Product Description

Eel Pie Island is the only inhabited island on the semi-tidal Thames. Its most famous contemporary resident, Trevor Baylis, OBE, inventor of the clockwork radio, has been heard to describe it (with some exaggeration) as 120 drunks clinging to a mudbank. It is a tiny place, just 600 yards long and barely 150 at its widest, but it has nearly fifty houses, some twenty houseboats, two boatyards and a score of small businesses and craft studios, two boating clubs and a nature reserve at each end, and it is connected to the rest of the world by an elegant footbridge. Named for the favoured snack of Henry VIII, who was said to stop here on his way to and from Windsor, the island has enjoyed two periods of special fame: in the nineteenth century it was a resort for Londoners who, like Charles Dickens, came by the newfangled steamboats to spend the day in the grounds of the hotel that dominated the island until 1969; and in the middle of the twentieth it was a venue for jazz and later English R&B groups, where the likes of Chris Barber or George Melly, and then the Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart, performed in the dancehall of the hotel. A surprising number of people all over Britain and beyond remember Eel Pie Island and its gigs - usually with a nostalgic smile. Dan van der Vat and Michele Whitby tell the story of Eel Pie Island from the Stone Age to The Rolling Stones and beyond, illustrated with a wealth of rare archive images and atmospheric contemporary photography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5761 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

About the Author
Dan van der Vat, author and journalist, was a foreign correspondent on The Times of London for a decade, and later Chief Foreign Leaderwriter on The Guardian until he left to write books on naval history and related subjects. Of his dozen books, three won awards, two were bestsellers and his work has been translated into 14 languages. He still writes occasionally for The Guardian. Michelle Whitby manages the Par Ici shop in Twickenham, where the work of local artists and craftspeople, several of them still based on Eel Pie Island, is sold. Before that she spent 12 years running a workshop on the island, where she produced top-quality leather goods. She enjoyed a friendship with Arthur Chisnall, the self-appointed social worker and concert promoter at the heart of Eel Pie Island's 50s and 60s heyday, and he left her a mass of invaluable papers and photographs.

Customer Reviews

BEAUTIFUL AND FASCINATING BOOK FOR MUSIC LOVERS AND TWICKENHAM PEOPLE!
This is a lovely book - both content-wise and as an item of record with photographs etc. I've lived in Twickenham for many years now, love the place and am a massive music fan as well as a lover of local history so this book is perfect for me on all counts. Everyone in Twickenham knows about the Island Hotel and the stories of those who played there but until now it's all been anecdotal; this book finally pulls the whole story together in one beatifully designed place - well, as much of it as they could fit in the book! It's obviously been a labour of love, with all the photos, ticket stubs and original gig contracts scanned and included. It's very much a lively mix of images and text, written by people who are on the spot, have been for years and know their subjects well. It's a million miles away from the 'cuttings jobs' that fill the world of music books. The photos aren't all of musicians either - there are some stunning recent ones of the Island and the life - wild and otherwise - on it.

The music history in the book and that of the legendary Hotel is of course hugely engaging for a music fan but the general history of the Island that tops and tails it is equally readable and enjoyable. I just sat down with a couple of beers and devoured the whole thing in one sitting. While sitting outside a Twickenham riverside pub that faces the Island, near the plaque that remembers all the stars that played there.

The Island is a unique place that, in places, time has forgotten, with its own quirky, off-the-wall 'vibe' and it's all here. Essential for anyone who loves music and wants to read the story of a sometimes overlooked corner of the UK music scene in the '50s and '60s but also for anyone living in or near Twickenham, as it's an information-packed historical record of the Island we all love and which helps make Twickenham the special town it is.