Beetroot — Baxter Dury

The follow-up to Chaise Longue with the working title of Beetroot picks up Baxter's story as he becomes a young man. It asks the simple question: what effect does an experimental, frequently chaotic upbringing have on an adult life? It charts Baxter's attempts to get to grips with his existence against a backdrop of near constant upheaval exclusively populated by a cast of nefarious characters that make the antics of Chaise Longue seem like the child's play they were. Told in a similarly deadpan style, one of the book's other central threads follows Baxter's attempts to chart his own musical career while everything around him is raging chaos. The incidents involving an accidental Hitler sticker and his assault on a French record company executive with a croissant have to be read to be believed. The true heart of the book though is Baxter's personal journey of discovery as he comes to terms with how his unconventional childhood upbringing has shaped him for good and bad.