of the Ku Klux Klan.
As a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.
'Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately.'
PEGGY SEEGER
'What a life! What gulpable storytelling! Exactly the kind of writing about music we need: personal, ardent, playfully confrontational, questioning, undogmatic. A love song to a complicated idol.'
KATE MOLLESON
'Pure joy: one trailblazing woman pays tribute to another. Jackie Kay finds the music in the short, dazzling, capricious life of Bessie Smith.'
HELEN LEWIS
As a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.
'Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately.'
PEGGY SEEGER
'What a life! What gulpable storytelling! Exactly the kind of writing about music we need: personal, ardent, playfully confrontational, questioning, undogmatic. A love song to a complicated idol.'
KATE MOLLESON
'Pure joy: one trailblazing woman pays tribute to another. Jackie Kay finds the music in the short, dazzling, capricious life of Bessie Smith.'
HELEN LEWIS
Jackie Kay's book on Bessie Smith: She has combined biographical information with a total understanding of who Bessie actually WAS. Jackie shows an empathy unusual in a biographer, the writing being enhanced by the fact that its author is also a stellar poet. Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately. Peggy Seeger