AustLit

'In this engaging memoir Anthony Steel tells his story, from growing up in a wealthy steel manufacturing family - the Steels of Sheffield - where music was a fundamental part of daily life, to his triumphant staging of Adelaide's 1986 Festival, and his stewardship of other important artistic enterprises in Australia and elsewhere. In fascinating detail he recounts his youthful follies at Oxford and immersion in the Russian language courtesy of the British Army. After a stint in the family firm his first professional role in the world of the arts, at the centre of London's thriving musical life, came about on a whim, and subsequent assignments fell into place by happenstance rather than design.

Anthony rubbed shoulders with the greats of the musical world - Barenboim, Bernstein, Rostropovich and Rozhdestvensky among many others - then took on ever greater challenges in the arts. His lively account of worldwide travels - lubricated always by the drink of the country - in search of performers and companies to come to Adelaide or Sydney or Canberra or Brisbane or Singapore, provides an insider's view of the nerve-racking drama involved in staging a major arts festival. Source: www.aaev.net/news/ (Sighted 17/12/02009).