Life - Keith Richards

The rock legend's memoir - a No. 1 SUNDAY TIMES bestseller.

With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done.

Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life. Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records as a child in post-war Kent. Learning guitar and forming a band with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones. The Rolling Stones' first fame and success as a bad-boy band. The notorious Redlands drug bust and subsequent series of confrontations with a nervous establishment that led to his enduring image as outlaw and folk hero.

Creating immortal riffs such as the ones in 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Street Fighting Man' and 'Honky Tonk Women'. Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg and the death of Brian Jones. Tax exile in France, wildfire tours of the US, 'Exile on Main Street' and 'Some Girls'. Ever increasing fame, isolation and addiction. Falling in love with Patti Hansen. Estrangement from Mick Jagger and subsequent reconciliation. Solo albums and performances with his band the Xpensive Winos. Marriage, family and the road that goes on for ever.

In a voice that is uniquely and intimately his own, with the disarming honesty that has always been his trademark, Keith Richards brings us the essential life story of our times.

Keith Richards was born in Dartford in 1943 and founded the Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger in 1962. He lives in Connecticut.

Richards has written an opus on a lifetime of brutal honesty, an all-encompassing account of what it's been like to be one of the coolest rock stars in the world.
THE ATLANTIC

Electrifying... the intimate and moving story of one man's long strange trip over the decades, told in dead-on, visceral prose without any of the pretense, caution or self-consciousness that usually attend great artists sitting for their self-portraits.
NEW YORK TIMES

an absolute blast... mesmerizing. It is like being button-holed by a piratical ancient mariner with amazing tales to tell. But Life offers much more than vicarious thrills. It captures the true spirit of rock and roll... It also movingly captures Richards's extraordinary love of music...and perhaps more surprisingly, his manifest decency as a human being...how good is it that this hugely endearing rock and roll legend...is able to describe his extraordinary life with such honesty and panache.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - Charles Spencer

a fascinating book; by turns appalling, rambling, hilarious and even surprisingly touching... Life is an important addition to rock literature, giving fresh insights into the working dynamic between Richards and Jagger... Life crackles with the authentic, likeable voice of a man who is not what you think
DAILY MAIL

the very existence of this book is a marker against the ravages of time. It suggests Richards's memory is fresh in a way that his face isn't...funnier than Spinal Tap's reminiscences of their native Squatney... And he can be tender, too... There's a junkie-artist frankness throughout, coupled with a refusal to omit things: how he plays the guitar, how post-gig coupling works, and his recipe for bangers and mash (don't try it at home).
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Tom Payne

one of the most honest, amusing, no-holds-barred rock biographies I have ever read... informative and often amusing with no excuses or false contrition... there is something for everyone here, even a particularly good recipe for bangers and mash.
NEW STATESMAN - Barry Miles

Entertaining...a slurry romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price.
THE NEW YORKER - David Remnick

He is not just a credit to Sidcup Art School; he is an inspiration to every London child who peeps a recorder or strums a guitar. I cannot think of another member of the British artistic, cultural or media world who has done so much or who has so widely penetrated the global consciousness. David Attenborough? Stephen Fry? He knocks them into a cocked hat... Arise Sir Keef, I say, and if there were any damn merit in it, he would have the Order of Merit, too.
Boris Johnson