John Howard

My first two books, Incidents Crowded With Life and Illusions of Happiness, published by Fisher King Publishing, tell my story of growing up in 1950s Lancashire, being classically trained on the piano, beginning to write songs by the late '60s. By 1974 I am recording my first album, Kid In A Big World, at Abbey Road Studios, which was released by CBS Records in 1975.

In 1976, I broke my back in an accident at home, which is where Incidents Crowded With Life ends.

Illusions of Happiness begins as I recover from my injuries in hospital and follows the many months recuperating through 1977, until in the Summer of that year I return to recording.

The books cover my private and professional life through the '60s', 70s and into the mid-'80s. Enjoying to the full the gay London life of the '70s, and working with record producers like Trevor Horn, Steve Levine, Tony Meehan, Paul Phillips and Chris Rainbow.

Illusions of Happiness ends in 1986, which is where the third book, In The Eyeline of Furtherance, picks up the story. This follows my new career working in the music business through the '80s and '90s with artists like Elkie Brooks, Barry Manilow, Maria Friedman, Lonnie Donegan and my pop heroes The Crickets, bringing their musical visions into a reality, and to the marketplace. It was a fascinating time for me and gave me a new insight into my own inner strength and self-belief which had been chipped away somewhat through experiences covered in the first two books.

In September 2023, Fisher King Publishing published my first novel, Across My Dreams With Nets of Wonder. It's a time-travel adventure spanning 300 years, the initial idea for the story coming to me one morning in the Spring of 2022 while walking my dogs and developing from there at my pc over the next eighteen months. I really enjoyed the process of writing something which came completely out of my imagination, watching the characters' lives unfolding as I wrote. Whereas the three volumes of my memoirs came out of memories of my life and career in music, Across My Dreams With Nets of Wonder is a work of fiction, although, as always with any writing - songs, prose, novels - some of my own experiences were woven into the narrative occasionally - though, sadly, not the time-travelling aspect of the story!