Afghanistan and numerous self-inflicted crises. There are many good MPs who deserve better. The public certainly does.As the outsider becomes the insider, he succeeds in creating the UK’s first Office of Veterans’ Affairs and introduces legislation to protect their rights and service. But for Johnny, who has his own daily battle with crippling OCD, the long fight comes at a cost.Perfect for readers of Politics on the Edge and Ungovernable.