Damaged Gods: Cults and Heroes Reappraised Kindle Edition

By Julie Burchill

In Damaged Gods: Cults And Heroes Reappraised legendary journalist Julie Burchill takes aim at the twentieth century’s most sacred cults, and the figures who came to dominate the popular imagination.

From the birth of youth culture in the 1950s through feminism, sport, Hollywood, black power, and even kid’s TV – “Andy Pandy, an effete prancing boy doll plastered in rouge and swathed in satin rompers” – very few escape her biting wit. From James Dean to Jack Kerouac, Elvis Presley, Germain Greer, Diego Maradona, Burchill tears up the mystique surrounding some of our most celebrated artists and thinkers. Unimpressed by the great and the good alike, she reflects upon the relationship between society in the latter half of the twentieth century and the icons we have created.

Julie Burchill is widely acknowledged as one of the most original, brilliant and controversial writers of her generation. Littered with bon mots, this elegant and often hilarious book was one of the first to puncture the cult of celebrity and everything that has come with it.

Julie Burchill arrived in London aged 17, having won a job at the New Musical Express. She has since written for numerous publications including The Spectator, The Literary Review and The Sunday Times, and is among the best known journalists of our time. She has also written a number of novels and an autobiobraphy.