Thank You for the Days - Mark Radcliffe

Approaching 50, Mark Radcliffe decided to write about his life and his love of music. But crucially, he only wanted to write about the most interesting days and not the dull ones in between.

From 'The Day My Mother Hit Me With a Golf Club' to 'The Day I Met the Band Who Changed My Life' he charts the peaks and troughs of his life and career with wit, panache and insight. He is very funny when recounting his days working at the BBC in the 1980s and 1990s (including how, when bored, he and his colleagues invented a fictional department), and on winning Stars in Their Eyes as Shane MacGowan. Yet amongst the laughter are more sober days, such as the day when he learned John Peel had died. 

A cracking read and a potted history of both one man's life and his love affair with music, Thank You For the Days is a uniquely entertaining memoir that will appeal not just to music fans but to connoisseurs of British popular culture.