Lady Dodd and Great Northern Books are delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of The Squire Of Knotty Ash… and his Lady, an intimate biography of Sir Ken Dodd, written by Anne, Lady Dodd & biographer and TV producer Tony Nicholson.
There have been other books about Ken Dodd’s career, but, being a very private person offstage, he always declined to cooperate with biographers, so they had to rely on the extremely limited and, at times, inaccurate information available in the public domain.
Lady Anne said: “Ken had always intended to write his autobiography, but he never got round to it. He was too busy making people laugh. Tony did a great job on the sensitively produced BBC2 documentary tribute to Ken in 2018, so when he suggested collaborating on a book together I thought this was the perfect opportunity to tell the real story of Ken’s astonishing life and career. It has been a labour of love and I hope people will enjoy finding out about the human side of my fascinating husband, just as much as they used to love his joyously funny shows.”
Tony Nicholson said, “This book will change everything you thought you knew about Sir Ken. He shied away from publicity and never talked about his private life, so the press often fed the public with exaggerations and misleading assumptions. This revealing book changes all of that.
Sir Ken was one of Britain’s favourite entertainers and the last of the truly great variety stars of the 20th century. If you liked Ken Dodd, and who didn’t, then you will love this book.”
The Squire of Knotty Ash… and his Lady will be published by Great Northern Books in the spring of 2021.