Books
Reviews and special interest publications
'an extraordinary polymath' - The Spectator
Woman and the Vote: A World History
Women & the Vote is the first history looking at women and the vote throughout the world. I have been able to study startling new connections across time and national boundaries with biographical pictures of the dramatic lives of suffrage leaders in history including little-known activists from China, Latin America and Africa. I note the regional cultures and their different influence on women's politics, showing how in Catholic countries the image of the mother or beauty queen could prevail to political advantage where the earnest feminist failed.
Taking the story of women in politics from the earliest times, I have been able to extend the range from familiar fields in Europe and North America to encompass Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, with new insights into women and Arab politics in the post 9/11 period.
'Impressive in its reach, authoritative in its meticulous research...A broad remit and a book peppered with tantalising glimpses of the personalities involved, moments of immense courage, tales of teamwork and of female friendships spanning continents....At its best the writing enthals....authoritative and thought-provoking'
-The Independent
'Jad Adams' account of the global history of the fight for women's suffrage tells the collective story of thousands of tenacious battlers, clamouring for a place in the seat of power. Women and the Vote is half encyclopaedia, half breathless adventure tale.' - New Statesman
'Adams is unafraid to take on historical sacred cows...in this authoritative, scholarly text, Adams reveals the contributions of an array of interesting, insufficiently recognised individuals who worked for female suffrage all over the world' - Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
'highly readable...Adams draws upon a mass of data to paint a fascinating picture of women's enfranchisement worldwide, not just in Europe and North America.'
- BBC History Magazine
'Book of the Month' - History Revealed
'Jad Adams has written a well-researched and sympathetic biography - though not a hagiography - about someone who will live for ever in the pantheon of Labour heroes. Here is a man capable of arousing great and contradictory passions among friends and foes alike, by turns inspiring, infuriating, courageous, irresponsible, right about some of the big issues of the day and sometimes just plain wrong.' - Chris Mullin, New Statesman
‘This is some career and this is some book, well documented and packed with atmosphere and insight. A strong argument holds this considerable volume together. It might be described as the biographical dialogue between Benn’s considerable political achievements and the fact that he failed to become leader of his party and to carry his Cabinet colleagues with him to realise political goals that were tremendously important to him.
Tony Benn - A Biography
But whether we think of him as a failure or as a success, his importance in British politics since 1945 cannot be denied.’ Robert Giddings - The Tribune
‘Told with considerable grace and style…candour and warmth of narrative’ – SUNDAY TIMES
‘Perceptive…extremely accurate…writes in a style that makes a reader wish to read on.’ - THE SCOTSMAN
‘An enjoyable read’ – NEW STATESMAN
‘Fascinating reading’ – DAILY EXPRESS
‘Benn’s character shines through this fat but very readable biography’
– DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Considerable narrative skill’ – SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘Extremely well researched and documented’ - GUARDIAN
Gandhi: Naked Ambition
'I have just finished reading Gandhi: Naked Ambition by Jad Adams (Quercus). I confess when it landed on my table, I did not want to read it. What is there about Gandhi that we do not know? At the best, it could be the personal opinion of the author, who had per force to rely on the published material.
What provoked me to read it was the sub-title Naked Ambition. It was deliberately provocative. So was the introduction in which he drew attention to a couple of contradictions in statements made by the Mahatma. Then I could not stop till I reached the last page. I realised that the author, who is a historian and a biographer, is also a television producer. He knows the art of holding a reader’s interest.' - Khushwant Singh in THE TRIBUNE (and syndicated)
‘Jad Adams’s biography has the merit of restoring Gandhi to thecentre of the political story while offering a full discussion of his extraordinary characteristics ... The result is a fascinating portrayal of an individual’s ambitions and ideas in the context of the struggle for power between the British Raj and Indian nationalism.’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
'Readable and provocative…Adams strips away Gandhi’s saintly aura and explores the duality between his grand vision of an independent India and his fastidiousness with regard to his vegetarianism, clothes and sexual abstinence. Gandhi may have secured independence, have been India’s most famous leader and promoted principles of non-violence that have retained their global appeal, but Adams suggests that Gandhi’s preoccupation with sex, a cultivated pauperism and emphasis on personal perfection were wasteful, indulgent distractions.' FINANCIAL TIMES
'An engrossing biography…Adams's intent is to separate the myth from the man. He has some sobering insights to offer…Adams has made substantive use of the copious paper trail Gandhi left behind and delved deep into his confessional prose.' THE INDEPENDENT
'Adams focuses not on the idealised apostle of peace, but Gandhi the man who spent much of his life refining his eccentric theories of chastity, vegetarianism, bowel movements and how best to conserve his sperm which he saw as a vital fluid.' TIMES OF INDIA
'There have been enough hagiographies of this great, peculiar, wilful figure, and after his death there was a concerted effort to erase some embarrassing truths from the Gandhi legend. This is a vividly human, even funny book.' DAILY MAIL
'Recounted briskly and concisely by Jad Adams who is experienced enough to know what to omit and what to emphasise…Adams certainly does not pull his punches, and as a result the Gandhi that emerges from his rounded and provocative study is a much more vivid personality…a no-nonsense biography.' THE HERALD
‘Ever since his assassination in 1948, Gandhi’s life has been the subject of
legend and controversy. Was he the "father of India" or an obsessed guru? Gandhi’s part in bringing the British Raj to its knees is well known, as are his ideas and lifestyle. What this new, provocative biography does is to make his private quest for spiritual perfection the centre of the story.’ DAILY EXPRESS
'Jad Adams' critical and irreverent biography of the great man explains his various experiments with celibacy, chastity, brahmacharya and sexuality' DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS (Mumbai)
RESEARCH
In researching this book I went through 100 volumes of Gandhi's Collected Works and scores of works by people who knew Gandhi, often written while he was alive. I described the problems of Gandhi scholarship in a piece I did for the Oxonian Review: Elephant Traps in the Hunt for Gandhi
When I spoke at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 'Fringeguru' blogger Miriam Vaswani wrote: 'An interesting parallel is drawn between Gandhi and Gladstone, whose 'rescue work' with young prostitutes, though it did not involve penetration, was extremely personal and sexual. It's a brave and original look at Gandhi, and the author asserts that at this time in history we're ready to see a more human picture of our civil rights icons.'
Hideous Absinthe A History of the Devil in a Bottle
'Jad Adams book looks at the myths of absinthe and examines its influence on the artistic movements of the nineteenth century. He covers Degas and Picasso who all painted absinthe drinkers in pictures that are now considered masterpieces but were execrated at the time. He examines the mystery of van Gogh’s absinthe addiction and asks whether absinthe truly contributed to the poetic vision of Verlaine, Rimbaud and many unjustly neglected more minor writers.'
I am often called to do radio interviews in Britain, the US and Commonwealth countries. Here is Michele Norris talking with me about absinthe on NPR's
All Things Considered
'An extraordinary polymath [Adams] is a master of a classically lucid style enlivened by dashes of the colloquial and by entertaining detail...Hideous Absinthe is a model of how to convey the exhilaration of an exciting subject without getting all melodramatic...a most beguiling book’. – The Spectator
'Critic's choice' - Daily Mail
In this entertaining history Jad Adams traces the emerald drink’s astonishing popularity…a diligent social historian’ - The Observer
‘Considering myself a bit of an expert, I was expecting when I opened Jad Adams’ book, to read a lot of stuff I already knew…how much more I had to learn. Adams, who has previously written a terrific biography of the little-known decadent poet Ernest Dowson, is clearly the man for the job. He has a real feel for the period and there is a wealth of detail and insight here.’ – Tom Hodgkinson, The Guardian
'Well researched, often poignant, and always fascinating biography of a subject whose history, rather like the liqueur itself when added to seven parts water, has often been clouded and opaque.' - The Lancet
'Hideous Absinthe is a careful and considered account of a drink whose reputation has always exceeded its consumption...even specialists will learn something from this balanced and informative account.' - New England Journal of Medicine
‘Jad Adams makes an interesting tale out of this demonised drink.’ – Sunday Telegraph
Coverage in the Times, Sunday Times and Independent
'Marvellously entertaining' - New York Press
'This book is as titillating as it is sobering.' - New York Times
Madder Music, Stronger Wine: The Life of Ernest Dowson
‘Adams is an admirably sympathetic but honest biographer’ - THE TIMES
‘Exemplary professionalism and dedication’ – THE GUARDIAN
‘well researched, well written and unusually well-written…the approach is exemplary: neither censorious nor adulatory. He makes excellent use of sources and is discerning as to whom and what to believe. He has a bedrock common sense that enables him to portray Dowson and his decadent friends with a pinch of salt. Yet he also has a keen sympathy and understanding for the man and his milieu.’ - LOS ANGELES TIMES
‘Adams’ artful, assured biography is a moving evocation’ - NEW YORK TIMES
‘a shrewd, affectionate and readable biography…Adams’ handling of Dowson’s ruling obsession is deft, tender and never prurient. He provides fascinating details of the sexual subcultures of Victorian Soho’ - THE INDEPENDENT
‘well-written and perceptive…detailed, painstaking and balanced’ YORKSHIRE POST
‘in his short life he sampled every form of good and evil; and in Jad Adams he has found his ideal biographer: Adams has read everything, is never censorious... he has written a book that is full of alcohol, art and unrestrained sexual intercourse…Adams successfully transcends the genre.’ - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Kipling
'Adams' chronicle is an important study of one of England's literary heroes. He tried to overturn preconceptions that the reader may hold about Kipling and the common perception of him as imperialist, misogynist and racist.' - FINANCIAL TIMES
'an enjoyably confrontational biography. Adams identifies Kipling's self-deception as mirrored in the self-deception of the empire whose values he promoted in life and literature.' - THE TIMES
'In this intelligent, short biography...Jad Adams provides a fair and sympathetic account of the man behind the work.' - MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Kipling was one of the finest writers for children, yet his own childhood was scarred by abuse and two of his children died tragically
He was castigated as a misogynist, though few writers of either sex have written so warmly about middle-aged women. He was accused of racism, though no other artist wrote with such intimacy of native life.
This new biography sheds light on the confused sexuality of a writer who adored men and was attracted to older or masculine women; and places him in context not just as an imperialist but as a sensitive artist of his time.'
Local history
The Hollies: A Home for Children
The Hollies, a history of the vast children's home in Sidcup, was written from records in the London Metropolitan Archives and oral histories taken from former children in care there. Written and published with my friend Gerry Coll.
A History of Kings & Princes Garth and Forest Hill
A history of the building I live in and some of the people who have lived there since it was constructed in 1850. I had only 100 copies printed and discover from websites that this is now a rare book!
A History of Shirley Oaks Children's Home
'A snapshot of residential care in the 20th century. Local History at its best' Paul Robson, Centre for Institutional Studies, University of East London.
AIDS: The HIV Myth
Critical comments on Jad Adams’ first major book, based on research done for his award-winning TV programme AIDS – The Unheard Voices:
‘a powerfully human story…passionate and abrasive’ – Guardian
‘AIDS touches a special nerve, which seems to bring out the very worst in scientific and religious communities. Ambition, greed, hatred, cruelty and fear are the driving forces portrayed in a deeply moving account of the AIDS saga…the author writes passionately and his humanity pervades every page.’ – Observer
‘a fascinating and chilling book’ – Sunday Times
‘There is a sad dearth of full-blooded acrimonious scientific controversies – so this book is particularly welcome.’ – Sunday Telegraph
‘Meticulously researched…Named scientists are the butt of Adams’ invective as he draws attention to their abandonment of the scientific approach, acquisition of vested interests in the virus they champion and use of steam-roller tactics to silence any opposition…Adams has written a highly provocative but important book on a huge medical problem. It deserves to be read.’ – Nature
‘…[a] spirited attack on received wisdom…does an excellent job summarising doubts about AIDS/HIV.’ - Lancet
‘a flat earth society manifesto’ – Independent
‘Rarely has such a deadly book been published’ – New Scientist
'Somewhere in the Aegean, near the outer edge of Europe is a tiny Greek island which is unfashionable, difficult to access, and not entirely savoury in its history. But it is a magical island with its illuminated castle, churches on rocks out into the sea, circular windmills on high hills, turquoise bays and views to make the heart beat faster.
It has been settled by the Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Turks and Italians and in the twenty-first century came a new wave of immigrants. Some time after Greece’s membership of the European Union, the people of the cold lands to the north began to move down the chessboard of Europe.
Some gave up good jobs and homes to go to Doxos, others gave up unemployment
and rather less satisfactory homes; some just washed up there, having lost the momentum for further drifting. They came in search of a less troubled lifestyle, untrammelled by the grinding routine of commuting and life beside hard roads that pounded day and night. They came in search of peace and romance, sun and cheap wine. What they found was something different.
The natives treated them with amused welcome, with bewilderment and occasionally contempt, for the islanders had their own age-old ways and the mountains would change before they did.'
My series of stories about life on a Greek island which I shared on Wattpad:
I have written several novels, two of which are currently seeking a publisher: Choice of Darkness
which is a story about blighted love and mass murder, set in1890s Philadelphia; and Cafe Europa
which is about youth, crime, corruption and the idylls of the European Union on a Greek island. It describes life before Brexit.
A Visit to the Publisher
Time was when I would visit publishers who always seemed to be located up stairs lined with boxes. The offices smelled of old books and nicotine, grey rolls of cigarette ash lay on piles of manuscripts; jacket designs on pasteboard leaned against stuffed wooden bookshelves. The editors were intense young men with beards who looked short of a dinner or two; and women of indeterminate age and uncombed hair who wore knitted woollies and knew Latin.
They would be located somewhere like Hampstead or Primrose Hill, and a publisher might take me off to a public house with dark wood beams, where we would discuss books over crusty pies and yeasty ales. They were publishers who used to pay me to give opinions on manuscripts, used to invite me to launch parties that they paid for.
One of those publishers was merged with another publisher, was bought up by another and engulfed by a conglomerate. When I visited my new publisher it was a high security affair, starting at the marble entrance hall of a tower block with a Nigerian guard in uniform and an Eastern European woman with a severe haircut in a business suit. She observed with no comment my fumbling attempts to negotiate the labyrinth of glass leading to her desk, but indicated for me to pose to have my picture taken which she sealed into a little name badge with a smart click. ‘Very helpful if I have an identity crisis while I‘m here,’ I said. She looked glacial, I suppose she had been told not to indulge the authors, who might be dangerous. There was a basket of brightly coloured sweets arranged in layers so as to resemble a chrysanthemum, in such an agreeable pattern I didn’t like to disturb it by taking one.
I went up the glass-sided lift and watched London falling away beneath my feet. A fragrant young woman came to collect me, one of those girls from a good family in the home counties who inhabit the industry.
‘Are you one of the editors?’ I asked, as we walked through the deserted office of empty computer screens and the occasional coffee-making machine.
Oh we don’t edit,’ she said the word as if I had suggested she compose hot metal type with her bare hands, ‘the books come in from agents ready-edited, otherwise we won’t look at them. I’m work experience, been here for six weeks.’
‘And are you getting experience?’ I asked.
‘Today I am,’ she said cheerily, ‘more than the others are. There are ten of us in a cupboard down the hall, this is my day out. I get to be on greeting duty.’
‘I wonder if it was worth three years at an excellent university for this?’ I said, chancing my arm at the quality of the girl’s education.
‘We worked out we have half a million pounds worth of student debt between us,’ she said. ‘The first week they had me arranging the complimentary sweets in symmetrical patterns. Then I was moved on to biscuits. They like a tight biscuit arrangement when the investors come in.’
She showed me into an office and returned to her debtors’ prison.
It was a place with a panoramic view of the city, through a huge window, but no one was apparently in it.
There were books, not on shelves as if to be used, but on display stands around the walls. I heard a rustling and looked round for its source. It was under the desk, between the chrome legs, where I leaned down to see the publisher.
‘Good afternoon,’ I said, not wishing to suggest that I, a guest, found anything untoward in this behaviour. I wondered if etiquette decreed I should join him.
‘Goodofyoutocomein,’ he said, without conviction. He was no older than me but I like to think showed more signs of wear.
I squatted down till I was at his level, ‘Just doing a few pilates stretches,’ he said, ‘good for the stress you know.’
‘What,’ I enquired politely, ‘is making you anxious?’
‘Damson,’ he mumbled.
‘Damsons? You are worried about damsons? The little purple things? Well, I’ve heard of some strange phobias…’ What disastrous childhood encounter with soft fruit could have brought about this abomination?
‘No. A-ma-zon,’ he enunciated more clearly. ‘They take all our books and sell them too cheaply.’
‘You’re frightened of Amazon?’ Finally I understood, ‘But it’s only a website,’ I said. He flinched as if I had held up the very spider that span that fearful website.
‘Look you have websites too, you can sell direct to the public. Every other publisher does too, you don’t need to let Amazon do all the running. If Amazon can sell lots of books, that just means there’s a big market out there.’
I sat down, he clicked his neck, straightened up and settled in a chrome-framed swivel chair. He pulled at his cuffs, beginning to look more the part of the international publisher.
‘And there’s Tesco’s,’ he said gloomily, ‘Well, all of them really, but mainly Tesco’s,’ the blue and red supermarket logo could almost be seen in his eyes.
I gave a questioning look. ‘They sell our books,’ he said, ‘so many of them.’
‘So it’s bad that new outlets sell books?’ I asked, ‘I write books, you make books, they sell books - where’s the problem?’
‘Nooo,‘ he moaned, ‘When we want to publish a book, we go to Tesco’s and ask if they will stock it and if they say no…‘ he looked as if he were going to wail. ‘Unless they take a book we can’t publish it.’
This was a rum do, calling for some dexterity. You can’t let the buyers for supermarkets run your industry. ‘Surely there’s another way around this,’ I said, ‘I remember when supermarkets had only English fare, there were no artichokes or butternut squash or olive oil. Now you get five kinds of olive oil.’ He looked at me as if I were losing mental acuity. ‘Look, what I mean is, I know supermarkets only carry big sellers now, but they are new to the market. Public tastes change and they will demand a wider range of stock. Perhaps work on widening interests…’ He seemed unconvinced.
‘And then there’s another thing,’ he said petulantly, ‘Kindle, I don’t know what to make of it.’
‘It supplements, it doesn’t supplant,’ I said, ‘look at the movie industry, for years they resisted putting films out for home viewing, thinking it would destroy the cinemas. In fact they created another market - people still saw the film, then the bought it on DVD, they bought it as a present, bought it for the director’s cut and the making of featurettes….think about the new possibilities for books….’
He still looked glum, this wasn’t one of my more successful afternoons.
‘What do you like to publish?‘ I asked, thinking it would brighten him up, and perhaps even supply me with a commission.
The sparkle came back to his eyes, ‘Trilogies are very successful,’ he said, clapping his hands, ‘look at The Hunger Games, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a trilogy would be very nice…’
‘I mainly write non-fiction,’ I said, ‘anything in that line you like?’
The publisher picked up somewhat and assumed a gaze of musing on past delights, ‘The Second World War has been very big for us.’ he said. ‘And the royals, of course, always a favourite…’
‘So what you really want is Secrets of the Tudor Nazis?’ I ventured, adapting a gag of Alan Coren’s.
I think the publisher failed to see the joke, ‘Sounds promising…’ he mumbled.
He may have suspected I was not a wholesale admirer and took the initiative, ‘We don’t publish a lot of, you know, books now. But we really go to town on the ones we do publish. Look we’ve just bought --------’s autobiography, huge publicity budget, TV, newspaper serial - we’re looking for six figures - the works.’
He held up a book whose cover had a picture of a young woman I vaguely recognised from the gossip columns of the less reputable newspapers, perhaps she had won a talent show.
‘What does she have to say?’ I asked, trying to keep the mood upbeat.
‘Oh, how she sniffed glue as a kid. How she was shocked to discover the man she thought was her father was in fact...er…I think it was her father, actually. I must be thinking about another book…’
I looked more closely, ‘How old is she?’
‘She’s twenty-three.’
‘Perhaps a little young to be writing her autobiography?’
‘Well, you have to be youthful and go-ahead in today’s market. We are up-to-date. We twitter, you know, one of the work experience girls twitters for us. Very nice, double first from Somerville.’
‘Well you seem very well set up here then,’ I said.
‘But the worry, you know,’ he indicated the floor as if he were about to dive down there again.
‘Any good things? I asked, by way of encouragement.
‘I went to an awards dinner last night,’ he licked his lips, ‘I liked that.’
‘Oh good, did you win?’
‘No,’ he said with disgust, ‘the prize went to some provincial outfit, publishing out of a back room in someone‘s house. I just don’t know what the business is coming to.’
The Author summer 2012
