In print

These pages provide details of some of the printed publications - books, theatre programmes, newspapers and magazines - that have featured Lyn Paul during her long career.

Strange but true... Lyn Paul is mentioned in a work of fiction - Filth by Irvine Welsh, author of the best-selling book Trainspotting.

The New Seekers also get a mention in the following:

• The Trouble With Goats And Sheep by Joanna Cannon
• Boom Bang-A-Bang by Jonathan Harvey
• Perfect by Rachel Joyce

Filth
Irvine Welsh

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
ISBN: 0-224-05278-0 (hardback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-224-05278-8
Date: 6th August 1998

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
ISBN: 0-224-04118-5 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-224-04118-8
Date: 6th August 1998

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0-393-31868-0 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-393-31868-5
Date: September 1998

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0-09-959111-1 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-09-959111-5
Publication date: 5th June 1999
Re-published: 5th June 2008

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0-09-928429-4 (New edition paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-09-928429-1
Publication date: 1st July 1999

Turn to the Chapter I Get A Little Sentimental Over You and read on: "I've got the radio on... Lyn Paul, formerly of the New Seekers is singing 'I Get A Little Sentimental Over You'. Lyn's solo career never really took off. I think about mentioning this to Ray but decide that it would be pointless."

Forgive the comment about Lyn's solo career - it's a fun read.

The Trouble With Goats And Sheep
Joanna Cannon

Publisher: The Borough Press
ISBN: 0-00-813217-8 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-00-813217-0
Date: 26th December 2016

In Joanna Cannon's début novel The Trouble With Goats And Sheep the New Seekers are the cuase of a fatal car crash on the M4 motorway. On page 18 we learn that Mr. Morton (the driver and the deceased) had driven himself "head-first into the central reservation" while "searching for the New Seekers in the footwell of his car." Which album, and whether it was the 8-Track cartridge or the cassette, we may never know, but it's a lesson for all those New Seekers fans who drive!

Commenting on Facebook in 2020, Eve Graham wrote: "I'm horrified to think I am responsible for Mr. Morton's death!" (Facebook Eve Graham Forum, 12th October 2020, 1:25pm)

Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club & Boom Bang-A-Bang
Jonathan Harvey

Publisher: Methuen Drama
ISBN: 0-413-70450-5 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-413-70450-4
Date: 11th December 1995

Harvey Plays: 1: Beautiful Thing; Babies; Boom Bang-A-Bang; Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club
Jonathan Harvey

Publisher: Methuen Drama
ISBN: 0-413-72450-6 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-413-72450-2
Date: 7th January 1999

Jonathan Harvey's 1995 play Boom Bang-A-Bang was intended to be, in the playwright's own words, "a gayer, camper equivalent" of An Evening With Gary Lineker. The 1991 'Lineker' play by Arthur Smith and Chris England was set against the backdrop of the 1990 Football World Cup semi-final between England and West Germany; Harvey's play takes place on the night of the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest.

Lee is hosting a Eurovision party at his flat in Kentish Town - his first Eurovision since the death of his partner Michael. Freinds gather to watch the contest on his television. One of them, Steph, has a photo of himself as an eight-year-old boy taken with Eve Graham of the New Seekers: "Bumped into her in a hotel in Scotland. Holiday. Eve Graham. She was ever so nice. Little poodle. I said, 'Shame you didn't win.'... She said, 'It was rigged.' 'Beg, Steal Or Borrow'. 1972."

Perfect
Rachel Joyce

Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0-85752-066-0 (hardback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-85752-066-1
Date: 4th July 2013

Publisher: Black Swan
ISBN: 0-552-77810-9 (paperback)
ISBN 13: 978-0-552-77810-7
Date: 27th February 2014

The Prologue to Rachel Joyce's novel Perfect begins like this: "In 1972, two seconds were added to time. Britain agreed to join the Common Market, and Beg, Steal Or Borrow by the New Seekers was the entry for Eurovision. The seconds were added because it was a leap year and time was out of joint with the movement of the Earth. The New Seekers did not win the Eurovision Song Contest but that had nothing to do with the Earth’s movement and nothing to do with the two seconds either."

< [Biographies] Previous page | Next page [Music, Musicals and Theatre] >