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This book gives us an insight into the life of his grandfather Reg Pratley, born in a small Berkshire village called Appleton near Oxford, who ran away to be a fairground showman. He worked and toured with the famous William (Billy) Nichols fairground empire and established himself as a Master Showman.

Walter Edward Reginald Pratley, known to his family as Reg, was a Berkshire farm boy with a dream. He wanted to escape the everyday and experience adventure. Hearing stories of his families lost heritage as travellers from his grandmother Lucy Clemstone Pratley awoke his dream. When the fairground came to his village of Appleton near Oxford he befriended them and decided that the fair would never leave him behind again when they packed up and left. Fate, the Royal Navy, love and the Great War all stood in his way but he survived against the odds and managed to make his dream come true. During the 1920s and 1930s he became a respected Master Showman travelling for the famous William (Billy) Nichols and his fairground empire. His Gallopers were his pride and joy and he named the carved wooden horses after his children. His travelling circuit included London's Forest Gate and annual fairgrounds at Reading, Newbury, Swindon, Abingdon, Banbury, Stratford Upon Avon to name a few and of course Oxford's famous St Giles Fair. A few months prior to WW2 tragedy struck him and his family. Nothing was ever the same again. This is his story and a story of that time when the fairground reigned supreme for leisure and excitement and was eagerly awaited each year by thousands in towns and villages across the country. My grandfather's story is truly remarkable and is now preserved as part of fairground and social history from the early 20th Century.

This is not a sentimental journey but an honest and affectionate journey into the life, work and world of the late Ivor Novello (1893-1951). From his first success as a composer with the WW1 hit Keep The Home Fires Burning, he would go on to become a film star, playwright and stage actor, and then the creator of glamorous Ruritanian musicals that filled the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Ruritania was the mythical land in which he set these romantic musicals, it was a land of his own invention and also one that reflected the historical and social events in the real world around him.Interwoven through the story are accounts of the author's experiences whilst involved with Novello's works. From the tribute concerts at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to the role he undertook on the Oscar and BAFTA winning film Gosford Park as the Ivor Novello Consultant. Along the way he met and interviewed the likes of Mary Ellis, who starred in Glamorous Night with Novello in 1935; Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, who often stayed at Novello's country home with his wife Joan Crawford; Gordon Dutson, Novello's last secretary and lover; Nicholas Hassall, whose father, Christopher Hassall, was Novello's lyricist and close friend.Novello's sudden death in 1951, aged just 58, was front page news. His funeral route was lined by thousands of fans. His circle of friends closed ranks to protect his memory. In fact what they achieved was destructive. Within ten years of his death he was all but forgotten, as if he had never existed.

Discover the life of one of Edwardian England's most celebrated and revered musical comedy stars, Lily Elsie. From her childhood days in the music-halls of Salford and her rise to fame as the child singing star 'Little Elsie' to her arrival in London and association with the most powerful theatre impresario of the time, George Edwardes. Her rise to fame as Sonia in Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow in 1907, produced by Edwardes at Daly's Theatre, was achieved in spite of her lack of confidence and overwhelming stage fright that would leave her sick with nervous exhaustion. Her final years were spent in isolation, supported by a few close friends like Cecil Beaton, her personality eroded by mental health problems. She died alone in 1962, a tragic end to a life which had promised so much. In fact her life had been anything but merry from the very beginning.This special hardback edition was created to celebrate the blue plaque that was finally placed on Lily Elsie's former London home at Stanhope Place, Hyde Park, in August 2019. The plaque was unveiled by West End actress and singer Rosemary Ashe accompanied by Roy Hudd OBE on what would turn out to be one of his last public engagements. It was a joyous day also attended by Victoria Willis, whose mother and grandmother were great friends of Lily Elsie. Her mother, Mrs. Sonia Berry, I was privileged to meet and she helped me to understand elements of Lily Elsie's life for this book and kindly wrote a foreword. This edition is dedicated to her memory.The book was originally published under the title Anything But Merry! The Life & Times of Lily Elsie but we changed the title for a subsequent paperback edition at the suggestion of my agent Robert Smith and for this new hardback edition to update the information since the blue plaque was unveiled.

Evelyn Waugh described the Cliftons of Lytham Hall as "all tearing mad" during visits in the 1930s. Join him and Harry Clifton on a journey of love, friendship, excess and liberation as they fight to be free of the sexual, dynastic and religious expectations the world demands of them.With a mix of fact and fiction, join us for this journey to a land that might-have-been as we meet the eccentric Harry Clifton and his family, and his adventures with friends Bertie Pemberton-Billing and Evelyn Waugh at Oxford in the 1920s, whilst an undergraduate at Christ Church. Discover their association with the Hypocrites Club and the notorious private drinking clubs that revelled in hedonism and sexual liberation. Harry and Evelyn were both eventually sent down from Oxford without degrees.Harry's irresponsible decisions, after the death of his father, and his wanton disregard for his family's heritage and reputation, and his obsession with the occult and mysticism, that led him to rely on the White Goddess and the Ghost of Hollywood to guide him with disastrous financial decisions. His darker side inspired by his favourite author and poet Edgar Alan Poe.From an equally disastrous marriage to purchasing Imperial Faberge Eggs, private suites at the Ritz Hotel and Claridge's, and the squandering of eye-watering amounts of money, a doomed foray into film producing with Brian Desmond Hurst, his journey continues through the 1930s as his reckless behaviour threatens hundreds of years of his family's reputation and heritage.On the eve of WW2 it all comes crashing down. Evelyn Waugh decides to separate from his friend but do the seeds of that friendship with Harry influence Waugh's character Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited? His most famous novel was finally published in 1945 much to the displeasure of Harry's widowed mother Violet Clifton. She never spoke to Waugh again.