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BARBARA SINATRA
Lady Blue Eyes
publication: 07/04/2011
price: 18.99
size: Royal Octavo
pages: 368
ISBN: 9780091937249
Barbara Sinatra tells how a gangly kid in pigtails from Bosworth,
Missouri became the fourth Mrs Frank Sinatra – a marriage that lasted
more than twenty years
Thirty years after she first heard his voice singing to her from a jukebox at
her local drive-in, Barbara began her love affair with Frank Sinatra. After
a tempestuous courtship, she finally heard him say the wedding vows that
began his fourth, final, and most enduring marriage; one that would last
more than two decades until the end of his life. Generous and jealous, witty
and wicked, Frank comes alive in this poignant inside story of the highs
and lows of marriage to one of the world’s most famous men. In this, her
first public love letter to the husband she adored, his wife celebrates the
sensational singer, sexy heart-throb, possessive mate, and loyal friend that
was Frank Sinatra.
This book will let his legions of fans see another side of ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’.
Though Frank Sinatra’s children have written memoirs about their father,
this is the first time his wife of twenty-two years is sharing intimate details
of life with the man and the legend.
Barbara Ann Sinatra was Frank Sinatra’s wife and steadfast companion
for more than twenty years. Born Barbara Blakeley, she was a former
model, Vegas showgirl and wife of Zeppo Marx before meeting and
marrying Francis Albert Sinatra in July 1976. Barbara is now in her
eighties and lives in California.
HUGO VICKERS
Behind Closed Doors
publication: 07/04/2011
price: 25.00
size: Royal Octavo
pages: 256
ISBN: 9780091931551
The tragic, untold story of the Duchess of Windsor
Writing about Hugo Vickers’ last book for Hutchinson, Elizabeth, The
Queen Mother, a succession of fellow biographers applauded Vickers’ unique
skill. ‘Masterly...Hugo Vickers’ long immersion in the history and dramatic
personae of the Royal Family has certainly paid off’ – Selina Hastings. ‘A
bulging plum pudding of insider snippets’, commented Robert Lacey. ‘An
overall portrait which may well be as close as anyone will ever get to the
truth’, said Craig Brown. And A.N. Wilson added admiringly, ‘There is a
small handful of British royal biographies which have acquired classic status
. . . It is a truly magnificent book. Hugo Vickers knows his subject through
and through.’
Hugo Vickers has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Royal Family, and has
had a fascination with the story of the Duchess of Windsor since he was a
young man. There have been a number of books about this doomed couple
(and Channel 4 is very interested in doing a programme based on Hugo’s
text), but this book brings a new perspective on the story by focussing on
the later years of exile.
While Vickers has his own theories about the Abdication itself, and he
makes it very clear that Mrs Simpson did not lure the King from the
throne, the drama of this narrative comes from the criminal exploitation
of an old sick woman after the death of her husband. She was ruthlessly
exploited by a French lawyer called Suzanne Blum. Some members of the
Royal Family, like Mountbatten and the Queen Mother, don’t emerge with
much credit either.
Using previously unpublished papers and other personal testaments, Hugo
Vickers relates a tragic story which has lost none of its resonance over the
years since the Duchess died in 1986.
Hugo Vickers was born in 1951 and educated at Eton and Strasbourg
University. His books include Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys,
Duchess of Marlborough; Cecil Beaton; Vivien Leigh; Loving Garbo; Royal
Orders; The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and The Kiss,
which won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for non-fiction. He is an
acknowledged expert on the Royal Family, appears regularly on
television and has lectured all over the world. Hugo Vickers is married
and has two sons and a daughter.