147 James Hogg: Ghost Writer & Biographer of Comedy Legends Ernie Wise, Brian Blessed, Richard Bryers & Kenny Everett
03/27/23 • 52 min
Delighted to be welcoming the very talented Ghost writer & Biographer James Hogg to The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius
I first came across James via his wonderful Twitter feed @JamesAHogg2
James Hogg is a biographer, ghostwriter and collaborator who specialises in sport and entertainment.
Born in the Yorkshire Dales, he began his writing career whilst working for the Yorkshire County Cricket Club where he spent several years masquerading as the club’s Commercial Manager. In between failed attempts at securing sponsors and smoking with Brian Close, James wrote two acclaimed biographies whilst at Headingley. The first, ‘What’s the Bleeding Time?’ discloses the life and times of the actor and naturalist James Robertson Justice and features a foreword by H.R.H The Duke of Edinburgh. The second, ‘Little Ern: The Authorised Biography of Ernie Wise’, was a collaboration with the writer of Hellraisers, Robert Sellers, as was James’s next book, ‘Hello Darlings! The Authorised Biography of Kenny Everett’. James left Headingley in 2012, after which the club began to flourish both on and off the pitch.
James lives in Yorkshire with his wife and two children.
More about James Hogg:
James Hogg is an extraordinary man. He does not attract conventional labels. He says he is someone who writes. But he does not see himself as a Writer! And he is not a Reader, either. He does not have a Social Media Presence, apart from a tiny corner on Twitter.
He does not have a slick website selling his significant skills as a wordsmith and original ideas man. He has absolutely no ambition to write a single word of fiction. Instead he applies his considerable imagination to facts and helps others to tell their stories in a voice that sounds like theirs, not his.
He is a contrary but not confrontational North Yorkshireman, who is good at making enough money to sustain his unconventional lifestyle. This includes regular trips to Brazil and Gran Canaria to get his words down against the deadline.
James Hogg was born in Coverdale. His parents were involved in horses and horse racing. It did not appeal to him. He left school at 15, with no academic qualifications. He left home at 17, borrowing £30 to cover the coach to London and still have a few quid spare for emergencies.
He immediately got a job as a Bell Boy at the Cumberland Hotel, doubling his basic wages with freelance services in support of visitors from the Middle
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
- Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
- You can email me about the Show: [email protected]
- Twitter thatchrisgrimes
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
- FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Delighted to be welcoming the very talented Ghost writer & Biographer James Hogg to The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius
I first came across James via his wonderful Twitter feed @JamesAHogg2
James Hogg is a biographer, ghostwriter and collaborator who specialises in sport and entertainment.
Born in the Yorkshire Dales, he began his writing career whilst working for the Yorkshire County Cricket Club where he spent several years masquerading as the club’s Commercial Manager. In between failed attempts at securing sponsors and smoking with Brian Close, James wrote two acclaimed biographies whilst at Headingley. The first, ‘What’s the Bleeding Time?’ discloses the life and times of the actor and naturalist James Robertson Justice and features a foreword by H.R.H The Duke of Edinburgh. The second, ‘Little Ern: The Authorised Biography of Ernie Wise’, was a collaboration with the writer of Hellraisers, Robert Sellers, as was James’s next book, ‘Hello Darlings! The Authorised Biography of Kenny Everett’. James left Headingley in 2012, after which the club began to flourish both on and off the pitch.
James lives in Yorkshire with his wife and two children.
More about James Hogg:
James Hogg is an extraordinary man. He does not attract conventional labels. He says he is someone who writes. But he does not see himself as a Writer! And he is not a Reader, either. He does not have a Social Media Presence, apart from a tiny corner on Twitter.
He does not have a slick website selling his significant skills as a wordsmith and original ideas man. He has absolutely no ambition to write a single word of fiction. Instead he applies his considerable imagination to facts and helps others to tell their stories in a voice that sounds like theirs, not his.
He is a contrary but not confrontational North Yorkshireman, who is good at making enough money to sustain his unconventional lifestyle. This includes regular trips to Brazil and Gran Canaria to get his words down against the deadline.
James Hogg was born in Coverdale. His parents were involved in horses and horse racing. It did not appeal to him. He left school at 15, with no academic qualifications. He left home at 17, borrowing £30 to cover the coach to London and still have a few quid spare for emergencies.
He immediately got a job as a Bell Boy at the Cumberland Hotel, doubling his basic wages with freelance services in support of visitors from the Middle
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
- Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
- You can email me about the Show: [email protected]
- Twitter thatchrisgrimes
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
- FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Previous Episode
146 Toby Thompson Performance Poet: Lyrical, Beguiling, Rhythmic & Musical. Creator of Award Winning Theatre Piece "I Wish I Was A Mountain"
Please welcome to 'The Clearing' Performance Poet Toby Thompson. Toby was passed the 'Golden Baton' to be my Guest by Egg Theatre Director Kate Cross MBE, who I interviewed recently for "The Good Listening To Show" LIVE at the Theatre Royal Bath.
Toby is a thoughtful, thought-provoking & enigmatic 'observer' of life, with a unique cadence and a silky tone. His poetry displays his delight in life's uncertainties & ambiguities. His uniquely rhythmic and musical style is lyrical, beguiling, playful & poignant. Toby also performs 2 of his wonderful poems as part of this interview: "Spinning Plates" & "Tears".
You can find out more about Toby at https://tobythompson.net/
And you Watch/Listen to Toby's interview here: https://vimeo.com/806790863
BEAUTIFUL INSPIRING WORDSMITHERY
Toby Thompson is a writer and performer of thoughts and feelings. Not just his own, but somehow yours too. His poetry displays his delight in life’s uncertainties and absurdities and his uniquely rhythmic and musical style is lyrical, beguiling, playful and poignant.
"...a wonderful gift for language, a deep sensibility and a penetrating sense of perspective."
Sir Ken Robinson. Renowned Educationalist and Creativity Expert
More about Toby Thompson: Toby Thompson is the indirect descendant of the 19th Century Liberal Prime Minister, Wiliam Ewart Gladstone.
Today Toby himself is a truly extraordinary contemporary creative talent. A distinguished performance poet by profession, with a love of music on the side - an articulate and passionately vocal wordsmith whose distinctive voice expresses the brilliant words that his complicated brain has put together in unique new sequences and surprising new rhymes and rhythms.
Even traditionally written poetry benefits from being lifted from the black type on the white page and read aloud by someone, who understands what the poet originally had in mind. That’s true whether you’re talking about the plays of William Shakespeare or the popular poetry of Roger McGough.
With Toby Thompson, he rehearses his own original poems repeatedly in his head, until he’s happy with them, then remembers them and only when satisfied, will he express them directly and distinctively to a live audience in a theatre - or alternatively record them on a video for posterity.
In his primary school, the teachers called young Toby ‘the observer’. To this day he finds inspiration in strange places, everywhere, in conversations, in audio recordings, in football commentaries, as well as in contemplating impermanence and vastness. He acknowledges the wisdom of Jung: “That which you most need will be found where you least want to look.”
Now the
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
- Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
- You can email me about the Show: [email protected]
- Twitter thatchrisgrimes
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
- FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Next Episode
148 Steve Cole Prolific Children's Author ("Young Bond”; “Dr Who” & "Astrosaurs") on Prevarication as a Superpower Despite 150 Titles To His Name!
Delighted to welcome prolific Children's Author & Editor Steve Cole to The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing' for his story of Distinction & Genius.
With over 150 titles and book series to his name including the hugely successful UK Children's Books Top 10 list "Astrosaurs" and also "Young Bond", as the natural successor to Charlie Higson as invited by the Ian Fleming Foundation to continue the series: "The name's Cole - Steve Cole" (see what I'm doing there?!)
With lovely Oliver Postgate (Narrator of "Bagpuss" & "The Clangers") vocal tones to match. Despite having 150 titles to his name, hear how "prevarication is still his super power!" in hitting the housework hard as deadline's approach "like Doodlebugs humming overhead!"
A very enjoyable conversation indeed!
More about Steve Cole:
Steve Cole is a fascinating, multifaceted, deadline-driven character: a slow worker but a fast talker! The author of literally dozens of different books, who claims that “procrastination is part of the process.”
He is someone who turns to Salsa to unlock his Writer’s Block and plays in a 30 years’ old band called ‘Faces Fall’ to express another aspect of his bubbling creativity. A self-confessed pedant who has been ‘riddled with hernias’ most of his life and the occasional attack of repetitive strain injury. (Is there any psychosomatic connection there one has to wonder?)
Steve Cole is someone with a lively mind and a truly encyclopaedic knowledge of Dr Who, who attributes his story-telling success to his English teacher, Mr Hall and a lot of his professional success to the Dr Who legend, Terence Dicks - who honoured him with a dedication!
Also in Steve’s inspirational trio is Charles M. Schultz, creator of one of the world’s most popular and longest running cartoon strips - Peanuts. (Good grief, what a talent!)
Marvel comics and the Incredible Hulk also come in for honourable mentions.
“We are all stories in the end. Make it a good one” - these are Steve’s choice of words to live by.
Now he tells good stories for the Ian Fleming Foundation and entertains children in schools in interactive communication sessions. The Young Bond is now created by an old pro - if that doesn’t sound too Ageist?
One, two, three, one, two - over to you, maestro!
Reg Starkey Editor, UK Health Triangle Magazine
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
- Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com
- You can email me about the Show: [email protected]
- Twitter thatchrisgrimes
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/
- FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
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