I’m sorry if this is asked a lot but I searched around and couldn’t find anything. I’d like to get an accurate biography of Freddie, not one that’s merely tabloid gossip. Any suggestions?
Mercury and Me by Jim Hutton, I found on amazon kindle for maybe 4.99.
Freddie Mercury by Peter Freestone I found on google books.
Freddie Mercury:What he left behind. Not so much about him but those who were around when he passed.
Theres another book by David Minns I haven’t gotten yet but would like to read.
Anything before 1979: not sure what would be good or not.
Hope this helps and others have more good ones.
I’m maybe not quite halfway through. It’s interesting more so in it details the lives of those who were closest to him after Freddie’s death and shows from Peters point of view the impact that Freddie has had on the world. So less about Freddie and more about his friends. I’m enjoying it so far, but I have heard some bad reviews since it’s not quite about Freddie himself.
I'd say that Peter Freestone's book „Freddie Mercury“ (written with David Evans), should be your first choice (I think it's still available). „What He Left Behind“ (also written by Freestone with the help of David Evans) is a good companion in that it shines a light on the struggle, the Mercury-household went through with Mary Austin after Freddie's death. That book is available on Kindle. My third choice would be „Somebody To Love“ (very much still available) as it puts Freddie's „wild life“ in the early 80's into perspective and sort of compares it with the simultaneous outbreak of AIDS in the western world at the same time. „Mercury And Me“ (available on Kindle) is not so much a book by Jim Hutton, as it is a sensationalist exploitation of a series of interviews that a News Of The World-reporter did with Hutton. I found the break up- and make up-stories to be a rather tedious and in some ways, the book makes Hutton look like fool. „This Was The Real Life“ by David Evans and David Minns (also available on Kindle) is lacking direction. It covers Freddie's self-conception as a gay man, but not well. You get to read about quite a few of his actions, but there's no real explanation on why he handled certain things the way he did. But if you're interested in how Paul McCartney paid his staff, you're in for a treat (or not). The worst FM-bio so far for me had been Lesley Ann-Jones's (did I spell her name correctly?). She goes so far to speculate about the fact that Freddie might have still be straight man after he had slept with half of New Yorks male population (that is an exaggeration, of course, but she makes him look like he could have actually done that). And in her naiveté she believed the crap that Barbara Valentin told her to make it look like facts in her book. Mark Blake's „A Kind Of Magic“ is your typical rock-journo-bio - a little bit cheesy and not even nicely displayed.
Hope this is of help to you.
Worst book I ever read was by tabloid hack Rick Sky and came out just a couple of weeks after Freddie died. He interviewed a load of nobodies such as Danni Minogue who said something like 'i never met Freddie but i knew some friends that were close to him. Oh he should have told everyone he had aids sooner'. Summat like that.
Anyway, shite.
Hello Dr Magus,
hadn't come across that one, but judging on how you describe it, the book has to be truly horrible. Either way, biographies on musicians are usually rather tedious affairs, whether they are written by the artists themselves or by any outsiders. Autobiographies tend to erase all the grit and dirt, unauthorized books focus rather sensationalistic on their subjects.
Over here in Germany school kids have to read biographies of famous composers and poets to discuss them in German classes to gain some hints for their own lives. What would an English school kid get out of Lesley Ann-Jones's Mercury-biography? Don't be gay? Or at least be a little less gay than Freddie Mercury had been? Stay with your former girlfriends if you feel gay impulses?
I was reading Mercury and Me by Jim Hutton but, to tell the truth, I didn’t like it. He writes a sex scenes in his book and it's all looks like a part of a marketing campaign. I also create articles for different blogs and I know first-hand what cause and effect essay structure is like
Sweetandtenderhooligan, somewhere else on this forum you said that you liked the biography of Lesley Ann Jones the best.
So you’ve answered your own question already.
You dummy
Even Brian denounced that trashy Lesley Ann Jones book, but some people still read it and take it as truth. I liked Mercury and Me, very sad and heartbreaking though.
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Jim Hutton's book feels like such a betrayal of Freddie's love and trust. It goes excessively into moments Freddie would definitely have wanted to be kept private. And Hutton comes across as quite a self-centered person