This reader brings together for the first time a collection of Peter Townsend's most distinctive work, allowing readers to review the changes that have taken place over the past six decades, and reflect on issues that have returned to the fore today.

Long acknowledged as one of rock music’s most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend—guitarist, songwriter, singer and founding member of The Who—at last tells his wild story in this candid and immersive autobiography. Raised in west London by an eccentric grandmother, while his parents were off living the early post-war, rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, Townshend describes a frenetic childhood of displacement and abuse. Then, in high school, everything changed when he met Roger Daltrey and formed a band that would travel the world, earning fame, fortune and critical acclaim. In Who I Am, Townshend brings us from the inner sanctum of Eric Clapton’s drug-ridden hotel rooms to the feet of Jimi Hendrix and his electric kool-aid guitar; from the first trial performance of Townshend’s rock opera, Tommy, in a London bar to his infamous arrest (and acquittal) on child pornography charges. With his trademark eloquence, fierce intelligence and brutal honesty, Pete Townshend has created a work of literature that stands as a primary source for popular music’s greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: who are you?

An accurate, detailed and fascinating account of the life of a man whose story should have been told in this much detail long ago. Author Mark Wilkerson interviewed Townshend himself and several of Townshend's friends and associates for this biography.

A persuasive appreciation of what jazz is and of how it has permeated and enriched the culture of America

Former RAF ace chronicles the growth of the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe and their decisive engagements during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

The Age of Anxiety is a great rock novel, but that is one of the less important things about it. The narrator is a brilliant creation - cultured, witty and unreliable. The novel captures the craziness of the music business and displays Pete Townshend's sly sense of humour and sharp ear for dialogue. First conceived as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes including a maze, divine madness and long-lost children. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel, which on one level is an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.

When originally published in 1988, this book presented new evidence of inequalities in health found among communities in different areas of the North of England. It relates this evidence to long-term trends taking place in patterns of health in Britain as a whole and explores how far health inequalities can be explained by variations in material deprivation. The book provides a detailed examination of the correlation between health and wealth, or ill-health and deprivation in Britain in the 20th century but the book has an enduring relevance as the Covid Pandemic has once again shown that regional disparities in wealth have profound outcomes for health. The book is of significance for health professionals, social services and those planner and politicians concerned with levelling up.

It may be surprising to focus on and praise imperfection, but, in reality, perfection is a fiction. Every aspect of our technologies is based on understanding and exploiting imperfections in the materials we use. Imperfections are key to our use of metals, glass, electronics, computers, optical fibres, and building materials. Catalysis, as used throughout chemical industries, is dependent on imperfections, as are a wide range of modern advances in biology and medicine. This book provides examples in each area that are readily understandable to non-scientists but also aim to offer a far deeper insight into how the technologies and disciplines advance and operate. However, once we change our focus from idealised perfection to reality, the implications can extend far beyond the realm of the sciences. The second part of the book examines the importance of our ability to recognise and adapt to imperfections in such wide-ranging areas as cookery, successful career development, love, life, and the survival of humanity. Using a broad range of accessible examples, this book aims to give readers the tools to recognize technological imperfections and apply those lessons to improving several key aspects of our lives, crucially enabling them to define a world that will survive current excesses and environmental destruction.

The Dark Side of Technology is intended as a powerful wake-up call to the potential dangers that could, in the near future, destroy our current advanced civilizations. The author examines how fragile our dependence on electronic communications, information storage, and satellites is, as vulnerability increases in an age of raising security concerns. This weakness is evident from the exponential rise in cyber-crime and terrorism. Satellites are crucial to modern-day living, but they can be destroyed by energetic space debris or damaged by solar emissions. Destruction of data, communications, and electrical power grids would bring disaster to advanced nations. Such events could dramatically change our social and economic landscapes within the next 10-20 years. New technology equally impacts employment, agriculture, biology, medicine, transport, languages, and our social well-being. This book explores both the good and the bad aspects of technological advances, in order to raise awareness and promote caution. Technology may be impressive, but we need to be mindful of potential negative future effects. We ought to seriously consider the long term consequences of an increasing failure to pursue healthy life styles, use of ineffective antibiotics, genetic mutations, and the destruction of food supplies and natural resources. The diverse topics covered aims to show why we must act now to plan for both the predictable downsides of technology, and also develop contingency plans for potential major catastrophes, including natural events where we cannot define accurate time scales.

Although it was first published more than thirty-five years ago, Up the Organization continues to top the lists of best business books by groups as diverse as the American Management Association, Strategy + Business (Booz Allen Hamilton), and The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. 1-800-CEO-READ ranks Townsend’s bestseller first among eighty books that “every manager must read.” This commemorative edition offers a new generation the benefit of Robert Townsend’s timeless wisdom as well as reflections on his work and life by those who knew and worked with him. This groundbreaking book continues to remind us not to get mired in all those sacred organizational routines that stifle people and strangle both profits and profitability. He shows a way to humanize business and a way to have fun while making it all work better than it ever worked before.