Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia
(1969) remains a remarkable overview of the 1960s record industry, thanks to Roxon's consuming love for rock and roll and her fresh, colloquial style. Milliken's brisk, accessible portrait of the woman behind these insights has the flavor of Roxon's own writings, many of which are excerpted within. He details her problems with editors, her conflicts with her mother and her struggles with asthma (which killed her in 1973 at age 41). Roxon's first love died at 22, and two other central male figures in Roxon's life also died at early ages. Yet this book's overall tone is upbeat, evoking the period's optimism and excitement. Roxon's career started shakily at the Sydney Daily Mirror
, where she developed a talent for impertinence, asking Brian Epstein during an interview, "Mr. Epstein, are you a millionaire?" Sydney journalist Milliken chronicles Roxon's relationship with Linda Eastman, a three-year bond that ended when Eastman dropped her best friend after marrying Paul McCartney. Roxon took revenge by slaughtering Eastman and McCartney in print, but this approach, born of personal rejection and pain, wasn't typical, and Milliken cites plenty of Roxon's balanced, compassionate pieces. This lively book is as much a portrait of a journalist as the era she covered. Photos. (May)
