Bessie Smith: A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

Author: Jackie Kay Format: Paperback Number of Pages: 224 'The most vivid evocation of Bessie Smith I have ever read' - Ian Carr, BBC Music '[Bessie Smith] showed me the air and taught me how to fill it ... she's the reason I started singing, really' - Janis Joplin Bessie Smith: singer, icon, pioneer. Bessie Smith was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine, she sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling...Read more