Product Description

From her birth (in the Parisian streets, her mother shielded by two gendarmes) to her death (when her husband allegedly drove her corpse from the hospital where she died to her flat, lest her fans think that she had abandoned Paris) Edith Piaf's life story was a rags-to-riches tale like no other. A street singer discovered by the nightclub owner who gave her the stage name Piaf ( sparrow ) she rose to become a national heroine. Friends with Charlie Chaplin, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jean Cocteau, Maurice Chevalier and Marlene Dietrich, she was also at various times chief suspect for the murder of her mentor, an alcoholic and a drug addict. But she always seemed to embody and still does something of the spirit of Paris. Following her death in 1963, 40,000 people descended on Père Lachaise cemetery for her funeral, and many more around the world remain devotees of her music.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75427 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
Lively and easy to read . . . stamped with her very individual personality. Times Literary Supplement --Times Literary Supplement

Pungent as pastis and Gitânes, vivid as a Lautrec lithograph BBC Radio 4 --BBC Radio 4

The sheer style of the woman, the Parisienne . . . stands out. Sun --The Sun

Four decades on from her untimely death at the age of 47, French drama queen Edith Piaf's own words are here dusted down and made available in paperback for the first time. And in resurrecting the past, Piaf's publishers have dug up something interesting.' --Ian Fletcher - Record Collector

The sheer style of the woman, the Parisienne . . . stands out. Sun --The Sun

Daily Telegraph
'Generous-hearted and surprisingly modest.'

Sun
'The sheer style of the woman, the Parisienne . . . stands out.'

Customer Reviews

The Little Sparrow
I must say I write this review with a bias !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just love EDITH PIAF, she was a beautiful singer, some of her books are not for the feint hearted no silver spoon in her mouth she had an extremely difficult upbringing and came from the back streets of Paris.

When she sang it came from her experiences of living at times in the street, her difficult times with her father and her lovers.

I have listened to original recordings of her songs just like the book the emotion in her songs would bring you to tears and break your heart, you would need to have a heart of stone not to be moved by her story and her songs.

I watched the film made of her life, I liked the book better, the film scratched the surface.

This book has it all, better than a blockbuster movie with little or no budget, yet it has hardship, hope, sex, love, drugs, alcohol and finally tragedy.

I will never forget the stage play with Elaine Page playing Piaf, when she sings her swan song NO REGRETS, the stage is pitch black, there is a small beam of light on her face the beam widens to show Piaf, she is in a wheelchair having been pushed by her young lover / admirer, she slowly rises from the chair like the Phoenix rising from the ashes and she starts to sing, I was in tears her life unfolded before us, at the end I stood and clapped and clapped.

I loved the book I loved the story I loved PIAF'S LIFE