St. John, Lauren 1966-

views updated

St. John, Lauren 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born December 21, 1966, in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); daughter of Errol Antoine and Margaret May Kendall. Education: Attended Harare Polytechnic. Hobbies and other interests: Music, art, literature, golf, riding, green issues.

ADDRESSES:

Home—England.

CAREER:

Writer and journalist. Resident Abroad (magazine), sub-editor, 1987; Today's Golfer, journalist, 1988-89; Sunday Times, London, England, correspondent, 1994-98.

MEMBER:

Association of Golf Writers.

WRITINGS:

Shooting at Clouds: Inside the European PGA Tour, Mainstream (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1991.

Seve: Ryder Cup Hero, Partridge Press (London, England), 1993, Rutledge Hill Press (Nashville, TN), 1997.

Out of Bounds: Inside Professional Golf, Partridge Press (London, England), 1995.

Greg Norman: The Biography, Bantam (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 1998, published as Shark: The Biography of Greg Norman, Rutledge Hill Press (Nashville, TN), 1998.

Walkin' after Midnight: A Journey to the Heart of Nashville, Picador (London, England), 2000.

Fairway Dreams: A Decade in Professional Golf, Mainstream (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2001.

Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near-Death of Steve Earle, Fourth Estate (New York, NY), 2002.

Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm, Scribner (New York, NY), 2007.

The White Giraffe, illustrated by David Dean, Dial Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2007.

Dolphin Song, illustrated by David Dean, Dial Books for Young Readers/Walden Media (New York, NY), 2008.

Has also contributed to the London Sunday Times and Independent.

SIDELIGHTS:

African-born journalist Lauren St. John has blended interests in golf and country music in a career that includes covering the golf beat for the London Sunday Times, writing a handful of books on golf and famous golfers, and, since the late 1990s, increasingly covering the American country and blues music scene in both book-length works and in newspaper and magazine articles. St. John began her career writing for magazines. Moving to England from her native Zimbabwe, she followed her personal interest in golf to become one of the leading sportswriters on that subject, following tournaments and individual players.

After writing about the sport of golf for a decade, St. John turned her hand to biography in Shark: The Biography of Greg Norman. Norman, an Australian golfer, was one of the major names on the golf tour from the 1980s to the 1990s. From a one-stroke defeat in the 1986 U.S. PGA tournament, to losing in the playoff for the 1987 U.S. Masters title, to the fatal stroke into the bunker at the last hole in the 1989 British Open, St. John analyses the disasters in Norman's extraordinary career. She looks at how he managed to rebuild his game time and again in the face of defeats that might have finished a lesser personality. A reviewer for the Brisbane, Australia, Courier Mail found St. John's biography "probing," and further noted that her work "goes in search of the man behind the legendary ego." Similarly, a contributor for Publishers Weekly felt that St. John "gives readers an even-handed portrait."

Leaving her position at the Sunday Times, St. John spent a year "living musically," as Linda LaFianza commented on the Phantom Tollbooth Web site, investigating the music scene in Nashville, Tennessee. In her ensuing book, Walkin' after Midnight: A Journey to the Heart of Nashville, St. John profiles musicians such as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Steve Earle. "She explores the nuts-and-bolts of the creative and commercial process," LaFianza further commented, in this "must-read for all observers of American life." Geoff Parkes, writing on the Delusions of Adequacy Web site, called the author's odyssey a "Romantic voyage, in the sense that St. John assumes from the start there are those troubadours still making music that isn't reliant on commercial forces." Parkes went on to explain that St. John focuses on musicians dedicated to "creating a music of the heart and one that refuses to compromise to the disposable model offered by the country music moguls." Parkes concluded that St. John's book demonstrates that "there are different routes to success, a success measured by integrity not units shifted." Henry Shukman, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, observed that St. John's book begins as a "travel book … but quickly settles down into a series of extended interviews." For Shukman, anything lost in the way of a travelogue is "amply made up for by portraits of the artists themselves." And Mike Pattenden, reviewing Walkin' after Midnight for the London Times, commented that St. John is "intent on discovering the true soul of a city masked by rhinestones and cheap tourist haunts." For Pattenden, "the biggest successes in this book are the ordinary people [St. John] discovers … waiting for their break." St. John's book is, the same reviewer concluded, "for all true keepers of the country flame."

St. John continues to trumpet American country music and its alternate stars in her 2002 title, Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near-Death of Steve Earle. Earle, a country-rock star who began in Nashville in the 1970s as a singer and songwriter and then came out with best-selling albums such as Guitar Town and Copperhead Road, later spiraled out of control for over a decade, his drug and alcohol habits bringing him repeatedly to the edge. By 1992, he had missed a multimillion-dollar contract meeting to try to buy crack; a bout in prison in the mid-1990s helped to rid him of his heroin, cocaine, and alcohol habits. Interviewing his numerous ex-wives, associates, and Earle himself—whom she had earlier profiled in Walkin' after Midnight—St. John "manages to demythologize a man whose life often threatens to overshadow his music," according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly.

Mike Tribby, reviewing Hardcore Troubadour in Booklist, found that St. John "tells Earle's story in grisly detail," and Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., writing in Library Journal, likewise felt that St. John "traces the songwriter's life in gritty detail" while analyzing his musical influences, including Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Bruce Springsteen. Carrigan also noted that by employing much of Earle's own voice in her biography, St. John brings the reader closer to Earle's "intimate relationship to music, which often gets overshadowed in the press." A critic for Kirkus Reviews, however, thought that St. John's portrait is "worshipful" and "overlong," but that she "adequately captures the exciting ferment of 1980s Nashville." Brent Hagerman, reviewing the biography on the Pulse Web site, was more positive, observing that St. John's book is "frank and full of candour." More praise came from Courtney Devores on the Charlotte Observer Online Web site. Devores wrote that St. John "does a fantastic job of dragging readers through Earle's heroin and crack addiction."

In Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm, St. John turns the focus on her own life and her time growing up on a farm and game reserve in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the Rhodesian civil war. The author writes of her enjoyment roaming about the land as a twelve-year-old but also provides a glimpse at the violence and slaughter going on outside of the reserve. "Lush descriptions of both the terrain and the war distinguish St. John's moving memoir," wrote Kristine Huntley in Booklist. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the author "bears witness to a remarkable story."

St. John further expands her writing talents as she turns her pen to children's books with The White Giraffe and Dolphin Song, both illustrated by David Dean. The White Giraffe focuses on an orphaned girl and the magical stories of a white giraffe. Following her parents' death, young Martine moves in with her grandmother, who runs a wildlife sanctuary. Before long, Martine is told by a local that she is blessed with "the gift" and then finds herself involved in the attempt by poachers to capture a white giraffe. "Magic realism, adventure, and a well-realized setting combine in this appealing tale," wrote Anne O'Malley in Booklist. Robyn Gioia, writing in the School Library Journal, noted that "the story is captivating and well spun."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. John, Lauren, Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm, Scribner (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Book, March-April, 2003, James Sullivan, review of Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near-Death of Steve Earle, p. 83.

Booklist, December 15, 2002, Mike Tribby, review of Hardcore Troubadour, p. 719; November 15, 2006, Kristine Huntley, review of Rainbow's End, p. 22; June 1, 2007, Anne O'Malley, review of The White Giraffe, p. 75.

Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), April 4, 1998, "The Norman No One Knows," p. 3.

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002, review of Hardcore Troubadour, pp. 1601-1602.

Library Journal, December, 2002, Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., review of Hardcore Troubadour, p. 132.

Publishers Weekly, February 23, 1998, review of Shark: The Biography of Greg Norman, p. 61; December 9, 2002, review of Hardcore Troubadour, p. 72; November 27, 2006, review of Rainbow's End, p. 39; May 28, 2007, review of The White Giraffe, p. 63.

School Librarian, winter, 2006, Steve Hird, review of The White Giraffe.

School Library Journal, June, 2007, Robyn Gioia, review of The White Giraffe, p. 162.

Times (London, England), August 19, 2000, Mike Pattenden, review of Walkin' after Midnight: A Journey to the Heart of Nashville, p. 17.

Times Educational Supplement, November 3, 2006, Gaye Hicyilmaz, "The Curse of Special Powers," review of The White Giraffe, p. 34.

Times Literary Supplement, March 2, 2001, Henry Shukman, review of Walkin' after Midnight, p. 20.