News & Reviews
What are people saying about Beaming David Bowie …?
"The writing style draws you in so that the reader is at once observing as well as the player, making it a pleasure," writes Philip Turner, editor of Screentrade magazine. "I've already had the cover scanned for review and am actually looking forward to taking it away on holiday to read!"
"Just finished reading it last night. Loved it," writes Paul Kinder, who runs the award-winning David Bowie website bowiewonderworld.com, who then commented to the author: "I must thank you - you've given me plenty of food for thought relating to my work which I will endeavour to put into practice."
"Wow! Outstanding seems so inadequate! This book is awesome, inspiring in a comforting way, warm, passionate, funny, uplifting and intense in places," raved businesswoman Maria Marshall in Falmouth. "It builds up so well and you really do connect with the author. I loved the ending – in fact, I loved everything about it!
"I’m not normally someone who bothers to review books, but when I read the first few pages I was hooked," writes cinema industry veteran Peter Knight in Cornwall, "I really enjoyed this book and the messages and ideas that I take away from it are huge, and I actually feel quite inspired by it all.”
Alas, not everyone likes the book:
“If John had stuck to the facts, disposed of the numerous dodgy metaphors, egotistical statements and refrained from referring to himself as "The Man", the end result would have made a great article for Screen Digest. A good read, on the whole, it does not make!” Snubs Clare Turner, Sales Director for Pearl & Dean, in the October 15th edition of Media Week.
Marc John comments on Clare’s review: “The egotism in parts of the writing is (I thought) quite clearly deliberate, and is supposed to show what type of power driven, ego-maniac I became whilst in the grip of the ambition. You didn’t read it in context Ms Turner. But, hey, I suppose the only bad review is no review!”
See the full negative review at:
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?fuseaction=details&nnewsID=522515
Intereresting note: Pearl & Dean are rivals in the cinema advertising business to industry leaders Carlton Screen. Carlton Screen are featured several times in the book, and praised for their market leadership in the field of digital cinema, whereas Pearl & Dean were not mentioned at all, due to relative inactivity in the field. Any connection between the negative review and industry politics one wonders ….? You have to smile, I suppose.
Nevermind ...
Read the Cinema Business Magazine review (Nov 05)
(180k PDF)
Read the Cinema Technology Magazine review (Dec 05)
(70k PDF)
Marc John’s reading sessions …
Marc John read extracts during the Wigtown Literary Festival in south west Scotland at the famous bookstore The BookShop, 17 North Main Street, Wigtown on Monday, on Sept 26 - 11am & 4pm, Tuesday, Sept 27 11am & 4pm and Friday, September 30 - 4pm.
Marc next appeared during the Belfast Festivalreading extracts at The Varsity, 1 College Gardens, Belfast on Thursday October 27th & Friday October 28th 4.30pm and 6.30pm.
Marc John at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2005 …
Marc John attended the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair during October (19-23) to meet with international publishers with a view to selling the foreign translation rights to Beaming David Bowie. Presently the book is available as an English-language title only. No deals were concluded for translations but developments are ongoing.
So what’s next for Marc John and Beaming David Bowie …?
Marc says: “Well, folks, I’ve just finished reading The Golden Bough by J.G. Frazer (808 pages, abridged from a 12-volume set!) and there’s quite a few little gems by Joseph Campbell I plan to get through as well, so basically I’m in hiding, reading lots, and working on developing my sense of spirituality* - which I finally reconnected with after all that jet-setting!” Sighs, smiles, sits back and types: “Any one been to Africa? Someday I’d quite like to visit the river that Marlowe ventures down in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.”
* Spirituality – what exactly is spirituality? Well, the meaning of life is to find out who you are. And who you are is something bigger than you realise, bigger than what you see in the mirror, bigger than how you sound, bigger than how you act, bigger than how you function. The physical You is just a external representation of something far more phenomenal and everlasting within you, deep within you. Finding out who you truly are is what spirituality is all about. But how do you find out who you are? Ha ha, that’s the trick; a trick that’s uniquely yours to discover and perform. Plenty have done it before. But the Way is different for everyone. Good luck.