Beth Hall for Please Kill Me interviews Nina Antonia about Johnny Thunders and her officially authorized biography. Read it here.
Please Kill Me interviews Nina Antonia
Author: Nina Antonia
Books: Johnny Thunders, In Cold Blood, The New York Dolls, The Prettiest Star, The Only Ones, From Albion to Shangri-La. Films: 'Arthur Kane-New York Doll. 'Looking For Johnny', The Greenwood Faun, Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era's Dark Angel. Liner Notes: Nico, The New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers, Iggy & The Stooges. Contributions to: Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock. Anthologies: 'Bosie & The Beast' - Fenris Wolf 8'. 'South-West 13' Egaeus Press. Forthcoming: 'How Shall Dead Men Sing' - Egaeus Press - 'A Midwinter Entertainment.'
The Prettiest Star eBook
“Glamorous teen heartthrob Brett Smiley had the looks and the talent of a future superstar, but fate had different plans for him. As much the work of a detective as a biographer, The Prettiest Star, Nina Antonia’s expert excavation of the life of Smiley tells one of the most fascinating and tragic ‘what if’ stories of the rock era.” ~ Richard Metzger
Previously out of print since 2005, The Prettiest Star: Whatever Happened to Brett Smiley? is now available as an eBook on Kindle with an enhanced photo gallery.
Sold Worldwide on Amazon.
$9.99/£8.10
The epitome of Fey, ‘Beautiful’ Brett Smiley was primed for fame in the frenetic era of Glam but success was illusory. A former child actor, Brett had everything including a Mephistophelean manager, Andrew Loog Oldham who had steered the Rolling Stones to mega-stardom. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Nina Antonia, a disenfranchised teenager witnessed Smiley’s sole television appearance in the UK. Interviewed by a concerned Russell Harty, the fate of the young singer was already in jeopardy. With a one way ticket to the boulevard of broken dreams, Brett was to become a missing piece of Nina’s childhood, until their paths crossed, almost 30 years later.
Book Design/Layout: Beth Hall, http://www.bhalldesigns.com
Cover Artwork: colours of the dark, https://www.coloursofthedark.com
The Prettiest Star by Nina Antonia: officially authorised glad-rags & ephemera by colours of the dark:
‘The Chap’… Dark Angels: Darcy Sullivan interviews Nina Antonia
Prior to lockdown, I was interviewed by the sartorially splendid Darcy Sullivan for the equally dandified spring edition of ‘The Chap.’ Darcy asked some unusually pertinent questions that included a fine quota of Thunder’s related queries and also provided the opportunity to recollect seeing Quentin Crisp in conversation at the Royal Court in Liverpool. Crisp was the first author I’d seen address an audience and he was as you might expect, very witty and engaging. He was also most gracious when the time came for me to get a copy of ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ signed. Pete Burns was also getting his copy signed. Both gone now in the twinkling of gloriously painted eyes that recall the mad decadent verse of Edmund Gosse:
‘Prince-jewellers, whose facet-rhymes combine/ All hues that glow, all rays that shift & shine/ Farewell thy song is sung, thy splendour fled.’……….
Johnny Thunders – Complete Works – the Art of Cosa Nostra edited by Kadoi The Heartbreak and Hiroshi The Golden Arm
This informative and lavishly illustrated book is out now.
Includes the four versions of In Cold Blood, two versions of Too Much Too Soon and the Johnny Thunders Sleeve Notes by Nina Antonia as well as her interview with Brian Young. Thank you, Hiroshi and congrats!
‘Faun, three, two, one……..
It seems appropriate that the ‘Greenwood Faun’ should return now that Spring is in the air, with a lovely review in the latest edition of Pagan Dawn.
This unexpectedly great write – up is whittling away the last of the copies in www.egaeuspress.com secret cupboard so if you were thinking of perusing The Faun, it’s now or never!
May The Faun be with you……
FANTASY FEBRUARY – Festival of folklore events at Kensington Central Library
Ireland’s Faeries, The Sidhe.
What are faeries and how did W.B Yeats, one of their most vocal aficionados, develop his fascination? What did the Sidhe mean to him? Where did he find them? Is there a connection between nature, standing stones, corpse roads and faery paths?
Yeats changed public perceptions of the faeries – outlining the differences between Celtic faeries and English faeries. He was fascinated by the beliefs of the Irish Peasantry and used faeries as muses.
In this magical session we’ll be looking at Yeats best faerie poems as well as his influence on other Irish poets who also became faerie-fixated.
This talk stems from a feature ‘The Host of the Air’ by Nina that appeared in a recent anthology dedicated to W.B Yeats entitled ‘The Far Tower’, courtesy of Ireland’s only gothic/supernatural publisher, Swan River Press.
Nina Antonia has been a published author for almost 30 years but it is only in the last three years that she gained the confidence to begin writing about the supernatural and exploring esoteric themes.
She frequently wears green, the favoured colour of ‘The Good People’.
Tinsell’d by Twilight at Kensington Library, February 17th.
A return to the pleasant surrounds of Kensington Library heralds my first public engagement of 2020! Bet you can’t wait……it’s also the first time I’ve been asked to talk at a Folklore Festival where I shall be pondering W.B Yeat’s faery fascination and exploring how it affected his poetry. Although the Faeries or in Yeats’ case, the Sidhe, have long been muses to poets, no other versifier has captured their wilful glamour quite so well. We will be travelling far from the cloying imagery beloved by Disney into the bloodless and bejewelled caverns of the Fay. Assisted by the elegant Sir Darcy Sullivan, President of the order of the silk cravat, I will also explore Peasant Lore in Ireland and discourse upon how one might live in harmony with ‘The Good People’. Tir – Nan-Og here we come…….
The Far Tower
Honoured to have a feature in this very attractive tribute to W.B Yeats. Featuring an introduction from the inimitable Mark Valentine who did the same for ‘The Greenwood Faun’ (Egaeus Press). Thank you to Swan River Press, Ireland’s only independent gothic & supernatural publisher for asking me to contribute to this spectacular anthology. Every Swan River book serves to remind us of Ireland’s lambent literary history whilst captivating the modern reader. Thank you again to everyone for working on this project. It turned out beautifully–wait until you see the cover, which we printed in gold foil.
‘Incurable’ reviewed by Scott Beauchamp for The Russell Kirk Center
Homesick for Eternity
Incurable: The Haunted Writings of Lionel Johnson, the Decadent Era’s Dark Angel
by Lionel Johnson,
edited by Nina Antonia.
Strange Attractor Press, 2019.
Paperback, 216 pages, $20.
Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp
Michele Kirsch Interviews Nina Antonia for Glass Magazine
Photograph: Jon “Boogie” Tiberi. Courtesy of Jungle Records
Nina discussing Johnny Thunders with journalist, Michele Kirsch, for The Glass Magazine. Lots of nice pictures!! xx
