By royal appointment (From Penarth Times)

By royal appointment

A WRITER has been honoured by the Queen with an invitation to Buckingham Palace.

Former St Cyres pupil Stuart Nicholson, who has written a number of biographies on jazz legends including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, has been invited to a reception hosted by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on March 1.

The event is a celebration of the contribution of the music industry to the culture and economy of the United Kingdom.

Stuart, aged 56, who grew up in Penarth, said: "I'm obviously delighted.

"I think it will be very interesting to be a fly on the wall at one of these occasions."

Stuart's mother Betty, of Lavernock Road, said: "I'm thrilled for him and very proud of all that he has achieved."

Stuart regularly contributes work on jazz to the Observer and the Observer Music Monthly, and his pieces have also recently appeared in the pages of The New York Times, The Irish Times, Courier International (Paris), the Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Independent, The Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement and the Spectator.

In the past he has also written on jazz for the Guardian, the European, Today and the Western Mail.

Stuart studied music at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and led a jazz-rock band in the 1970s, appearing on radio and television.

One original composition recorded by his band was used as a signature tune by the BBC Radio Wales programme Sportstime for more than 10 years.

Stuart was signed to Logo Records and after 1980 - when he gave up playing professionally - he became increasingly involved in music journalism.

In 1993 his biography of Ella Fitzgerald was published in the UK and was hailed as'one of the best biographies of a jazz performer ever written'.

The Observer said: "This biography is a model, not only of research but of musical insight."

His biography of Billie Holiday was published in the UK in 1995 and was acclaimed as'the best biography yet of the star called Lady Day' by the Daily Express.

On publication in the US later, Ned Rorern - winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 - called it'intelligent, well written and maddeningly thorough' in The New York Times Review of Books.