Michael Holliday was a major British singing star from 1955 to 1963. He was the first UK singer to embrace television, starring in his own “Relax With Michael Holliday: shows on BBC Television. He had many hit records, including two number ones, “The Story Of My Life” and “Starry Eyed”. He idolised Bing Crosby and sounded uncannily like him but his relaxed public persona hid a troubled private life. He died from an overdose of tablets in October 1963.

Ken’ s chronicle of Holliday’s turbulent life - The Man Who Would Be Bing - The Life Story of Michael Holliday was published by The Book Guild in 2004. “Just once in a while a book comes along that is difficult to put down and a pleasure to pick up again. Ken Crossland's masterful biography of Michael Holliday's battle against his demons is one such.” (Allen Trump on Amazon.co.uk)

Perry Como’s career extended from 1933 to 1994.  He recorded over 700 songs and in the 25 years from 1945 to 1970, his record sales exceeded 100 million – only Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and the Beatles in that period, sold more.  Between 1945 and 1976, he scored 131 charted records in the USA, fourteen of which reached the top spot. He also enjoyed chart successes in many other parts of the world, particularly the UK and Australia. He received a Grammy in 1958 for Best Vocal Performance, male, for “Catch A Falling Star” (the first such award to a male singer) and was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

As a pioneer of television, he made his debut on Christmas Eve 1948 and went on to host an incredible 1049 shows and guested over 80 times on other programs. His Christmas specials became a holiday fixture and were invariably highly rated by the audience measurement organizations. He made headlines in 1959 when he signed a television contract calling for $25 million over a two-year period.

Ken’s biography of Perry Como, co-written with fellow enthusiast, Malcolm Macfarlane, will be the first detailed examination of Como’s career. As well as providing a full biography of the singer, the book also provides a complete listing of his commercial recordings, his television shows and a year-by-year chronology of his life. The book will be published by McFarland & Co in the USA during the summer of 2009.