The stories that fill these pages tell of love, anger, dispute, ingenuity, addiction and fame. Throughout all this, though, stands one constant - music and a complete and utter love and devotion for the artform. The book delves into the craft of songwriting and playing and how many songs were born. Of how, through his collaboration with Jagger, some of the most recognisable lyrics and riffs of the last forty years were created. His love of music, from listening as a child to Chuck Berry records to immersing himself in the blues is told with emotional candour. ‘Every other moment taken away from it (learning the blues) was a sin’.

Life reads like a snapshot of events, places and people. He remembers things clearly (at least as far as HE remembers!) and uses letters, notebooks and diaries to jog the memory into gear. He writes intelligently with a keen and clear observation of the times. His days on the neverending tour bus called The Rolling Stones and his often tempestuous relationship with Mick Jagger are the sharpest memories of all.

He tells of his affair with Anita Pallenberg (the mother of three of his children) and of falling in love with Patti Hansen with a brutal and touching honesty. You really do feel like you are sitting across the kitchen table from him.

‘Image is like a long shadow. Even when the sun goes down you can see it!’ This typifies Richards’ response to the mythology surrounding him. The consequences of his fame mean that people still see him as the image of the rebel, the main offender, the renegade. An image born of his exploits throughout the seventies, of a time of extreme fame and wealth, of intense addiction and of the weird and wacky rumours of full blood transfusions and the like. He has been off dope for thirty years but finds that particular image a difficult one to shed. His image aside, his is a life that mirrors the times he has lived in and the story of rock and roll itself.

His is a career born of doing things his own way. Others have tried to imitate but come up short and pale in significance to this complete original. Whatever way you look upon ‘Keef’ and his shenanigans, this is a great read!