A new novel from Bethan Roberts - a brilliant recreation of the early life of Elvis Presley, the making of 'the King', and a heartbreaking portrait of the very intense love between him and his mother, Gladys
Bethan Roberts' prizewinning novels include My Policeman, a
piercing portrait of a love triangle, set in 1950s Brighton. She
grew up in a house where Elvis's music was always playing, and
first became captivated by the story of Elvis and Gladys as a girl,
poring over her mother's scrapbooks and annuals.
Bethan lives in Brighton with her family.
www.bethanrobertswriter.com
An immediately convincing evocation of time and place, as well as
character, colour, sultry heat and complex emotions... Moving
effortlessly between the late 1950s and Elvis's straitened
upbringing, it vividly conveys his world
*Sunday Times*
This is an impressive, deceptively gentle novel, full of quiet
music and even quieter tragedy
*Daily Telegraph*
One of the best books about a rock star I've ever read
Bethan Roberts grew up in a house filled with Elvis’s music and
pored over her mother’s Elvis annuals and scrapbooks as a child…
its emotional range rings true and its fidelity to a certain strain
of wistful melancholy might go deeper than facts... an understated,
thoughtful novel about a man who wore suits fashioned from gold
leaf on stage, which occasionally prompts the reader to burst into
song.
*Financial Times*
Graceland is an astonishing literary achievement. Bethan Roberts
somehow manages to unlock the mystery to that beautiful sadness in
the voice of Elvis. Utterly heartbreaking.
*Jake Arnott*
Roberts has done her research and is a loving curator of the
legend, but she’s strong, too on the tiny sensual details, which
intensify the up-close feel of this sensitive, measured novel
*Daily Mail*
Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer, and the
story of Elvis Presley and his relationship with his mother is one
ripe for her skills… both epic and intimate
*Grazia*
One is always in safe hands with Bethan Roberts, especially when
the subject is love.
*Lynne Truss*
A beautifully captured portrait
*Good Housekeeping*
Extraordinarily moving
*Choice*
Roberts is skilled at evoking the sexy, squalid atmosphere of
Memphis in the 1950s. There’s a down-at-heel glamour that the
reader can smell and taste
*Times Literary Supplement*
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