Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits

Blurb

It has been ten years since singer/songwriter Cassandra Wheeler last produced an album. Ten years in which she has secluded herself from a world she felt was too painful to live in.

Now Cass has decided the time is right to being out a greatest hits album with some new material included alongside it. A retrospective look at her life via the medium of song, in particular, her favourite songs. The sixteen songs she picks are songs from defining moments in her life and make for an enthralling read.


Our Review

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett covers a myriad of difficult topics and each of them is impressively and sensitively dealt with. This beautifully written book was a pleasure to read and has definitely made Laura Barnett an author I will look out for.

It has been ten years since singer/songwriter Cassandra Wheeler last produced an album. Ten years in which she has secluded herself from a world she felt was too painful to live in.

Now Cass has decided the time is right to being out a greatest hits album with some new material included alongside it. A retrospective look at her life via the medium of song, in particular, her favourite songs. The sixteen songs she picks are songs from defining moments in her life and make for an enthralling read.

She thinks‘I could forget today, couldn’t I? Just lie here, under the covers. Draw them up over my head and sleep. She thinks, No. You have done too much sleeping. Today is the day you wake up.’

One of the first memories Cass introduces us to is the first time she performed in front of anyone other than just her family and a few close family friends.

Laura Barnett has a unique writing style, one that pulls the reader in and keeps them immersed until the last minute. I like the way the songs are peppered throughout the book and the lyrics are brilliant. Common Ground and I Wrote You a Love Song.

She was born Maria Cassandra Wheeler in April 1950. Her father, Francis was a preacher and used to give inspiring sermons at his Sunday service. One of her most treasured memories from her childhood involved spending evenings with her father while he read to her.

Her memories of her mother were much more complicated and painful. Their relationship was always off balance but it was changed forever when Cassandra was around ten and her mother walked out on her and her dad. Contact after that was sporadic and stormy.

She was first introduced to music when her mum’s friend Irene taught her to play the piano. Her love of music really grew though after her mum left and she went to stay with her aunt Lily and her uncle John.

John and Lily played all their favourites to her and introduced her to a number of musician friends. Also, they treated her like an adult and gave her the space to be the person she wanted to be.

The biggest influence in her life, and the cause of most of the issues she had to face, was Ivor Tait. A man she both loved and loathed over the years. Their relationship was certainly a tumultuous one.

This book was impossibly alluring and definitely one I would recommend. 

Our Final Rating...

Our Rating

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