Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. Born in Hollywood, albeit on the wrong side of the tracks, the young Marilyn Monroe had everything stacked against her. Yet she struggled against the adversity and became the most popular actress in the world. After the film Niagara, the public loved her and followed her every move—two failed marriages, repeated miscarriages, battles with Twentieth Century Fox, classic films The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, right up to the horrible, tragic end. As well as an introductory essay, in this book each of Marilyn's films is reviewed and analyzed. Not only that, but there's a handy reference section for further study of this film legend.
BORN in London, I was raised in the tiny hamlet of Harold Hill in Essex and educated at a Jesuits boys' grammar school. Aged 15, I wrote a quiz for the late Jeremy Beadle on the London radio station LBC. Two years later, I was the biggest outside contributor to the best-selling Hunter Davies's Bigger Book of British Lists.
My own first book - 50 Fantastic Hits - was published when I was 24. I have since written fifteen books, often with a showbusiness theme. I am the author of biographies of Julia Roberts (2003) and Judy Garland (2007); a history of television scandal (TV Babylon in 1997); three editions of a best-selling encyclopaedia of film stars Fade to Black (2000, 2003, 2005) with a fourth edition due in 2010; a guide to the films of Marilyn Monroe (2000); Essex Murders (2007), a book about homicide in that county for which I also took many of the photographs; Assassins and Assassinations (2008), a look at 25 of the most notorious plots; The Arsenal Companion (2008), the first of two books on the north London footballing giants; 501 Most Notorious Crimes (2009); Arsenal On This Day (2009) and Cricket On This Day (2009). My forthcoming books include Cricket On This Day 2 (2010), Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Cricket (2010), Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Football (2010)and Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Golf(2010).
I have contributed to the following books: Hunter Davies's Bigger Book of British Lists (1982); Poison Pen The Unauthorised Biography of Kitty Kelley by George Carpozi Jr (1992); Clinton Confidential The Climb To Power: The Unauthorised Biography of Bill and Hillary Clinton by George Carpozi Jr (1995); Tom Jones: Close Up by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland (2000); The Pocket Essential Marx Brothers by Mark Bego (2001) and White Slave: The Autobiography by Marco Pierre White and James Steen (2006).
In the mid-1980s I wrote many of the questions for the television quiz show Pass the Buck (hosted by George Layton for Thames Television). I also wrote a number of unbroadcast shows - you could say I have been involved with more pilots than a kamikaze squadron. Of the shows that did make the air, I wrote for Jeremy Beadle's Today's the Day (TV-am), Today's the Day (BBC), Ultra Quiz (TVS) and University Challenge (Granada for BBC).
I was the editor of Crime Stories, Man About Town and M-Zone. I have worked for several magazines and newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Daily Mail (where for two years I was stand-in editor on the gossip column Wicked Whispers), OK! (where I was a columnist for three years), Sunday Express, Punch (where I was a reporter-feature writer and occasional stand-in deputy editor), Idols, Maxim, For Women, Video World, Hotel & Caterer, City AM (where I was the chief sub editor), thelondonpaper and, most recently Master Detective where I write "Paul Donnelley's Murder Month", a column on criminal history.
I divide my time between a book-lined flat in Essex and Oran, Algeria's second biggest city. I am presently at work on a number of non-fiction books.
