Margrave of the Marshes

Sam T reviewed Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel

Review of 'Margrave of the Marshes' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I count myself lucky that as a teenager I caught the last few years of John's broadcasting career on Radio 1. His attitude towards music is a huge influence on me, and his charisma comes through in the first part of this book. I was worried when Sheila would took over that the quality would drop, but there is some excellent writing in the longer second part of the book as well. I feel that it could have been shorter towards the end but I couldn't say exactly which bits I'd want to cut out. Overall, an enjoyable and flawed book which reflects its protagonist beautifully.

Manuel B. reviewed Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel

Review of 'Margrave of the Marshes' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What could possibly be more sad than an unfinished autobiography? OK, actually most autobiographies are unfinished, unless they end with the words "I am dying right now". What I mean is, that John Peel was about to tell the story of his life, but died before he could put it all down on paper. Consequently only approximately one third of the entire book was written by John Peel himself. The rest of the story is told by his wife Sheila on the basis of John's diaries and her own memories.

She did a good job with that, there is no question about it, but what stands out in the part that John Peel had written himself, is how he links the stories and events to particular songs. In a way he is thereby providing a soundtrack to the book, which anyone with access to YouTube, Spotify or a sufficiently large …

What could possibly be more sad than an unfinished autobiography? OK, actually most autobiographies are unfinished, unless they end with the words "I am dying right now". What I mean is, that John Peel was about to tell the story of his life, but died before he could put it all down on paper. Consequently only approximately one third of the entire book was written by John Peel himself. The rest of the story is told by his wife Sheila on the basis of John's diaries and her own memories.

She did a good job with that, there is no question about it, but what stands out in the part that John Peel had written himself, is how he links the stories and events to particular songs. In a way he is thereby providing a soundtrack to the book, which anyone with access to YouTube, Spotify or a sufficiently large record store could listen to while reading.