ABBA Treasures – A Celebration of the Ultimate Pop Group is a new book for your ABBA collection, to be released in November 2010. ABBA Treasures is written by Elisabeth Vincentelli, a French-born writer who now lives in the USA.
Like other “treasures” books ABBA Treasures is a pictorial biography of ABBA, with reproductions of original memorabilia, such as concert tickets, tour programmes, newspapers, photographs, promotional items and more, housed in sleeves that allows them to be removed. Many fans would have only seen photos of some of these items, so it’s fun to see them for real, albeit in reproductions (some of which are smaller than the original items to fit in the book).
The book is lavishly laid out and fully illustrated, with (to my eyes) many rarely seen if not previously unpublished photographs. Those fans overly familiar with the ABBA story probably won’t find anything “new” in the text, but there are some unique insights, and many people including Björn and Benny granted interviews to the author especially for the book.
It’s a an honour for me to have been interviewed for the book, and it’s also a pleasure to see my friends Pepé, Roxy and Brian provide the wonderful memorabilia included in the book.
Elisabeth is the chief drama critic for the New York Post, and was previously music editor and then arts and entertainment editor for Time Out New York. She has also written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and The Village Voice, and many other publications. She is the author of the 2004 book ABBA Gold, in the 33⅓ series of books on classic albums, and has also written the essay for the forthcoming re-release ABBA Gold – Greatest Hits CD/DVD Special Edition, also due out in November.
Some fans may grumble about some reversed photographs or incorrect photo captions, but I don’t think that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the book.
ABBA Omnibus blog 