This is a wonderful secret history of British movies that includes the scandals, the suicides, the immolations and the contract killings - the product of thousands of conversations with veteran film-makers. Here you'll meet, among many others, the 20s film idols snorting cocaine from an illuminated glass dance floor on the bank of the Thames, the model who escaped Soho's gangsters to become the queen of the nudie flicks and the genteel Scottish comedienne who, at the age of fifty-five, reinvented herself as a star of exploitation cinema, and fondly remembers 'the one where I drilled in people's heads and ate their brains'. Welcome to the lost worlds of British cinema.

Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet is a gripping secret history of British cinema.

About the Author
Matthew Sweet presents Night Waves and Freethinking on BBC Radio 3, and is the summer presenter of The Film Programme on Radio Four. He is the author of Inventing the Victorians and Shepperton Babylon, which he adapted as a film for BBC Four. His TV programmes include Silent Britain, A Brief History of Fun, The Age of Excess, Truly, Madly, Cheaply and The Rules of Film Noir. .

Reviews
"'A singular triumph... It makes our cinematic history vivid and invigorating in a way few books have yet managed.' Empire 'Very well-informed and effortlessly funny. I doubt there will be a better film book this year.' Independent"



Book Information
ISBN 9780571212989
Author Matthew Sweet
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 360g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 126mm * 28mm