In 2002 the Stones celebrate their 40th anniversary. Their story - the band's rise, the Marianne Faithfull, Brian Jones and Altamont scandals, the groundbreaking hits - is the stuff of twentieth century legend, and core to popular culture. But as always, Norman's skills as a researcher and biographer bring a whole new dimension to such a story. Written with a personal knowledge and the trust of the participants, this fully updated version includes the Jerry Hall/Mick Jagger split and the stones' lives as tax exiles.

'The Stones are lucky to have found a biographer of Philip Norman's class' Pete Townshend

'An elegiac book, a record of evanescence as much as of durability, and it reminds us of an epoch that threw up lions with no more energy than it threw out losers' The Times