Globe columnist Peter Grant turns the turn-tables on broadcaster Spencer Leigh on his new book about The King.

It is 40 years since Elvis Presley died.

To mark August 16, 1977 - a date that shook rock and roll lovers all over the world - BBC Radio Merseyside’s Spencer has written a fascinating, fact-filled new book called ‘Elvis Presley - Caught in a Trap.’

I took along my microphone to ask music guru Spencer, who has presented his ‘On the Beat’ radio show for 30 years, a few Presley posers exclusively for the Globe.

PG: People might say...''oh not another Elvis book.'' What do you think makes this stand out from other titles?

SL: There wouldn’t be any point in writing a book if I thought it wasn’t going to bring something new to the table.

I’m trying to look objectively at all Elvis Presley did and come to rational conclusions. Over the years I’ve spoken to over 300 people who knew him or had dealings with him for my radio show and for magazine articles and so I had a large bank of my own material to draw upon.

He’s a fascinating character and part of the fascination Is the irrationality of his decisions. Why did he turn down West Side Story? Why did he turn down A Star Is Born with Barbra Streisand? It’s all in the book!

PG:Talking of titles. I like 'Caught in a Trap'. Was it always your chosen one?

SL: My original title was 'Jailhouse Cock' but of course that could never be used, although I do have it as a one-liner when talking about Vernon Presley. That made the publisher laugh so much that he said do the book. 'Caught in a Trap' fits perfectly, I modestly say, as so often Elvis doesn’t know how to extract himself from something and move on.

PG: In your introduction you say 'I've no idea where this will go.'' Are you happy with the journey's end? Were you pleasantly surprised when you typed your final... full stop?

SL: My friend Alex Paton has been writing a history of Southport groups for years but he can’t let it go as he is always finding something new. You have to shut the door on a project and move on.

Whenever a book of mine is republished, I want to revisit the text and make amendments. I listen to critics. At the moment, I am pretty happy with things, but I will always be revising what I write until I come to my final full stop. .

PG: If you were writing a book about pop management who would you say was the greatest? Would it be Col Parker over Epstein or my namesake Peter Grant?

SL: Ideally you have to have the right artist with the right manager. Parker’s personality would not have suited a group as imaginative as the Beatles, but in some ways my book is a study in rock management and there are plenty of comparisons in the text.

PG: Had he been invited to do Desert Island Discs what do you think he would have chosen?

SL: He wouldn’t have been one of these vain artists who would have picked his own recordings. He would certainly have chosen Roy Hamilton’s You’ll Never Walk Alone and probably something by Dean Martin, Mario Lanza, Ann-Margret, Little Richard and Freddy Fender.

PG: What do you think Elvis would be doing in 2017 had he survived the peanut butter bacon butties?

SL: Well, he would be 82 so who knows what shape his voice would be in. He would have given up the jump suits, that’s for sure.

I think he would still be singing and recording as that is what he enjoyed the most. My book reveals that he used the monthly Playboy magazine as his date book: maybe he wouldn’t have the stamina at 82.

PG: Had you been around at an Elvis press conference what is the ONE question you would have asked him?

SL: Why are you so loyal to Colonel Parker?

PG: What are you working on next?

SL: Writing articles and reviews... I know my Sinatra book is going to be reprinted (with larger print) and I will be adding an appendix and discography to that so that it matches the Elvis book.

There isn’t a day when I don’t think of an idea for a book but very few of those ideas come into being as you have to persuade yourself and then the publisher that this is right thing to do. So I don’t know what comes next – heck, today, all I want to do is listen to Test Match Special.

Elvis Presley - Caught In the Trap by Spencer Leigh Published by McNidder and Grace.