Simon Matthews

Looking for a New England covers the period from 1975 to 1986, spanning from Slade in Flame to Absolute Beginners. This book offers a carefully researched exploration of transgressive films, the career of David Bowie, dystopias, the Joan Collins oeuvre, black cinema, the origins and impact of punk music, and political films. It also delves into comedy, how Ireland and...

Before It Went Rotten takes a trip back to the world before punk. When Anarchy in the UK appeared, London enjoyed one of the most vibrant music scenes in the world. A network of mainly Irish-owned pubs and clubs provided music every night, much of it free of charge, whilst working as a testing ground for up-and-coming talent. This book...

Everything and the Kitchen Sink analyses 'kitchen sink realism' and the birth of 'pop cinema' in the context of contemporaneous debates surrounding politics, civil liberties, sexuality, race, immigration and urbanisation. Covering the lives and careers of well-known figures such as Alan Sillitoe, Shelagh Delaney, David Storey, Edna O'Brien and Albert Finney, as well as charting the rise of iconic British...

Between 1967 and 1970, Italian auteur Giovanni 'Tinto' Brass directed four feature films in London, each starring a woman as the main character. Exploring the political, cultural, and sexual ideas of their time, often in a deliberate pop-art style, these films contain much priceless footage of now forgotten neighbourhoods, galleries, clubs, and events, as well as an abundance of contemporary...

Every politician's rise to power is a story of success and failure, accompanied by tantalising what-might-have-beens. The career of Winston Churchill was no exception, with his eight months prior to becoming Prime Minister as First Lord of the Admiralty marked by the loss of important warships, the planning of disastrous expeditions and the design of impractical weapons. Based on archival...