Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> IN THE SUMMER before he died Norman Eales photographer part-time painter car buff penfriend and Marine reserve went to Italy with his partner John Kelly and wrote to a friend: “Venice – heaven! A mahogany launch to meet us white slip covers with blue piping. In the hotel (the Danieli) the linen sheets are changed daily. White white towels and robes the size of football fields. Perfect cherries and apricots on gold-rimmed plates. Silver service and heavy damask. Lemon-water finger bowls. Outside the tall windows Venice sits – or scurries by – and we are ‘hit’ by every painting… At Harry’s Bar I sat between an ageing Monica Vitti and James Coburn. Ah the Bellinis. Medici lips on all the youths in alleyways. Heady stuff. If this is dying one should do it more often.” A painterly eye a journalist’s sense of place sensuality an iron will and a strong work ethic are the qualities that took Norman who left school at 15 out of the East End and up West to Vogue Studios where style was a religion and the good things of life were the reward for his ability to pin down the imponderables of fashion. Bianca Jagger Sarah Crighton Stuart (later the Begum Aga Khan) Twiggy Jacqueline Bisset Paulene Stone and Debbie Condon all sat for Norman knding that his lens revealed qualities no other photographer could bring out. A wicked joke did wonders for the sparkle and the smile. Editors knew that if you wanted to hold the front page or make your fashion pages worth turning to Eales was your man. His famous black-and-white prints impeccably printed and retouched monopolised hitherto unheard-of amounts of column inches in newspapers in the heady Sixties and in the Seventies his brilliant covers and spreads of gorgeous healthy vibrant girls helped define that new phenomenon the Cosmo Girl. (LL)