The Lionel Bart Story: Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be

David Stafford & Caroline Stafford

Hardcover | 24.1 x 2.8 x 16.7 cm | 288 pp

Omnibus Press | 2011 | 9781849386616

Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver! He also wrote the famous songs Living Doll (Cliff Richard) and From Russia With Love (Matt Munroe). He was a millionaire aged thirty in the Sixties, bankrupt in the Seventies and died in 1999.

In this first revealing biography, the authors gained exclusive access to Bart's personal archives - his unfinished autobiography, his letters and scrapbooks. They detail how he signed away the rights to Oliver! to finance his new musical Twang - based on Robin Hood - which flopped badly in the theatre. Reveal how his heavy drinking led to diabetes and how he died in 1999 aged 69 from liver cancer.

The authors interviewed his personal secretaries, friends, family, counsellors and many of the performers, musicians and producers who worked with him. Interviewees include Rocky Horror's Richard O'Brien and actors Dudley Sutton and Nigel Planer.