An extraordinarily entertaining and unusual mix of biography and autobiography featuring the famous and infamous on the fringe (and sometimes in the middle) of Donough and Toby O’Brien’s lives.Fringe Benefits opens with Donough’s affectionate account of his father Toby’s remarkable career in Public Relations which began just before WW2. Toby made his mark immediately by taking on the well-organised and funded Nazi propaganda machine and giving them more than a run for their money. After the war Toby was one of the very first ‘spin-doctors’ (how he would have hated the expression), working for the Conservative Party and later was regarded as the doyen of commercial and international PR consultants.
‘On the fringe’ of great events that were being played out by an enormous cast of characters (including Churchill, Cecil B de Mille and Hermann Goering), Toby was able to record, with a natural storyteller’s eye for detail, a vast range of enlightening, entertaining and informative anecdotes.
Later Donough picks up his own story and treats us to some highly amusing military recollections of his four years in the Irish Guards. On leaving the army Donough throws himself into civilian life in a London that is just beginning to come alive – the Swinging Sixties have arrived!
Donough follows Toby into the world of PR and observes the lives of the rich and famous with a similar keen eye. His stories include his involvement in the opening of the trendiest nightclub of the period, Sibylla’s, with its guest list of all the rock n’ roll greats headed by The Stones and The Beatles, and feature some of the most colourful and glamorous people of the period such as Joanna Lumley, Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling. His kaleidoscope of entertaining anecdotes embraces a cast list as diverse as Jonathan Aitken, Field Marshal Alexander, Mohammed Ali, Michael Caine, John Cleese, Nigel Dempster, Major Ronnie Ferguson, James Hunt, Stirling Moss, Roger Whittaker and many, many more!
Illuminated by over 600 superb illustrations – cartoons, paintings (some by Donough himself), portraits and photographs (many taken by Patrick Lichfield and John d. Green) – Fringe Benefits introduces the reader to an unforgettable family who have lived, and continue to live, life to the full on the fringes of the good, the bad and the beautiful.
Contents | What readers think | Fringe Facts | Find out
Irish Connections | Links | The author | Order today!
© 2000, Donough O'Brien
Spring O'Brien, 143 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EE