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Nine Eight Books nets Doyle’s ‘artful, funny and brutally candid’ biography of Kate Bush
Nine Eight Books, the music imprint of Bonnier Books UK, has acquired Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush from music writer Tom Doyle.
Pete Selby, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Matthew Hamilton at The Hamilton Agency for publication in October 2022.
Comprising 50 chapters or "visions", it is billed as a multi-faceted biography of the famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles. Featuring details from the author’s one-to-one conversations with the singer, alongside vignettes of her key songs, albums, videos, and concerts, Doyle’s “artful, candid and often brutally funny portrait” promises to introduce the real Bush, whose music has surged in popularity again in recent weeks after featuring in "Stranger Things".
Along the way, the narrative also includes vivid reconstructions of transformative moments in her career and insights from the friends and collaborators closest to her including her photographer brother John Carder Bush and fellow artists David Gilmour, John Lydon and Youth.
Doyle is the author of three books with Polygon: The Glamour Chase: The Maverick Life of Billy Mackenzie; Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s; and Captain Fantastic: Elton John’s Stellar Trip Through The ’70s. As a journalist and interviewer, his work has appeared in Mojo, Billboard, Q, Sound On Sound, the Guardian and the Times. Over the years, he has profiled Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Elton John, U2, Madonna, Keith Richards, Yoko Ono and Kate Bush.
Doyle said: “I’m super chuffed to be joining the brilliant Pete Selby and the team at Nine Eight. Kate is an outstanding and complex artist, and so I feel that examining her work and career from 50 different angles will illuminate the girl who lived in her imagination, reluctantly became famous because of it, then had to deal with unwanted outside forces, before battling on and emerging triumphant, to become one of the most ground-breaking, idiosyncratic and singular music figures of our time.”
Selby said: “I have long been a great admirer of Tom’s writing. His ability to poke around under the metaphorical bonnet of his subjects and deliver fresh and insightful observations is second to none. Given the current global resurgence of interest in Kate Bush and having worked closely and sympathetically with her in the past, there is no one better placed to explore the life and work of one our greatest ever artists.”
