Hunter Davies Popular Books
Hunter Davies Biography & Facts
Edward Hunter Davies (born 7 January 1936) is a British author, journalist and broadcaster. His books include the only authorised biography of the Beatles. Early life Davies was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four years his family lived in Dumfries until Davies was aged 11. Davies has quoted his boyhood hero as being football centre-forward, Billy Houliston, of Davies' then local team, Queen of the South. His family moved to Carlisle in northern England when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former Royal Air Force pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career. Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an honours degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate, where one of his fellow student journalists was the future fashion writer Colin McDowell. After completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma and avoid National Service. Writing career After he left university, Davies worked as a journalist, and in 1965 he wrote the novel Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, which was made into a film of the same name in 1967. He raised the idea of a biography of the Beatles with Paul McCartney when he met him to discuss the possibility of providing the theme song for the film. McCartney liked the idea of the book because inaccurate information had been published about the group but he advised him to obtain the approval of Brian Epstein. Epstein agreed to the proposal and the resulting authorised biography, The Beatles, was published in 1968. John Lennon mentioned in his 1970 Rolling Stone interview that he considered the book "bullshit", though Lennon at the time was vigorously debunking the Beatles' myth and anyone who had helped to create it. In 1972, Davies wrote a book about football, The Glory Game, a behind-the-scenes portrait of Tottenham Hotspur. Davies also wrote a column about his daily life in Punch called "Father's Day", presenting himself as a harried paterfamilias. In 1974, he was sent by The Sunday Times to look at a comprehensive school in action. He wrote three articles and then stayed on at the school – Creighton School in Muswell Hill, north London, now part of Fortismere School – to watch and study through a year in its life. The result was a book, the Creighton Report, published in 1976. Davies has also written a biography of the fell walker Alfred Wainwright, and many works about the topography and history of the Lake District. In children's literature, he has written the Ossie, Flossie Teacake and Snotty Bumstead series of novels. As a ghostwriter, he has worked on the autobiographies of footballers Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne and Dwight Yorke. The Rooney biography led to a successful libel action in 2008 by David Moyes, the manager of his former club, Everton. He has also ghostwritten politician John Prescott's 2008 autobiography, Prezza, My Story: Pulling no Punches. He writes a football column for the New Statesman. A compilation of these articles was released as a book, The Fan, in 2005 by Pomona Press. Davies writes "Confessions of a Collector" in The Guardian's Weekend colour magazine. He has written a book about his collections with the same title. During the Beatles sessions for the Let It Be album, the Beatles recorded a song called "There You Go Eddie" about Hunter Davies that appears on bootlegs. It was not officially released. Davies was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to literature. Football fan Davies has stated that the first football team he supported was Queen of the South, when he lived in Dumfries. After moving to Carlisle aged 11, he adopted English Football League club Carlisle United. A long-term resident of London, Davies' third adopted team is Tottenham Hotspur. In international football, Davies supports Scotland. Personal life Davies was married to the writer Margaret Forster from 1960 until her death in 2016. Their daughter Caitlin Davies is also an author. From 1963, the family lived in the north London district of Dartmouth Park. During the summer months they lived in their second home near Loweswater in the Lake District. It was sold in July 2016. His autobiography The Beatles, Football and Me was published in 2007. Selected works Novels Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1965) Rise and Fall of Jake Sullivan (1970) A Very Loving Couple (1971) Body Charge (1972) Non-Fiction The Beatles: The Authorised Biography (1968) The Other Half: Ten Case Histories of the new Poor Rich (1968) The Glory Game (1972) A Walk Along the Wall (1976) The Creighton Report: A Year in the Life of a Comprehensive School (1976) The Beatles, Revised Edition (1978) The Joy of Stamps (1983) A Walk Round London's Parks (1983) The Beatles, 2nd Revised Edition (1986) The Teller of Tales: In Search of Robert Louis Stevenson (1994) Wainwright: The Biography (1995) West Cumbrian Views (1998) London to Loweswater: A Journey through England at the end of the Twentieth Century (1999) The Quarrymen (2001) Boots, Balls and Haircuts (2003) I Love Football (2006) The Second Half (2006) The Beatles, Football and Me (2007) The Bumper Book of Football (2007) Confessions of a Collector (2009) Postcards from the Edge of Football A Social History of a British Game (2010) The Beatles Lyrics (2014) The Biscuit Girls (2014) The Co-Op's Got Bananas: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Post-War North (2016) Bosnia and Herzegovina Travel Guide (2016) A Life in the Day (2017) The Beatles: The Authorised Biography 50th Anniversary Edition (2018) Happy Old Me: How to Live A Long Life, and Really Enjoy It (2019) The Heath: My Year on Hampstead Heath (2021) Love in Old Age: My Year in the Wight House (2023) References External links Journalisted – Articles by Hunter Davies. Discover the Hunter Davies popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Hunter Davies books.
Best Seller Hunter Davies Books of 2024
-
Raising The Dragon
Huw Richards & Robert JonesRugby has held a central role in Welsh life over the past century. In the words of historian Gareth Williams, the game has been 'a preeminent expressionof Welsh consciousness, ...
-
Chasing Killers
Joe JacksonGlasgow is known as the murder capital of Britain and no one understands why better than Joe Jackson. For over 30 years, Jackson worked the crime beat, first as a uniformed cop the...
-
Eddie Turnbull
Eddie Turnbull & Martin HannanAs the first British player to score a goal in European club competition in 1955, Hibs hero Eddie Turnbull holds a unique place in footballing history. In Eddie Turnbull: Having a ...
-
Not Waving But Drowning
Edmund GregoryNot Waving But Drowning tells the harrowing true story of one man's childhood struggle against poverty and his subsequent drive to become a policeman in the Royal Ulster Constabula...
-
Blue Above the Chimneys
Christine Marion FraserDiscover the heartwarming and uplifting story of a Glasgow tenement urchin finding her way against adversity Born during the Second World War in Glasgow, Christine Fraser was her m...
-
Roots of Stone
Hugh G. AllisonRoots of Stone is a passionate tapestry, weaving the story of Scotland with the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. This fascinating sweep over two thousand years of Scotla...
-
The Great Storm Whale
Benji DaviesThe story of a girl, a whale and a friendship that will echo down the generations, from bestselling, awardwinning picture book creator, Benji Davies, author of The Storm Whale As a...
-
Shoes Were For Sunday
Molly Weir'Poverty is a very exacting teacher and I had been taught well'The postwar urban jungle of the Glasgow tenements was the setting for Molly Weir's childhood. From sharing a pullout ...
-
Give Me A Ring
Mickey Vann & Richard CoomberMicky Vann is one of the world's top boxing referees. He has been involved in more than 350 championship fights, over 100 of which were world title fights. Outspoken and brutally h...
-
Jungle Tales
John QuinnYears of tradition crashed around the ears of Celtic supporters when the Jungle was demolished and replaced by seating to conform with the Taylor Report. It might never have been t...
-
The Toon
R Hutchinson & Roger HutchinsonThis is the full story, unofficial and uncensored, of one of the greatest football clubs in the country. From its birth in the 1890s to its rebirth in the 1990s and up to season 20...
-
My East End
Gilda O'Neill'Every page is a delight. Every chapter made vivid by a writer who has poured heart and soul into her book' Val Hennessy, Daily MailThe East End of London cockneys, criminals, str...
-
When Saturday Comes
When Saturday ComesThe best chants, the funniest nicknames, the greatest headlines and enough littleknown facts to keep the average football supporter entertained and entertaining for several seaso...
-
The Complete Dangerous Davies
Leslie ThomasAs plainclothes men go, Dangerous Davies looks like a nonstarter. The small fry of petty larceny and minor disturbances in the backwaters of northwest London are his daily round. H...
-
Curt
Alan Curtis, Stuart Sprake & Tim JohnsonWelsh footballer Alan Curtis is synonymous with Swansea City, having played for the club during three different spells, but he also played for Leeds United, Southampton and Cardiff...
-
The Chameleon Poet
Robert FraserThe poet George Barker was convinced that his biography could never be written. 'I've stirred the facts around too much,' he told Robert Fraser. 'It simply can't be done.' Eliot w...
-
100 Days On Holy Island
Peter MortimerIt was the worst winter in a decade, the winter of footandmouth, when island power cuts ran for up to 72 hours and two days before Peter Mortimer's planned departure, his fath...
-
Ronnie
Ronnie DrewThe late great Dubliner, Ronnie Drew, was six months into writing his biography when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had produced warm, witty and insightful material that made it ...
-
Jackie Milburn
Jack MilburnWritten by his own son, Jackie Milburn: A Man of Two Halves gives an unprecedented insight into the life and career of the legendary Newcastle United forward. To this day, 'Wor Jac...
-
Grass
Martin King, Martin Knight & Phil SparrowhawkGrass is the incredible story of Phil Sparrowhawk, a workingclass boy with gambling in his blood. Like most punters, he enjoyed an incredible run of luck, but finally rolled the di...
-
Scottish Sporting Legends
Robert PhilipScotland may not have won a World Cup (yet!), but many of the country’s sportsmen and women are revered as global legends, including Olympic and US Open champion Andy Murray and wi...
-
Fanny Burney
Kate ChisholmFanny Burney (17521840) is best known as the author of EVELINA, one of the most engaging novels of the eighteenth century. But for much of her long life, she was also an incomparab...
-
Shirley
Muriel BurgessShirley Bassey is one of the alltime greats of the entertainment business. She has sold more records than any other British female singer and still commands massive audiences aroun...
-
The Messenger
Bill BrooksReeling from the death of his son, a downonhisluck rancher witnesses a random murder that pits him headtohead with a bloodthirsty outlaw!Royce Blood had everything he wanted. He ow...
-
Out In The Midday Sun
Elspeth HuxleyElspeth Huxley captivated readers throughout the world with her 'memories of an African childhood' in THE FLAME TREES OF THIKA and THE MOTTLED LIZARD. In this final volume ...
-
Triumph and Tragedy
Peter JacksonThis collection of revealing profiles captures the essence of a galaxy of Welsh worldbeaters from across the sporting spectrum: athletics, boxing, cricket, football, golf, horse ra...
-
The Underworld Captain
Alexander Shannon & David LeslieAlexander Shannon escaped a shady past to enjoy a glittering career in the army, only to end up back in the thick of criminal activity.Shannon's time as a soldier saw him posted to...
-
Sir Thomas Lipton
Dr James MackayThomas Lipton burst onto the national scene in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The Princess of Wales had launched a £30,000 fund to provide a Jublilee dinner fo...
-
Nothing Like a Dame
Elaine C. Smith'How did I end up here?' A question Elaine C. Smith asked herself when sitting in the dressingroom of a top theatre in London's West End, about to go on stage with one of the UK's ...
-
The Double
Ken Ferris'Tottenham Hotspur's reputation around the world was forged by the great doublewinning team fashioned by Bill Nicholson, and every Spurs manager since then has lived in the shadow ...
-
Totally Frank
Frank McGarvey & Ronnie EsplinDuring a glorious but controversial career, Frank McGarvey won every major trophy in Scottish football. Under Alex Ferguson at St Mirren in the 1970s, he inspired a young Saints te...
-
Armed Candy
Reg McKayArmed Candy is the true story of one woman's struggle for survival on Britain's meanest streets. Kay has spent her whole life trying to escape. Sexually abused by her grandmother, ...
-
Alive and Kicking
David BryceFrom running with the infamous Calton Tongs to running Calton Athletic, David Bryce's life story is a remarkable account of crime, violence, alcoholism and drug addiction in Glasgo...
-
Teenage Revolution
Alan DaviesWhen Alan Davies was growing up he seemed to drive his family mad. 'What are we going to do with you?' they would ask as if he might know the answer.Perhaps it was because he came...
-
Mummy, Take Me Home
David Leslie'Mummy, take me home,' sobbed little Jasmine Chapman as she was ripped from her mother's arms. But there was nothing that Morag could do . . . except continue to fight for custody ...
-
All Quiet on the Hooligan Front
Colin WardAll Quiet on the Hooligan Front is a compelling exploration into the changing face of football. Covering the years just prior to the Hillsborough disaster up to the present day, it...
-
The Heath
Hunter DaviesAn engaging portrait of Hampstead Heath – a place rich not just in natural wonders but in history and monuments, emotions and memories, people and places. 'I enjoyed every inch...
-
Unruly Times
A S ByattUnruly Times is a superlative portrait of the relationship between Wordsworth and Coleridge, and a fascinating exploration of the Romantic Movement and the dramatic events that sha...
-
No Mean Glasgow
Colin MacFarlaneIn his last book, The Real Gorbals Story, Colin MacFarlane detailed how he witnessed a once great area, home to wonderful characters and grand old buildings, disappear before his e...
-
Rogue Warrior of the SAS
Martin Dillon & Roy BradfordMore than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the mos...
-
No Glossing Over It
Gary EdwardsBetween 1964 and 1992, Leeds United won eleven fabulous trophies, but the team were runnersup just as often. They missed out on many more titles and cups, not least club football's...
-
Mysterious Scotland
Michael BalfourMysterious Scotland presents an extraordinary array of the weird and wonderful heritage of the country. Michael Balfour examines strange stories from the moors, forests, rivers, ho...
-
Stephen Jones
Simon Roberts & Stephen JonesSince making his national debut in 1998, Stephen Jones has emerged from the shadows of the true greats of Welsh rugby, such as Barry John, Phil Bennett, Jonathan Davies and Neil Je...