- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (12 Jan 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434000795
- ISBN-13: 978-0434000791
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 515,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When she was 17 Julie Birchill set hippies on fire, gave Iggy Pop laxatives instead of drugs and turned down Marc Bolan. This is her autobiography, an account of her bizzare childhood, her rebel years at the NME and the legendary stormy relationships.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's funny to see that someone as famous as Julie Burchill only has one review. Her whole book is about being famous (amongst other things) and it is a delight. It takes you back to the early 1990s, a time which seems so silly by today's standards, when people talked in the way she does and went out taking lots of drugs. But in another sense it's a more intelligent time as Burchill's sly, funny style shows. Love her or loathe her, this is a tale of a young girl with no university degree or contacts who made a name for herself as a journalist - she achieved a status which few journalists ever achieve. She became a star of the written word. Even though her novels were poor and her style today is perhaps not as precise and exuberant as it was, she sustained her ability to comment freshly on whatever was going on that week.
Her crude mixing of common sense with stylistic grace works so well it's surprising it has not been more eagerly copied. Just a great memoir - of Nature, Nurture or Nietschze?
Her crude mixing of common sense with stylistic grace works so well it's surprising it has not been more eagerly copied. Just a great memoir - of Nature, Nurture or Nietschze?
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this because I have always been a fan of Julie Burchill's acerbic style and that implict tone of rude defiance towards society she has. She is not afraid to judge, yet refuses to be judged herself. "I Knew I Was Right" is the perfect title for her autobiography which is engrossing and unapologetic. She has drggaed herself up by the bootstraps away from a sentence of close-to-home, no-brain jobs in a suburb of Bristol- a path she could so easily have taken in order to fall in line with her peers. But she has never been one to fall in line with her peers and luckily for readers of newspaper columns who eschew right-wing diatribe or hagiographers, her prodigous talent brought her to NME and the rest is history. I loved this book- I laughed, I was shocked, I was jealous, and then I lent it to a friend and never got it back. As a slice of the Seventies and Eighties, it's authentic and real. As a tale of one who escaped parochial roots, it has something to say and to those people who are brave enough to admit they are talented and the whole world should know it, it should become a bit of a handbook. Julie Burchill- you make me sick.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
wait for the "unauthorised biography" to come out
2 Feb 2007
I havent read many autobiogaphies. Mostly athletes. It was curious that I chose to read this. Of all the people I could have read about. Heres my reasoning. I knew she wrote for NME. I knew she was a british journalist. I knew she was about during that brilliant period of music in the UK from 78-84. I knew she had attititude. The jacket cover was hot. But. I found the read disappointing. Julie does have a sense of the comic and absurd. Her views on many issues are not mainstream. She is not afraid to make an inflammatory statement. These elements of the read were worthwhile. However dont read this as a serious autobiography because its not. Its a shame she even pretends it is. A more suitable title might have been "Random Moments with Julie". True the book does follow the due convention of childhood to the present day but I am no closer to the real Julie than I was at the start of the book. I suspect she knows what she was doing. I suspect this was purely a commercial exercise. Julie even hints at this herslf. Multiple references to wether she is telling you the truth suggest she was taking the the piss. Im looking forward to the "unauthorised biography". Then we may get some clearer glimpses into the world of the author. Further...I wonder if she considers herself an artist. Art is about self revelation and shared experience. Where was the self revelation? Where were the disappointments, the triumphs - where were the struggles, the breakthroughs, the frustrations. Where was the dirt, the passion, the regrets. Sadly all are still a secret to Julie. Maybe my fragile male ego has taken a battering as her views of men are far from complimentary. Yes men are violent. Yes man do bad things. Yes women are probably superior in so many ways. But Julie doesnt personalise any of this. What about her 3 marriages? What about her child? What about her career? All of these barely rate a mention in the book. No-one in her life is treated with any depth and we get no dirt on any famous people (and we love dirt). The editor should be sacked. Choice of cover is interesting too. Julie at 17, gothic looks and dark eyeliner. She looks like the rock chick she should have been from the late 70's. Where is this girl in the pages of the book. Julie? Where are you?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
