Showing results by author "John Higgs" in All Categories

In this fascinating and in-depth biography, popular British writer and cultural historian John Higgs digs into the story behind the end of one of the most popular bands of the late twentieth century. The band members themselves, when asked in interviews, were never able to satisfactorily explain their behavior, but looked haunted every time it came up. With his characteristically creative mind, Higgs leads listeners on a journey to understand “a story that no one knows they are in—least of all the main characters.”

A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake.

Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of the British culture, and ideas about sexual identity. Love and Let Die is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

President Nixon called him the most dangerous man in America, while Terence McKenna believed he made more people happy than anyone else in history. Few people have divided opinion as strongly as Dr. Timothy Leary.

Poet, artist, visionary and author of the unofficial English national anthem 'Jerusalem', William Blake is an archetypal misunderstood genius. In this radical new biography, we return to a world of riots, revolutions and radicals, discuss movements from the Levellers of the sixteenth century to the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, and explore the latest discoveries in neurobiology, quantum physics and comparative religion to look afresh at Blake's life and work—and, crucially, his mind.

The strange tale of the death, life and legacy of the hugely successful band. They were the best-selling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success and creative freedom. Then they deleted their records, erased themselves from musical history and burnt their last million pounds in a boathouse on the Isle of Jura. And they couldn't say why.

The visionary poet and painter William Blake is a constant presence throughout contemporary culture - from video games to novels, from sporting events to political rallies and from horror films to designer fashion. Although he died nearly 200 years ago, something about his work continues to haunt the 21st century. What is it about Blake that has so endured? In this illuminating essay, John Higgs takes us on a whirlwind tour to prove that far from being the mere New Age counterculture figure that many assume him to be, Blake is now more relevant than ever.

The Beatles are the biggest band there has ever been. James Bond is the single most successful movie character of all time. They are also twins. Dr No, the first Bond film, and Love Me Do, the first Beatles record, were both released on the same day—Friday 5th October 1962. Most countries can only dream of a cultural export becoming a worldwide phenomenon on this scale. For Britain to produce two on the same windy October afternoon is unprecedented.

At some point in the 1980s we gave up on the future. Before then, we imagined wonderful days to come, free from disease, work and want, in television series like Star Trek or events such as the 1939 Futurama World Fair. When we look ahead now, we tell dystopian stories of environmental collapse, zombie plagues and the end of civilisation. If it is true that we have to imagine the future before we build it, then this is deeply worrying.

The 20th-century should make sense. It's the period of history that we know the most about, an epic geo-political narrative that runs through World War One, the great depression, World War Two, the American century and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But somehow that story doesn't quite lead into the world we find ourselves in now, this bewildering 21st-century, adrift in a network of constant surveillance, unsustainable competition, tsunamis of trivia and extraordinary opportunity.

Tune in, turn on, drop out. So said Timothy Leary, global figurehead for '60s psychedelic culture and 'the most dangerous man in America' according to President Nixon. A psychologist at Harvard, Leary was forced to leave when he started to dedicate his efforts to researching LSD and other psychedelic drugs, a vocation which changed an entire generation. John Higgs' incredible biography reveals the stranger-than-fiction true story of one of the most divisive figures of the twentieth century.

Kann man Einsteins Relativitätstheorie anhand eines fallenden Würstchens erklären? Ja, und auch die Quantenphysik anhand eines Boxkampfes zwischen Putin und einem Känguru. Intelligent wie komisch führt Higgs den Hörer durch das aufregende 20. Jahrhundert. Er verrät, was Scientology und Satanismus mit dem amerikanischen Raumfahrtprogramm zu tun haben, warum die Beatles und die Rolling Stones nie zusammen Drogen genommen hätten.

On screen, Doctor Who is a story of monsters, imagination and mind-expanding adventure. But the off-screen story is equally extraordinary - a tale of failed monks, war heroes, 1960s polyamory and self-sabotaging broadcasting executives. From the politics of fandom to the inner-struggles of the BBC, thousands of people have given part of themselves - and sometimes, too much of themselves - to bring this this unlikeliest of folk heroes to life.

A journey along one of Britain's oldest roads, from Dover to Anglesey, in search of the hidden history that makes us who we are today. Long ago a path was created by the passage of feet tramping through endless forests. Gradually that path became a track, and the track became a road. It connected the White Cliffs of Dover to the Druid groves of the Welsh island of Anglesey, across a land that was first called Albion then Britain, Mercia and eventually England and Wales.