It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
David Bowie

David Bowie

A Life

Summary

** Shortlisted for the NME Best Music Book Award 2018 **
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR

'The definitive book on Bowie' The Times

Drawn from a series of conversations between David Bowie and Dylan Jones across three decades, together with over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators - some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie - this oral history is an intimate portrait of a remarkable rise to stardom and one of the most fascinating lives of our time.

Profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry, Bowie was a man of intense relationships that often came to abrupt ends. He was a social creature, equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra, and in Dylan Jones's telling - by turns insightful and salacious - we see as intimate a portrait as could possibly be drawn.

Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones’s interviews with him across three decades, DAVID BOWIE is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shapeshifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.

***NOW REVISED AND EXPANDED***

Reviews

  • The definitive book on Bowie
    The Times

About the author

Dylan Jones

Dylan Jones is the multi-award winning editor of GQ magazine.He has been an editor at i-D magazine, The Face, Arena, the Observer and the Sunday Times. He is a Trustee of the Hay Festival, a board member of the Norman Mailer Foundation and was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to publishing. He has written twenty books including the critically aclaimed When Ziggy Played Guitar and From the Ground Up, U2's celebration of their record-breaking 360° tour.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more