The Music Man: The Autobiography of the Genius Behind the World's Best-Loved Musicals

Leslie Bricusse grew up in Pinner in the war years - with a family that's relationship with the theatre was limited to a grandmother who earned a living scrubbing the front steps of the London Apollo. But for Leslie's life was to be a little more privileged and his involvement with the Arts scene was to be phenomenal. Like most children Leslie turned his modest five by seven bedroom in south west London into a jungle of movie posters and train sets; he detested his weekly piano lessons and can't quite comprehend how his sister got him to attend tap dancing classes. At just six years of age, Leslie associated music with the hits of George Gershwin, but his interest in music was to be put relatively on hold for another six years; till one day he wondered down to the West End, on his way home from the public school he attended in Hampstead, and witnessed his first MGM musical: an experience that was to change his life. After 2 years National Service and a degree education at Cambridge University, Leslie was to become on of the greatest score writers of all time. With awards, including Oscars, for both stage and film scores including "Gold Finger: James Bond" and more recently, "Scrooge". This is a wonderfully written, detailed and witty account of life as an ordinary boy to becoming an extraordinary and talented figure in the music world.