In My Life

Alan Johnson tells his story of growing up with a passion for music in a London that has long gone.

Available in eBook, Paperback, Hardback and Audiobook

From being transported by the sound of ‘True Love’ by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly on the radio, as a small child living in condemned housing in ungentrified West London in the late 1950s, to going out to work as a postman humming ‘Watching the Detectives’ by Elvis Costello in 1977, Alan Johnson’s life has always had a musical soundtrack. In fact music hasn’t just accompanied his life, it’s been an integral part of it.

In My Life vividly transports us to a world that is no longer with us – a world of Dansettes and jukeboxes, of heartfelt love songs and heart-broken ballads, of smoky coffee shops and dingy dance halls. From Bob Dylan to David Bowie, from Lonnie Donegan to Bruce Springsteen, all of Alan’s favourites are here. As are, of course, his beloved Beatles, whom he has worshipped with undying admiration since 1963.

The Music from the ‘In My Life’

The track ‘Hard Life’ by Alan’s band can only be heard on the video. We have created a Spotify playlist for the other records.

Testimonials

What a lovely writer he is: funny. modest, unsentimental and utterly without self-pity . . . warmth, wit and honesty make this such a satisfying read.

Marcus Berkmann
Daily Mail

 

His charming memoir details the ways in which records by his heroes . . . have formed the soundtrack to his life.

Mail on Sunday
‘Books of the Year’

In prose and in person, Johnson has always had an everyman likeability . . . his take on the “good old days” is sparely unsentimental . . . very readable.

Stuart Maconie
New Statesman

 

This memoir will give you that warm glow of finding a friend who shares your passions . . . In this loving slice of social history, he beautifully mixes that passion with the story of a young man growing up and succeeding in post-war Britain.

Daily Express