Born in south London in 1922, Jim Godbolt became manager of George Webb's Dixielanders in 1946 after demobilization from the Royal navy. He ran a band agency with Lyn Dutton and Humphrey Lyttelton in 1951 and formed his own agency in 1952, representing Mick Mulligan, Al Fairweather and Sandy Brown, and pop groups including the Swinging Blue Jeans. He left the entertainment business in 1971 for a career in writing, supporting himself by working as a meter reader. In 1979 he founded Jazz at Ronnie Scott's, the house magazine of Ronnie Scott's Club, which he edited until 2006. His hilarious autobiography, All This and Many a Dog, will be republished by Northway in 2007.