WHY MARIANNE FAITHFULL MATTERS

First as a doe-eyed ingénue with 'As Tears Go By', then as a gravel-voiced phoenix rising from the ashes of the 1960s with a landmark punk album Broken English, and finally as a genre-less icon, Marianne Faithfull carved her name into the history of rock 'n' roll to chart a career spanning five decades and multiple detours. Why then was she absent from the male-dominated history of the British Invasion? Putting memoir on equal footing with biographical accounts, historian Tanya Pearson writes about Marianne Faithfull as an avid fan, recovering addict, and queer musician at a crossroads, whether exploring her rise to celebrity, drug addiction and fall from grace as a spurned 'muse', or her reinvention as a sober, soulful chanteuse subverting all expectations for an ageing woman in music. Pearson reaffirms the deep connection between creator and listener in this remarkable, feminist history of the iconic artist. With vulnerability and a smart sense of humour, her biographer exposes the profoundly misogynistic music industry that abused Marianne Faithfull and the result is an heroic and hilarious, passionate biography about a woman who rocks. With discography and filmography, 192pp.