| |
|
| |
| |
For
permission to use the black and white publicity photograph
featured on this website, or to obtain other photographs
of the author, please contact the photographer Jerry Bauer:
jerry_snap@hotmail.com
|
|
 |
| |
|
BIOGRAPHY
Newspaper journalist
Howard Sounes, who was born in suburban south east London
in 1965, made his living as a newspaper journalist until the mid-1990s
when he broke major stories in the case of Fred
and Rosemary West: one of the most sensational murder stories
in recent British history.
Sounes was working as a staff reporter for the Sunday
Mirror in
London when, in March 1994, he reported that a semi-detached house
at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, in the west
of England, was the grave of nine young women. The man of the house, Fred
West,
and his wife Rose, were responsible for these crimes. Among the dead
was their teenaged daughter, Heather. In common with many of the victims,
her body had been dismembered and she had been decapitated.
Sounes went on to cover the case extensively,
for the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror. His book, Fred & Rose,
was published at the conclusion of Rose West's trial for murder in
1995.
Fred & Rose
Upon publication in December 1995, Fred & Rose was a paperback bestseller and has become one of the most widely-read true
crime books of recent times.
Although his debut book had been a work of true crime,
Sounes' interests were broader and more specifically cultural.
His second book was therefore very different to Fred & Rose,
being a literary biography of the American writer Charles
Bukowski (1920-94),
who documented his life in Los Angeles in more
than fifty books of poetry and prose including Post Office and The
Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills.
Sounes became so engrossed in writing the Bukowski biography
that, in the summer of 1997, he resigned from his newspaper job to devote
himself to the project. He has written full-time ever since.
Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life was greeted with warm reviews when it was published, in Britain (by Canongate Books), and in the USA (by Grove Press), in 1998. The book has since become established as the premier biography of the writer, and has been translated into eleven languages.
Charles Bukowski wrote about his own life, essentially,
and his family, friends and lovers are often the basis of characters
in his books. While
he was researching the biography, Howard
Sounes made a point of collecting as many pictures as possible, not
only of Bukowski himself, but also the people and places in his life. Locked
in the Arms of A Crazy Life is
richly illustrated, but still many pictures were left over after
the book was
published. Sounes therefore compiled an illustrated companion book, Bukowski
in Pictures,
published by Canongate of Edinburgh in 2000, and distributed in the USA
by Grove Press. This book was additionally published in Japanese, Italian
and Spanish
editions.
Bob Dylan
Ever since he was a teenager, Howard Sounes has
been a devotee of the music of Bob Dylan, as well as
being fascinated with Dylan's singular personality.
In the late 1990s, Sounes began to research a major new
biography of the musician, for publication in 2001 when Dylan turned
sixty.
Travelling extensively in the USA, Sounes interviewed more than 250
people close to the artist, including Dylan's fellow musicians,
girlfriends and family members.
The result of this original research is Down
the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan,
first published in the USA by Grove Press, and in the UK by Doubleday,
in 2001. The book has since been translated into many languages.
The book made news upon publication partly because it
contained the revelation that, unknown to his fans and the media, Dylan
had
married
for a second time, in 1986, to backing singer Carolyn Dennis,
with whom he had a daughter.
The secret marriage story
was, in fact, only a small part of a wealth of new information revealed
in Down the
Highway,
which is both a truly revelatory biography as well as being an affectionate
celebration of
one of the leading cultural figures of our time.
Down the Highway was a finalist for the Ralph
J. Gleason Music Book Award (USA) and was chosen by Uncut magazine
as its 2001 Music Book of the Year.
Golf
Throughout his career, Howard Sounes has made a point
of tackling diverse subjects, chosen because of a personal fascination
with the topic. For his next book he undertook to write a history of
modern, professional men's golf, via biographical studies of the three
greatest players of recent times - Arnold
Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
By charting the careers of Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods,
Sounes was able to open up a broader sports story: the development of
the professional
game and its major tournaments since the 1950s, and the growing importance
in pro' golf of sponsorship and big business. Along the way, Sounes highlights
the history of discrimination in the golf establishment.
The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf was
published in 2004 by William Morrow in the USA and by Sidgwick & Jackson in Britain.
The book was long-listed for the 2004 William Hill Sports Book of
the Year Award (UK).
The 1970s
Following The
Wicked Game, Sounes set out to write a cultural
history of the 1970s.
The impetus was seeing a plethora of clip-based television shows
that mocked the '70s as
being an era of foolish fashions, vacuous pop music and poor design.
To Sounes the truth is that the cultural legacy of the decade includes some
of the most exciting and innovative films, music, art, architecture, literature
and television of modern times.
Starting in 1970 with the making of the Bob Rafelson movie Five
Easy Pieces,
and ending with a colourful recreation of Woody Allen's December
1979 new year party, Sounes celebrates the 1970s through
the personal stories and achievements of some of the luminaries of the
decade, many of whom were interviewed for the book.
Seventies: The Sights, Sounds and Ideas of a Brilliant Decade was
published in the UK by Simon & Schuster in 2006,
and is in the process of being translated.
Howard Sounes is currently researching a book entitled Heist,
about the 2006 Tonbridge Securitas robbery. The British
publisher will again be Simon & Schuster.
Mr. Sounes is represented by Gordon Wise of
the literary agency Curtis Brown,
the details of which are:
Curtis Brown
Haymarket House
28-29 Haymarket
London SW1Y 4SP
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: 020 7393 4400
www.curtisbrown.co.uk
Back to top
|
