Buddy Holly is the best-known yet most elusive and enigmatic of all Rock 'n' Roll legends. Now Philip Norman, who has won international praise for his biographies of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elton John, has written the definitive story of a short but extraordinary life. Buddy's records are played, and his memory is cherished, the world over. Yet the full story of his meteoric rise and tragic fall has never been told.

Philip Norman uses his unique skills to give a revealing, sometimes shocking but always warmly affectionate portrait of America's mythical Rock 'n' Roll era and its brightest and most enduring star.

'excellent . . . [Norman's] cogency and thoroughness make this biography as welcome as the unstoppably fresh songs his idol left us' Sunday Times