
Fred Vermorel’s The Secret History Of Kate Bush (& The Strange Art Of Pop) was first published, to apparent acclaim and popularity, in 1983, just as the star of Bush was beginning to truly shine across the world. It was republished by French imprint Le Gospel in 2022, and now again in English by Antenne Books. One can’t help but wonder why it was brought back to life, instead of staying in the past as a superfan artefact.
This book is an oddity. The writing is self-indulgent, bordering on bizarre at times, with some sentences and opinions that should never reach the daylight of the 2020s. There’s no cohesive story as such, but it follows the family tree of Kate Bush almost too close for comfort in a semi-fictional manner, with its flowery prose that ultimately falls flat and bores.
Vermorel filled the book with quotes from numerous schoolfriends, relaying their experience of Bush, and the new edition ends with a previously unpublished interview the author conducted with Kate’s father, Robert Bush. It is clear that Vermorel, famous for his ‘anti-biographies’, respects and, yes, obsesses over the musician – but The Secret History reads like end-of-party soliloquies by a drunk relative, not a serious work about a serious artist.
The Secret History Of Kate Bush (& The Strange Art Of Pop), Fred Vermorel (Antenne)
Price: £18. Info: here
words GOSIA BUZZANCA