Books about ABBA and related subjects

Updated 28 October, 2024.

A revised and updated edition of my biography Bright Lights Dark Shadows – The Definitive Biography Of ABBA was published on 17 October 2024 (for this new edition, the publisher, Omnibus Press, decided to change the book's subtitle). Incredibly, since the book was first published in 2001, commissioned and edited by Chris Charlesworth, it has never been out of print. After a number of updates had been added to the book as it was reprinted, it was thoroughly revised in 2014 by myself and Chris.

The new edition brings the story bang up to date with the events over the past decade, including the Voyage album and digital avatar show, ending with the Royal Order of Vasa ceremony at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on 31 May 2024. I have also gone through the book from start to finish, correcting errors and misconceptions and adding new information that has come to light since 2014. It's safe to say that if you have only read the original 2001 edition, there are plenty of new stories, anecdotes and details for you to discover in the book.

The size of the book has been reduced a bit, from 234 x 158 mm to 198x 129 mm, presumably to make a better fit in the Omnibus Press catalogue. Also, because of its reduction in size – and, of course, the addition of so much new information – the number of pages has increased considerably, so Omnibus Press decided to remove the index from the book.

The 2024 edition of Bright Lights Dark Shadows is scheduled for publication on 17 October. Outside Europe - in the United States and Australia, for instance - the book will not be made available until March 2025.

To purchase a copy, please use the convenient links in the "Order from" menu. I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of these links.

PLEASE NOTE: You may see a publication date of 18 March 2025 for the Kindle edition on Amazon sites in Europe. This is not accurate. The Kindle edition should be published around the same time as the print edition; the 2025 date applies to Amazon.com in the United States. According to my publisher, Omnibus Press, "sometimes there’s a bit of metadata confusion between the US dates and Amazon EU. Amazon EU often automatically takes the US pub date as opposed to the UK pub date, which is October." As of 24 October 2024, however, the Kindle edition is not available on European Amazon sites because of this metadata error. I know that Omnibus Press are working on resolving the issue.

More info about the history of the book on the page for the 2014 edition.