Rough Trade Books of the Year #2 (2021)

An intimate disclosure of teenage life from the underbelly of rock n roll: Chiswick in the eighties, a dirty bohemia populated with feverish grubby characters involved in all manner of naughtiness.

When punk rock star Ian Dury disappeared to make films in the late eighties, he left his twelve year old son in the care of his roadie in a damp run down flat in Chiswick.

But this was no ordinary rock and roll tour roadie; this was the Sulphate Strangler. The Strangler having taken a lot of LCD in the 60s was prone to depression, anger and hallucinations. He'd then gone on to gain notoriety in the 70s by working with Led Zeppelin - he undoubtedly presented a complex personality for a boy of twelve to grasp. Baxter's story is of these formative years and the extraordinary relationship that developed between the two, in a bohemia and time that we can all but imagine now.