Articles written by Steve Newman

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About me - Steve Newman

I am a freelance writer, historian, actor, director, playwright and publisher living and working in Shakespeare's Stratford.

In 1997 I co-founded The Bird of Prey Theatre Company, which, in the five years of its first flight produced fourteen new plays by

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Entertainment > Musical Instruments Saxophones vs. clarinets: Which is better for Jazz?: 2 of 15
There can be no doubt that for the first forty years of Jazz the clarinet was, along with the trumpet, the major lead instrument of just about every jazz band, and later the Swing orchestras. But with the advent of be-bop in the 1940s the saxophone - especially the tenor - took the prominent position, most especially ... More..
Entertainment > Music Genres, Trends & Scenes Top jazz records of all time: 1 of 7
When The Beatles were recording 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' at the Abbey Road Studios in 1967, another group of young men were in the Decca Studios in West London recording music that was to change British modern jazz forever. Mike Westbrook's Concert Band was an outfit that had been formed in 1966, and one tha... More..
Creative Writing > Humor Humor: Memories: 7 of 42
Forty odd years ago I knew an elderly man who, as a thirteen year old back in 1908, joined a department store, and instead of cycling the thirty mile round trip, from and back to his home each day, slept under one of the store's counters, which was not uncommon in those days. Eventually the store made a house available for th... More..
Entertainment > Movie Reviews Movie reviews: Quantum of Solace: 2 of 12
The hugely acclaimed 2006 film, Casino Royale - which, with the arrival of Daniel Craig, took James Bond back to his dark and darkly violent roots - was always going to be a hard act to follow. Add to that the anticipation and hype of its sequel, Quantum of Solace, and it felt that it would be almost impossible to come u... More..
Arts & Humanities > Literature (Other) Inspirational biographies that will change your life: 3 of 17
Biography can often be one of the best forms of written history, that by seeing, and experiencing, the past through the life of one man or woman brings the times in which they lived much more vividly to life. It's how I write history. I also think that a handful of biographers are some of the very best, and most inspirationa... More..
Arts & Humanities > Literature (Other) Classic book recommendations: 6 of 32
Gerald Jaggard, the author of 'Stratford Mosaic',died in 2001, aged 97. But his book, published in 1960, lives on as one of the best ever written about Stratford-upon-Avon and its people; it also fetches extremely high prices in good second-hand bookshops, which is appropriate as Jaggard ran one of the best Stratford ever ha... More..
Entertainment > Movie Genres Best western movies: 4 of 18
There can be no doubt that one of the best, and most influential westernsever made was The Big Trail, starring a very young John Wayne.The film was made in 1929/30, and is, on the surface, a simple tale of a wagon train heading west in the 1850s. But after about ten minutes - when the 22 year old Wayne first appears - it b... More..
Arts & Humanities > American Literature Biography: Arthur Miller: 3 of 12
It's hard to believe that Arthur Miller - perhaps the finest playwright of the 20th century - has been dead for four years. And although we are the poorer for his passing, we are still the richer for the legacy of his plays.For Miller it was the 1930s, and the Great Depression, that was the real crucible in which his future ... More..
Arts & Humanities > William Shakespeare Theatrical analysis: Hamlet, Shakespeare: 3 of 12
The trouble with Shakespeare is that his work is just too familiar, even if you don't know it inside out, it has, over the centuries, become part of our make-up: we know it instinctively, and consequently react to it with an in-built reflex action that, if a production is bad, we step aside to avoid it, as we would a wild pu... More..
Arts & Humanities > Poets & Poetry Biography: Walt Whitman: 1 of 4
As someone who's written, produced, and directed a play about Walt Whitman I feel a great affection for the man who quite literally changed English literature. Walter Whitman (he shortened his name to Walt in 1855) was born on the 31st May 1819, on a farm called West Hills, deep in the lush countryside of Long Island, New Yo... More..