Readers Are Leaders Bookshop

Northfolk, 1920. Barbara Bosgrove has lived in the market town of Melsham all her life, and is looking forward to the annual Harvest Supper dinner ball- the first since the dark days of the First World War.

George Kenneth, a fiercely ambitious man, had his eye on Barbara since spotting her with her great friend Penny, and Penny’s brother Simon. He begins a slow and steady courtship and Barbara is eventually won over, agreeing to marry a man she believes can rely on.

Little does she realise how wrong she can be. Worn down by George’s unfaithfulness during their marriage, Barbara feels she has lost all the vitality of her youth.

But Simon is not prepared to let Barbara lose sight of the woman she really is-the woman he has always loved. Her reawakens Barbara’s passion and fighting spirit, but at what cost?

I Know This Much – by Gary Kemp, Spandau Ballet’s prime mover – is simply the freshest, most exciting and best-written memoir to arrive for years.

Gary’s story begins in North London, where the Kemp family rented a home with no bathrooms and chickens in the yard. After a couple of failed attempts to kill his brother Martin, his parents gave him a guitar for Christmas.

From schoolyard battles between the Bowie Boys and the Prog Rockers to Mrs Kemp’s firm insistence on net curtains, from acting for the Children’s Film Foundation to manning a fruit and veg stall on Saturdays, Gary brilliantly evokes an upbringing full of love, creativity and optimism.

As the Thatcher years begin, Gary’s account of the outrageous London club scene centred around the Blitz and Billy’s is just sizzling. Out of this glamorous mayhem of kilt-wearing mascara’d peacocks would emerge Spandau Ballet – the band that would define the era, and hold high the victorious standard of the New Romantics.