DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

My My!

ABBA Through the Ages

Giles Smith author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Simon & Schuster

Published:9th May '24

Should be back in stock very soon

This hardback is available in another edition too:

My My! cover

‘A lovely book – as bright, shiny and uplifting as an Abba hit’ Daily Mail

‘[A] witty and affectionate account . . . It’s not a stretch to say that, at its core, My My! is a book about time, death and the possibility of immortality’ Sunday Times

'At last, a book that's worthy of ABBA' Spectator

My My! The story of ABBA told through a selection of their greatest hits.

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of Waterloo (the song, not the battle) – a seminal moment in pop history which saw Swedish sensation ABBA burst on to the international music scene. How is it that half a century later this seventies Eurovision act is bigger than ever – reaching listeners of all ages and spinning off into musicals, museums and holograms? Giles Smith, writer and music fan, sets out to find out why.

My My! is a celebration of ABBA through the ages. It’s one fan’s way of saying: thank you for the music.

‘[Giles Smith] is a perfect guide to ABBA’s ups and down on pop’s stock market [and] an astute musicologist, able to take apart these songs without wrecking their delicate internal workings . . . For such a droll book, then, My My! comes with an existential kick, concerned with the effects of time’s passing on art, the way it can become distorted through hearsay and assumption, like a fuzzy tenth-generation mix tape . . . It’s not a stretch to say that, at its core, My My! is a book about time, death and the possibility of immortality . . . As Smith’s loving testament to the band so clearly shows, in 2024 there’s nothing to hide. ABBA, their avatars facing down death itself from their purpose-built arena, have won the war’ * Sunday Times *

ISBN: 9781398529700

Dimensions: 234mm x 153mm x 25mm

Weight: unknown

336 pages