I did learn one thing new from this book (something which I'd wondered about for a long time), the significance of the cross that Bowie wore/wears around his neck.

Other than that I felt I got more out of other Bowie biographies, including Alias David Bowie by Peter and Leni Gillman (on Bowie's background and personal life) and Bowie: Loving the Alien by Christopher Sandford, during the MainMan years of his career.

This book seemed to focus quite a bit of Bowie's very early career (pre-solo work) and later on his cocaine craze, then the 'bad' spell of the mid to late 80s.

Significant areas and events in his life that I thought needed airing were disregarded. The importance of half-brother Terry in his life was somewhat tempered down, especially in Bowie's formative years in which I thought Terry played a significant part in shaping David's musical tastes.

The relationship he had with Hermione Farthingale was some what bypassed, considering the man felt such affection for her he wrote songs about her (to my understanding the only other women to have songs written for them are/were Angie, Coco Schwab (tenuous as this information comes from the author of this book - though he does appear to have researched well) and Iman. Yes, the relationship was quite fleeting, but if David himself felt Hermione worthy of songs, perhaps it should have been discussed a little more deeply?

Neither was there much discussion about the workings of MainMan in this book. Yes, we were given an outline of the early development and machinations of the company and DeFries, but I felt I learned so much more about the workings, and the ultimate crash and burn failure of MainMan and DeFries' involvement with Bowie's career in the Christopher Sandford book.

I did learn more about Bowie's time during the Tin Machine period. That I enjoyed and, I did like the "where's David?" element in the final pages. I found that quite funny but saddening as well.

It wasn't an unpleasant read, but it didn't knock me out with the wealth of information. Granted, there is a LOT to cover and the book would have been at least 200 pages longer if it had gone into more detail on various events.

Over all, so far, nothing beats Nicholas Pegg's The Complete David Bowie for what is akin to a Bowie encyclopedia on his songs, albums,tours, films, videos, etc. If you are not so interested in his personal life and just want straight out information on the songs, how they were written, recording sessions, musicianship and release and reception, The Complete David Bowie is a must.

If you want more of a back story into his personal life and some in-depth discussion of behind-the-scenes goings-on, you could do worse than invest in this book. It's good, but not knock out.