Literature

British Blues has inspired writers, mostly, of course, those documenting the history of British Blues and numerous British Blues acts.

Factual works

Jazz Me Blues, the autobiography of exhibition supporter Chris Barber, the Jazz bandleader who is profoundly involved with and instrumental in the development of Blues in the UK. Order through a bookshop or buy here

Roots, Radicals and Rockers, by Billy Bragg. Where British Blues came from, on the rise of Skiffle and the subsequent British Blues Explosion and the many household names that came with it. The making of history. Order through a bookshop or buy here

Fiction

The latest British Blues fiction publication we’ve come across is A Thousand Dances – A Novel of the British Blues Boom, by Sara Holliday. A copy is on its way to the exhibition collection, and we’ll be sharing some thoughts on it. British Blues Exhibition supporter John Mayall has already said that it is “A very well-researched novel that also captures so much of the London club scene in the sixties and the music that emerged from it.” Jim McCarty, drummer and founding member of the Yardbirds says that it “Certainly captures the flavour of that time! Took me back.” See https://spinnery.sarahollidaybooks.com . Order through a bookshop or buy here

We enjoy the very light-hearted Blues Detective series by Andrew Peters, which are well worth reading – see Andrew’s Amazon page here and a review of one book here.

A real page-turner of a British Blues novel is Fat Man Blues, by Richard Wall. The novel is a fantasy/science fiction affair concerning a British Blues obsessive and his unique experiences with the roots of the Blues, and some of those roots are tough, addictive, and, well, alarming. Website https://richardwall.org/fat-man-blues and Amazon page here. Our blogged review is here.