Reckless

Chrissie Hynde (Ebury Press, 320pp, £20, Oldie price £16.50)

CHRISSIE HYNDE, the lead singer of the early 1980s group The Pretenders, has provoked controversy in her memoir by explicitly taking full responsibility for her gang-rape by a group of bikers when she was young. Her casual regard for her rights as a woman aside, the story reveals a lot about the kind of lifestyle she led. Born in 1951, Hynde grew up in Ohio, the child of very conservative parents. Seduced by rock music’s ‘British invasion’, she rebelled young and moved to London in 1973.

Once there she got hooked on various kinds of drugs and lived the punk rocker’s life, writing scathing reviews for NME and working in Malcolm Mclaren’s and Vivienne Westwood’s shop. It was only when she met the guitarist James Honeyman-scott, who harnessed her musical talent in sophisticated arrangements, that she formed The Pretenders and made her name. They made two bestselling albums before both Honeyman-scott and the bassist, Pete Farndon, died from drug overdoses.

Reviews of Reckless were mixed. Meghan O’rourke, writing for the Ob

server, felt Hynde had held something

‘Despite vivid details and her gift for great one-liners Hynde’s life feels oddly

mediated’

back: ‘Despite vivid details and her gift for great one-liners Hynde’s life feels oddly mediated, like a story someone else is telling. Hynde is dry, funny and sharp, but not always as exploratory on the page as she was on stage.’ Some, such as Jude Rodgers in the Guardian, were less exacting, and enjoyed Reck

less as a typically juicy rock memoir that will fly off the shelves: ‘There are enough eyebrow-raising anecdotes here to give a publisher multiple orgasms.’