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Under the Ivy cover art

Under the Ivy

By: Graeme Thomson
Narrated by: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
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Summary

In this updated edition of Graeme Thomson’s critically acclaimed biography, a near-exhaustive survey of Kate Bush’s life surveys everything from her upbringing in South London to her stunning return to live performance in August 2014.

The original edition of Under the Ivy was called one of the best music biographies ever, and this updated edition adds a wealth of new research to include the complete scope of Bush’s oeuvre. With over seventy new interviews and in-depth analysis of her triumphant return to the stage after thirty-five years, this is the most complete Kate Bush biography and a must for any fan.

Detailing everything from her upbringing to her early exposition of talent to her subsequent evolution into one of the most stunningly creative and fascinating visual and musical artists alive today, Under the Ivy truly is the story of one woman’s life. This is in no way a superficial rumor-mill, however, as Thomson writes with great detail, accuracy, and above all admiration for her work, this is in equal parts a biography and an analysis of Kate Bush’s art.

Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums, and inescapable influence, Under the Ivy is a true exploration of one of the world’s most underappreciated yet gifted artists. Thoroughly enjoyable, this book will be an eye-opening journey of discovery for somebody unfamiliar with Bush but will also reward a long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis

©2010, 2015 Omnibus Press (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

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All This Woman’s Work (to date)

This book charts Bush’s career from its very beginning and an unusual offer from EMI to her re-emergence in the early 2000’s and up to the “Before the Dawn” concerts in 2014. This is done in very great detail single by single, album by album (and a 35 year gap between concerts).
Despite all this detail we are only given a surface impression of who Kate Bush is, through her music and second hand via quotes from interviews of those who have worked with her. There is no direct interview or connection with Bush, which helps to maintain that alluring mystic that has been present throughout her career.
On a negative note the narration on the audio book is incredibly frustrating. Although read in a BBC King’s English style and yet the pronunciation of random words had me shouting the correct word aloud as I walked the dog with my headphones on, like a sufferer of grammar torrents. I don’t work for the Grammar Police, but when the city of Rouen in France is said perfectly and yet Van Gogh is “Van Go,” solitude is “soo-lit-ood” (Superman never lived in the Fortress of Soolitood). It may be done for a US audience with a buoy (pronounced ‘boy’ in English) referred to as a “booee,” but I’m inclined to believe the narrator didn’t have a clue what they were reading considering the repeated mispronunciation of bands and artists like Spandau Ballet “Spand-are Ballet,” Yazoo “Yaz-ooor,” Tupac Shakur “Tor-pack Shark-or,”and Tori Amos “Torry A-mooss” are just a few examples. If only someone had stopped them and said, ‘Look mate, you’re saying it wrong. Ya need to say it like this.’
Other than this I did enjoy this book, which gives an appreciation of the work that has gone into all of Bush’s endeavours and songs. As a result I’ve gone through my back catalogue and been inspired to re-listen to all of her music. My advice is if the pronunciation issue is likely to drive you up the wall avoid the audiobook and read the actual book.

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Fascinating

A fascinating book, especially enjoyed the mis-pronunciations, by the narrator, not sure if it was someone putting on an especially good English accent, or may have been even been done by Ai, my favourite was buoy, pronounced boo-eee.

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Good insights amd memories

A lengthy and indepth if sometimes repetitive and disjointed account. The author presents à sometimes needlessly overly sexualised account of Kates music.
The main frustrating disappointment was the readers apparent lack of knowledge or understanding of her script content. Frequent glaring mispronunciation of names, times and places was jarring. A little research into your subject matter would help. WIthering Heights and Minstrel Despair were just two of the glaring eye rollers.
Overall a good listen but Graeme should have read it himself with the passion of a true fan.

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Great Account

This is a great account of one of my favourite singers and a detailed account of her career. Well, it's worth a read if you are a fan.

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Great book

This a great book and well worth reading or listening to. Just be aware that the narration is sometimes off-putting because of the strange pronunciation of some fairly common words. The narrator doesn't seem to have any knowledge of the topic or cultural world that the book is describing because fairly well-known names of people, bands or songs are also sometimes incorrectly pronounced. If you can get past this, it's an enjoyable book.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book. Off putting narration.

Great account of a wonderful artist. Sadly the producer, director, (if there was one) and narrator have no knowledge of their subject matter. This, alongside regular mispronunciation of common words and the unusual and jarring delivery from the narrator made it a hard listen.

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Great story. Narration not the best.

Loved the story.

The narration isn’t that bad but some basic pronunciations are wrong. Like tour is repeatedly pronounced tooer.

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well written

there are frequently mispronounced words, which detract from the book, apart fopm that its well read and fascinating

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Fascinating

Really enjoyed this
Very in-depth and full of facts and stories
Agree that narrator lack of pronunciation at times got annoying but really engaging
Highly recommended

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Disappointing narration

Although I enjoyed the story of Kate Bush unfortunately it was let down by the narrator who's robotic pronunciation was a constant irritation throughout the reading

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