The Boy Who Looked at the Moon: The Life and Times of Cat Stevens

by David Evans

Biographical Look at the Life and Times of the British singer songwriter Cat Stevens who, after achieving world wide superstar success, abandoned the music business for a life dedicated to the religion and practice of Islam. About the Author David Evans was born in Malvern, Worcestershire in February 1947, first child of Mary (nee Bray) and Pat (nee Reginald Patrick) Evans only two years after Pat had been repatriated from a German P.O.W camp having been captured at Dunkirk. He has a brother, Richard and a sister, Elizabeth. David attended Hanley Castle Grammar School in 1957 and in 1965 went up to Eliot College at the University of Kent in the first year of that institution’s founding. In 1968, upon graduation, he worked for the British Council for a year and then, successively, the film director Silvio Narizzano, the theatrical agent and manager Barry Krost, the manager and impresario John Reid before leaving the music business in 1977 and taking up with an Edinburgh antique dealer having organised the first series of concertsat the newly rescued Edinburgh Playhouse in 1976. In 1979 David opened a small restaurant in Malvern, Le Bol a Tout Faire but eventually returned to London in 1982 where he met his life partner Nigel Quiney whose giftwrapping paper and greetings card business he joined in both a management and designing capacity. Both men retired effectively from public business in 1996 and since then have travelled wider than widely and pursued artistic and writing endeavours, each publishing a series of memoirs and David turning out works of biography and fiction. As civil partners, they live in Islington in London and Friston, East Sussex.

Genres: Music

Paperback

First published December 31, 1995

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Cat Stevens gives some insight into Cat Stevens musical development and his personality from the early days before he contracted TB and his later career and final rejection of that form of music career. Evans presents different parts of Cat Stevens' life by giving an overview and introducing the people who knew Cat Stevens at the time whom he was able to interview. The interviews clearly present some of the upside of Cat Stevens but also the downside, including outright violence, distance from others, and seeming difficulty forming close presonal relationships. I found this portatal to lay a foundation for a glimpse of the spiritual struggle and suffering that Cat Stevens was in despite, or even because of, his musical success. I found Evans portrayal to be sympathetic and especially Evans'closing. I appreciate the honesty and integrity of the book.

The book beings with some nice quotes to set the stage, followed by a brief introduction, then 15 chapters, and concludes with a Discography. There are no photos in this book.

Besides being an addition to understanding of Cat Stevens, the book offers a basis for understanding human suffering and disastifaction in life. Thus, the book helps suppliment any consideration of conversion and spiritual life with a sense of how this spills into our more public life.