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Find out moreNick Drake was born in 1961. His first novel, Nefertiti: The Book of the Dead, introduced Rahotep, chief detective in Thebes, and was shortlisted for the CWA Best Historical Crime Novel Award. His second novel is Tutankhamun: The Book of Shadows, and also features Rahotep. Nick is also a screenwriter and an award-winning poet. He wrote the screenplay for Romulus, My Father, starring Eric Bana, which won Best Film at the Australian Film Awards 2007.
A murder mystery set in ancient Egypt. It is part of a trilogy which began with Nefertiti which was shortlisted for the Crimewriters’ Association’s Best Historical Crime Novel Prize. They feature a detective who seems to specialise in royal conspiracies. The insight into Egyptian life and court procedures is fascinating adding real depth to an intriguing plot. Comparison: C J Sansom, Christian Jacq, Valerio Massimo Manfredi.
Nick Drake's fourth collection, Out of Range, explores the strange interconnections and confronting emergencies - the signs, wonders and alarms - of the early 21st century. Here are elegies for the Whitechapel Fatberg and incandescent lightbulbs; the life stories of plastic bottles and ice-core samples; portraits of those living on the margins of the city streets, and of Voyager 1 crossing the threshold of the solar system. The past echoes in poems about the ancient artists who recorded their presence in cave art, a Spanish missionary thrilled by an Aztec ball game, and a story of gay love from the Song dynasty. Here too are poems registering the shock and impact of `Generation Anthropocene' on Earth's climate and ecology. Above all, the poems seek to tune in to what is out of range; the dark matter of mystery, wonder and deep time at the edge of our senses, at the back of our heads, which poetry makes visible.
Handel's Messiah is the world's most popular choral work. But its story begins in the unlikely setting of a room above a pub in Chester, when the great composer, detained by bad weather on his way to a season of concerts in Dublin, invites some local choristers to rehearse excerpts. It is not a success. So begins Handel's struggle to stage the premiere of his masterpiece, confronted by seemingly insurmountable challenges, including the tricky librettist Charles Jennens, the actress Susannah Cibber who he trains to sing the most moving arias, and the mysterious Crazy Crow.Nick Drake's divine, musical play premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, in June 2015. All the Angels was revived at same theatre in December 2016.
Handel's Messiah is the world's most popular choral work. But its story begins in the unlikely setting of a room above a pub in Chester, when the great composer, detained by bad weather on his way to a season of concerts in Dublin, invites some local choristers to rehearse excerpts. It is not a success. So begins Handel's struggle to stage the premiere of his masterpiece, confronted by seemingly insurmountable challenges, including the tricky librettist Charles Jennens, the actress Susannah Cibber who he trains to sing the most moving arias, and the mysterious Crazy Crow. Nick Drake's divine, musical play premiered at Shakespeare's Globe in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, in June 2015. All the Angels was revived at same theatre in December 2016.
'Probably the most ambitious, generous and thorough volume about a musician to see publication' Mouth Magazine The authorised companion to the music of Nick Drake, compiled, composed and edited by Cally Callomon and Gabrielle Drake, with contributions from Nick's friends, critics, adherents, family and from Nick Drake himself. Remembered For A While is not a biography. It is, rather, an attempt to cast a few shards of light on Nick Drake the poet, the musician, the singer, the friend, son and brother, who was also more than all of these. We hope it will accompany all those in search of an elusive artist, whose haunting presence defies analysis. The book contains: * In-depth interviews with many of Nick's friends, most notably Paul Wheeler, Nick's close friend from Cambridge days, a singer-songwriter who, of all Nick's friends, perhaps best understood, from personal experience, Nick's journey through musical creation to despair and back again. * A selection of photos from all eras - some never seen before - with reproductions of documents such as the scrapbook Molly Drake kept of her son's press cuttings, and the original and rejected album covers. * Images of Nick's handwritten and typed lyrics, including the lyrics of some songs for which the music has never been found. * Newly commissioned pieces by Nick's friends Jeremy Harmer, Brian Wells, Robin Frederick and the poet Will Stone. Contributions also from the sleeve designer Michael Trevithick, Island Records's Ann Sullivan and the photographer and artist Nigel Waymouth. *Extracts from Nick's letters - part of an extensive correspondence that exists between Nick and his parents, which charts their relationship from the time he first went to boarding school until the time he came home, when his depression had settled upon him and he felt he had nowhere else to go. From this point, Nick's life was documented by his father, Rodney Drake, who kept a detailed diary, as he and his wife Molly struggled to understand their son's state of mind and how to help him. Passages from this poignant record are included. * A short musical guide to each song's key and tuning to accompany the lyrics, together with an explanatory interpretation of Nick's guitar performance, the result of several years close study by singer-songwriter Chris Healey. * A comprehensive guide to all of Nick's live performances. * And a lengthy essay by noted music critic Pete Paphides, which includes interviews with Nick's musical collaborators and friends - his producer Joe Boyd, his recording engineer John Wood and his orchestrator, the late Robert Kirby - as well as descriptions of the recording process of each album.
Egypt, 1320 BC The future of Egypt lies in the hands of chief detective Rahotep. Sent on a clandestine mission, he crosses enemy empires and rogue states to deliver a top-secret letter, from the Queen to her arch-enemy, the King of the Hittites. Rahotep knows he may not return from this mission. But he also has a personal motive driving him on, and personal demons he must face. Will he conquer them in time to save Egypt's greatest dynasty, and his own family, from the terror that threatens them all? EGYPT: The Book of Chaos is an epic tale of adventure and intrigue from a master storyteller. It shines a light on one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries of the Ancient world.
The poems in The Farewell Glacier grew out of a journey to the High Arctic. In late 2010 Nick Drake sailed around Svalbad, an archipelago of islands 500 miles north of Norway, with people from Cape Farewell, the arts climate change organisation. It was the end of the Arctic summer. The sun took eight hours to set. When the sky briefly darkened, the Great Bear turned about their heads as it had for Pythias the Greek, the first European known to have explored this far north. Sailing as close as possible to the vast glaciers that dominate the islands, they saw polar bear prints on pieces of pack ice the size of trucks. And they tried to understand the effects of climate change on the ecosystem of this most crucial and magnificent part of the world. Nick Drake's new collection gathers together voices from across the Arctic past - explorers, whalers, mapmakers, scientists, financiers, the famous and the forgotten - as well as attempting to give voice to the confronting mysteries of the high Arctic: the animal spirits, the shape-shifters and the powers of ice and tundra. It looks into the future, to the year 2100, when this glorious winter Eden will have vanished forever. Many of the poems from The Farewell Glacier are included in ground-breaking High Arctic exhibition, installed at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from July 2011 to January 2012, which received substantial national publicity, including a feature on BBC Radio 4's Front Row and national press reviews.
A murder mystery set in ancient Egypt. It is part of a trilogy which began with Nefertiti which was shortlisted for the Crimewriters’ Association’s Best Historical Crime Novel Prize. They feature a detective who seems to specialise in royal conspiracies. The insight into Egyptian life and court procedures is fascinating adding real depth to an intriguing plot. Comparison: C J Sansom, Christian Jacq, Valerio Massimo Manfredi.
Nefertiti - the most powerful, charismatic and beautiful Queen of the ancient world. With her husband, Akhenaten, she rules over an Empire at the peak of its glory and domination. Together, they have built a magnificent new city in the desert on the banks of the Nile. They are about to host kings, dignitaries and leaders from around the Empire for a vast festival to celebrate their triumph. But suddenly, Nefertiti vanishes. Rahotep is the youngest chief detective of the Thebes division; a 'Seeker of Mysteries' who knows about shadows and darkness, and who can see patterns where others cannot. His unusual talents earn him a summons to the royal court. Rahotep is given ten days to find the Queen and return her in time for the festival. Success will bring glory - but if he fails, he and his young family will die... Closely based on historical research, NEFERTITI tells the hidden story of the crimes, mysteries and secrets of the dark game of power played out against the vast panorama of a society in revolution.
Nick Drake's From the Word Go explores the different meanings and implications which are tightly packed into that small word - from departures on journeys in this world and beyond it, through expulsions from homes, places and relationships, to the possibilities of adventure and new discovery. At the heart of the book is a sequence describing the dying, death and afterlife of his father, an account of the struggles, fears, comedies, losses, and revelations of that final process of going out of this world. From the Word Go builds upon the considerable achievement of Nick Drake's award-winning first collection, The Man in the White Suit .
An exiled poet in an English seaside asylum... A winter night spent in the spooky penthouse suite of Ceausescu's vanished daughter... A scientist trying to calculate the heart's square root... All these figure in The Man in the White Suit, Nick Drake's first full-length collection, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. It portrays and celebrates a richly varied cast of characters whose secrets and histories are the central thread of the book, ranging from life studies of those caught out by exile from central Europe or caught up in the strange aftermath of the 1989 revolutions, to intimate love poems and portraits of those learning the arts and mysteries of dying.
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