Biography
The Inside Story sweeps away the many myths that have surrounded the intriguing figure of Malcolm Arnold. It offers arresting new facts about his life, fresh insights into his music and much food for thought about the care of the mentally ill and its legal aspects.
Many myths, masquerading as facts, were flourishing, when Anthony Meredith’s first Arnold biography came out, almost twenty years ago. Accordingly, he misrepresented several key issues, just as previous biographers had done. He also fudged others, for Arnold was still alive, and so, too, was his forceful carer.
The many Arnold myths lived on. Three years ago, however, Malcolm Arnold’s daughter, Katherine, encouraged the biographer to write a new book with the true story of her father’s last thirty years. She had much new evidence to support it - material that confirmed her suspicions that when her father, in mid-life, came under the total control of two different carers, his vulnerability had been terribly exploited.
Arnold’s last thirty years could only properly be understood if seen in the context of his earlier life, so a full biography beckoned. Nor could the years after the composer’s death be omitted, for things occurred in this period that shed much light on previous dramas.
The Inside Story, then, sweeps away the many myths that have surrounded the intriguing figure of Malcolm Arnold. It offers arresting new facts about his life, fresh insights into his music and much food for thought about the care of the mentally ill and its legal aspects. This important addition to the literature of British music is an engrossing saga, told with compassion and candour.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
A tour de force written vividly and interestingly which goes a long way to dispelling the myths spread in Arnold’s lifetime. These fabrications resulted in his obituaries in 2006 sounding as though the music had been written by his carer, and as if Malcolm himself had hardly existed. The carer was previously quoted saying ‘I’m Malcolm Arnold now. He just writes the music.’ All this presided over by a Court of Protection and Office of the Public Gaurdian who ignored all the danger signs. A case reminiscent of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
