Photos, rare documents and discographies

Passion Brassens is a real collector's item. Alain Poulanges's painstakingly-researched album contains rare photographs and documents including images of Brassens in a German labour camp and letters from the national broadcast company banning certain of his more provocative songs from the French airwaves. These images, juxtaposed with letters, postcards, manuscripts and original concert posters, give a detailed insight into the French 'chanson' legend's chequered career and personal life (Textuel).

In Brassens au bois de son cœur, Jean-Paul Sermonte writes as both an expert and a friend, illustrating his in-depth biography with hundreds of previously unpublished documents. Highlights include articles Brassens published in Le Libertaire in his young anarchist days and exhaustive lists of the thousands of concerts and tours he performed in the course of his career. Sermonte's book also boasts the best Brassens's discography compiled to date. (Didier Carpentier).

Hervé Bréal has come up with a highly original way of reviewing Brassens's life and work. Brassens de A à Z is presented as an easy-to-read dictionary, filled with interesting details about the singer's songwriting and recording career as well as riveting insights into his personal life. Readers can amass a wealth of Brassens's trivia and memorabilia dipping into letters at random or reading the book systematically from A to Z. (Albin-Michel).

Mario Poletti's album, Brassens, l’ami, is one of the most personal offerings in the current crop of Brassens's tributes. Featuring an impressive collection of photographs, Poletti's album catches the singer in his most private moments, relaxing on holiday, sharing jokes with friends or enjoying a quiet, meditative moment backstage. This fascinating, and at times overly-abundant, collection of photos, comes complete with a 25-minute CD featuring an original recording of Brassens trying out melodies and lyrics for Les Copains d’abord (Editions du Rocher).

First drafts and correspondence

Featuring over 100 original drafts of songs, Les Manuscrits de Brassens is a book guaranteed to appeal to experts and laymen alike. This book not only fulfils the fetishistic desire of seeing how Brassens actually signed his name, but is also packed with fascinating material (e.g. a different ending to Brassens's classic Le Gorille and an introduction to le Bricoleur). Annotated with insightful commentaries by Alain Poulanges and André Tillieu, Les Manuscrits de Brassens comes in a special three-volume boxed set and is, undoubtedly, one of the best of the current crop of Brassens's publications (Textuel).

Lettres à Toussenot, 1946-1950 is a collection of correspondence dating back to the early days of Brassens's career when, as a shy and impoverished songwriter, he struggled to make a living from a tiny apartment in the Impasse Florimond. These letters, written to one of Brassens's closest friends, Roger Toussenot, express his most intimate hopes and fears and provide interesting portraits of Jeanne, Corne d’Aurochs and colleagues at Le Libertaire (Textuel).

Memoirs

Written by Emile Miramont (aka Corne d’Aurochs, the protagonist of one of Brassens's most famous songs), Brassens avant Brassens recounts the singer's early years growing up in the southern French fishing-port of Sète. Miramont displays considerable skill in bringing Brassens's teachers, family and friends to life and also sheds new light on the singer's poverty-stricken early years in Paris, touching on the painful quarrel between Brassens and Miramont (which set the tone of the song Corne d’Aurochs). This new edition of Miramont's seminal work is one of the rare books to provide such a detailed insight into the singer's early years. (Editions de L’Archipel).

French novelist René Fallet played an essential role in Brassens's career, as one of the singer's closest friends and collaborators. Georges Brassens, a collection of newspaper articles, programme texts and sleeve notes penned by Fallet, also features powerful extracts from the author's own memoirs (Denoël).

Brassens, délit d’amitié is a fascinating collection of articles about Brassens by another of the singer's close friends, Louis Nucéra. The book also contains a transcription of the renowned interviews the pair broadcast on RTL in 1974, in which Brassens spoke openly about his life, his work and his fans. Asking a series of intimate, in-depth questions, Nucéra managed to bring his notoriously shy friend out of himself, revealing Brassens's warmth and generosity to the public for the first time. (Editions de L’Archipel).