Tag: David Booth

Delicate Lies is the new album from Louis de Bernières. As with his previous release Despatches, this album was engineered by David Booth at Louis’ home studio in Norfolk. The album contains eleven tracks, all written by Louis. Beth Porter, Selina Hawker and the above mentioned David Booth all guest on the album. Louis’ musical career began with a banjo ukulele at the age of about eight, which he has always regretted selling. Towards the end of hippy days, he realised that the only way to get a girlfriend was to play the guitar or have a car, so he got both. His brother in law, Chris, took him into Palmer’s of Godalming and tried every guitar in there, and so, at the age of seventeen, Louis bought one for seventeen pounds.

Chris taught him to play ‘Anji’ and ‘The Streets Of London’. Since then he has owned dozens of guitars, but he still loves that one the most. Louis learned to play folk and ragtime, then baroque and classical, and then flamenco guitar. He has learned to play several woodwind instruments and can make sense of anything with frets and strings, including of course, the mandolin. He found the best one in the world in Braga, Portugal, in the 1990s, and calls it Teresa.

In his thirties he developed focal dystonia in his right hand, the fingers packing up because of over-practise. Ever since he has been working doggedly to recover his facility and has a superstition that he is going to die the day after he finally cracks it. Louis is a fan of Bach and Beethoven, loves music from all over the world, especially Greece and Latin America, and is influenced by everything he hears. However, his youth coincided with the ascendancy of singer-songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Tom Paxton, Donovan, Paul Simon, Ralph McTell, and Bob Dylan, and these are the voices that he has carried with him all his life, and which have made him into the singer-songwriter that he has himself become. He believes that everything he knows about poetry can and should be made use of in his songwriting, and not surprisingly many of his songs are stories.

Primarily known as an award winning and bestselling author, titles include the historical war novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which of course was made in to a Hollywood film starring Nicholas Cage, Red Dog, which also turned into a film in 2011, A Partisan’s Daughter, Birds Without Wings, So Much Life Left Over and The Autumn Of The Ace. Louis has also published three poetry collections including the 2018 release The Cat In The Treble Clef.

Artist’ website: www.louisdebernieresofficial.com