David Bowie was born into a lower middle class London family which, in its particular brand of weirdness, bears comparison with Jo Orton's. David was his mother, Peggy's, third illegitimate child and although David's father was Jewish, Peggy was a member of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts. David idolized his elder brother, Terry, who was institutionalized because of schizophrenia, and it was a fear of going mad himself which was to be the driving inspirational force behind David's creation of himself as a pop superstar. Experimenting with drugs, oriental philosophy and bisexuality, he tried to dramatize the idea of going to the far side of madness, and created Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke, the pop archetypes which were to dominate the 1970s. In 1973 he had five albums in the top 30 at the same time. In this book David talks frankly about his open marriage with Angie, and his relationship with friends and rivals such as Marc Bolan, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger.