Celebrating the world of words

Can you quite believe it has been 50 years since ABBA’s phenomenal Eurovision win with Waterloo?

Join journalist, spoof memoir and ghost writer of eight Sunday Times bestsellers, Giles Smith as he shares the story of ABBA told through a selection of their greatest hits in an interview with Dr Tim Rideout at Newark Town Hall.

April 6th 2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Waterloo (the song, not the battle) – a seminal moment in pop history which saw Swedish sensation ABBA burst on to the international music scene by winning the Eurovision song contest. How is it that half a century later this seventies Eurovision act is bigger than ever – reaching listeners of all ages and spinning off into musicals, museums and holograms? Giles Smith, writer and music fan, sets out to find out why.

It’s a book about growing old, and the things that never do. And it’s a book about fashion, snobbery, authenticity, critical judgement, the passage of time – and the triumphant ability of truly great pop music to transcend all of those things forever. But it’s also a book about the development of one of pop’s greatest and best-loved albums, and an unabashed tribute to the power of a major-to-minor modulation and a well-placed glissando.

My My! is a celebration of ABBA through the ages. It’s one fan’s way of saying: thank you for the music.