David Bowie: A Life

(Paperback)

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In the manner of George Plimpton's ground-breaking oral biographies of Truman Capote and Edie Sedgwick, this is the definitive oral biography of David Bowie told through over 180 carefully edited and curated original, exclusive interviews with those who knew Bowie best from school friends to global megastars. ** Shortlisted for the NME Best Music Book Award 2018 ** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR A HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR 'The definitive book on Bowie' The Times Drawn from a series of conversations between David Bowie and Dylan Jones across three decades, together with over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators - some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie - this oral history is an intimate portrait of a remarkable rise to stardom and one of the most fascinating lives of our time. Profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry, Bowie was a man of intense relationships that often came to abrupt ends. He was a social creature, equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra, and in Dylan Jones's telling - by turns insightful and salacious - we see as intimate a portrait as could possibly be drawn. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones's interviews with him across three decades, DAVID BOWIE is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time. ***NOW REVISED AND EXPANDED***

Reviews

The definitive book on Bowie * The Times *

Dylan Jones made absolutely the right decision to frame his superb life of David Bowie as a multi-voiced oral biography. David Bowie: A Life suits the shape-shifting, beguiling, enigmatic complexities of its subject perfectly. Its hard to imagine
anything that will do Bowie better justice

-- William Boyd * Guardian *

Jones constructs an oral-history mosaic that will engage even those whose lives
were not changed by the appearance of Ziggy Stardust on Top of the Pops in 1972

* Guardian, BOOKS OF THE YEAR *
The best book on David Bowie youll ever need or read. * Irish Independent, BOOKS OF THE YEAR *
Worthy of the Starman Of all the volumes to appear since Bowies death, this is the most useful: an oral history that brings together the most incisive reminiscences and memorials * Evening Standard *
Dylan Jones has excavated the cacophony of voices that make up a life and curated a phenomenal portrait of the artist from childhood to the final days. The witnesses who comprise this oral biography animate the pages like characters in a non-fiction novel. Damn nigh peerless. -- David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

Studded with shiny nuggets

* Daily Telegraph *
The perfect present for music mums and dads * Daily Mirror *
Funny, enlightening, gossipy * The Herald *
Sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy * Sunday Telegraph *

Author Bio

Dylan Jones is the multi-award winning editor of GQ magazine.He has been an editor at i-D magazine, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times. He is a Trustee of the Hay Festival, a board member of the Norman Mailer Foundation and was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to publishing. He has written twenty books including the critically aclaimed When Ziggy Played Guitar and From the Ground Up, U2's celebration of their record-breaking 360 tour.