Wit and heartbreak collide in a memoir of a life intertwined with an obsession with film. A 'Fever Pitch' for cinema lovers.
'This book will consider the influence of movies on one life, the interaction of celluloid fantasy and the growth of a personality. It's not just a film buff's record of his enthusiasms. It's about how some films do, weirdly, change your life.'
Beginning with his first cinema outing, 'The Mutiny on the Bounty', and tracing his passion through his growing-up years to adulthood, John Walsh weaves together his own life experiences with his rapturous dependence on key moments in film.
The result is a funny, personal, loving account of the magic and drama of the silver screen and its ultimate, all-encompassing power to become larger than (real) life.
John Walsh has been a prolific journalist, critic and broadcaster for twenty years. He is currently Assistant Editor, columnist and special feature writer for the 'Independent.'
Praise for 'Are You Talking to Me?':
'A very funny book, and also an unusually charming one.' Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year
'For entertainment value it would be hard to beat John Walsh's Are You Talking to Me?' Sunday Times, Books of the Year
'Irresistibly funny.' Daily Telegraph
'Bittersweet in its nostalgia, and smarter and funnier and more moving than "High Fidelity", this is a grown-up book about growing up.' Sunday Times
Praise for 'Falling Angels':
'A book to be relished.' William Trevor
'The reader should be warned that this is a book that makes you laugh out loud in public. A magnificent entertainment.' Independent
'A warm, seamlessly well-written memoir.the prose is fluent, its craftmanship meticulous. The dialogue is dead-on: the hungry father could "eat a reverend mother's arse through a cane chair".Walsh's affection for his subject matter is infectious.' Lionel Shriver, Guardian