80 - Freddie Mercury's Notebooks with Lesley-Ann Jones (Garden Lodge, Kensington)

This week we have a world exclusive - we are the first podcast to discuss Freddie Mercury's recently discovered diaries/notebooks with biographer Lesley-Ann Jones.You may have seen it reported in the press that Freddie Mercury left 17 volumes of notebooks to a daughter hardly anyone knew existed - we find a bit more out about these diaries which amount to 500,000 words in length & make up several autobiographies worth of information.Within its pages we hear about Freddie's early years in Zanzibar, his summer holidays in Bombay, the fantasy land of Rhye, his lifelong passion for the royal family. the Bulsara family's sudden relocation to Feltham in South London & a Freddie the world never knew. We hear new details regarding the writing or many of his most famous songs including Bohemian Rhapsody. Freddie Mercury made his home at Garden Lodge in Kensington, the contents of which were sold off in a 2023 auction raising over £40m - what might Freddie have made of the auction? Or the suggestion the house should be turned into a Graceland style exhibit? Would Queen have toured again or would Freddie have retired? It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link: ko-fi.com/musicmapsIt is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it. You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/live/Instagram: @rocknrollbookclube17X: @simonmusicmapsFacebook: E17rockbookclubHosted, Produced & Edited by Simon CardwellMusic by Andy Maxwell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.