Lorraine Gibson

Lorraine Gibson, author of Elvis: The King of Fashion, the must-have BIOGRAPHY about the man who was, and remains, the most iconic solo performer on the planet, is an award-winning journalist and freelance author/writer for more than 20 years and is widely published in print and online. She has a passion for fashion, history and, well, Elvis.

As child, growing up listening to her parents' Elvis records, their Elvis stories and watching his films during the school holidays, she became fascinated with his songs, his colourful outfits and his unconventional appearance. As a grown up, she decided to write about how his astonishing life story and how his clothes influenced and defined him as much as the music that surrounded him did.

Part of Lorraine's research took her to Memphis to follow in Elvis's two-tone footsteps and meet people who knew him - in particular Hal Lansky, who wrote the book's foreword and whose father, Bernard was known as 'Clothier to The King'.

The result is her highly-acclaimed second book, Elvis: The King of Fashion, a fresh, insightful, humane, impeccably-researched and immensely-readable biography on the life of the man born to be King.

Like its subject, it relishes stylish details and resonates with a constant backbeat of the music of the South, the country, blues, gospel and soul that Elvis instinctively fused into his own unique rock & roll sound, a sound that shook up the world.

Elvis: The King of Fashion follows Lorraine's other widely-acclaimed debut book, Robert Baden-Powell: A Biography with foreword by Bear Grylls OBE, an examination of the light and shade that surrounds the controversial and wildly eccentric founder of the Scouts.

Living close to the island location of Baden-Powell's first, secret experimental scouting camp inspired the biography. She was intrigued by its role in the birth of the organisation and delving deeper into the world of its famous leader, she was hooked. When, in the pandemic summer of 2020, she witnessed a clash between Scouts and BLM protesters, who were hell-bent on throwing B-P's statue into Poole Harbour, directly opposite the first 1907 Scouts camp site, there was no going back.

Like its subject, Robert Baden-Powell: A Biography is thought-provoking, contrary and full of ripping yarns.

Lorraine lives in Dorset with her husband and two daughters.