The Day the Music Died

A truly remarkable life, which he [Garnett] retells here with passion, wit and unsparing honesty … The book is both a fascinating memoir from a pillar of post-war British television and a vivid social history document … But it’s also a moving story of a man’s lifelong attempt to come to terms with unimaginable tragedy, in which he examines himself with the same uncompromising clarity he’s brought to all his projects - Independent

A must read - Marsha Hunt

Simply the best television drama creator and producer there has ever been - Mark Thompson, former Director General of the BBC

This is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary man. It tells of a childhood tragedy with consequences that lasted a lifetime.Read it and weep. But this is also an account of a life spent producing innovative and challenging films and television programmes, tangling with the hierarchies of the BBC and Hollywood. Drawing on his unique experience, Tony Garnett makes a devastating critique of contemporary broadcasting. This is a book of many insights, public and deeply personal. - Ken Loach

Brutally honest and beautifully evocative as Garnett reveals the unimaginable horror that shaped the life of one of the greats of British screen - Simon Hattenstone

Brilliant, beautifully written, sincere and moving, from a British television icon.

Tony Garnett’s description of his extended loving Birmingham family, the lost world of the industrious working class, the culture and fortitude, is absorbing.

But underpinning it all is a grim wartime tragedy, sweeping away his mother and father, a traumatic life changing event for a young child to witness, which now explains the shaping and making of this exceptional man, and the radical drama he created. - Maggie Brown