Working Class Boy

by Jimmy Barnes, HarperCollins.

We all know Jimmy Barnes grew up rough, but this genuinely shocking memoir reveals how very rough and tough it was. From his early days in Glasgow, filled with booze, chaos and screams in the night, to his grim childhood in Adelaide, to his wayward teen years, the mystery is that young Jimmy even survived – let alone rose to become a rock’n’roll legend. It reminded me of that famous misery memoir, Angela’s Ashes, in that for all the abuse and horror he endured, he writes kindly both of his alcoholic father and runaway mother, of the power and strength of family. This is volume one of the book he needed to write to expel his demons – all his own words, he swears – and I’m hanging out for the next one.