I mention all that because despite never getting hooked on smack, and having been able to just walk away from the party scene unscathed, once I got a bit older, more sensible (and probably a lot more boring, lol) I recognise a lot of the chaotic lifestyle Doherty talks about in this book. The long-awaited, candid memoir from Peter Doherty, whose talent as a musician has more often been eclipsed by a Herculean appetite for self-destruction: drugs, prison, prostitution, court, murder, death, robbery, car crashes and hospital emergencies. I’m hard pushed to think of another musician who managed to be so prolific with such a sustained drug problem.

It’s a perfectly normal biography all the info is in there but the whole time I’m waiting for the romanticism and fantasy and lyricism with which the same events are described in the Books of Albion etc. Born into a military family, Doherty spent much of his youth moving from place to place across Europe. But just as he approaches a moment of insight, or self-reflection, he veers away again, choosing instead to focus on an irrelevant detail.

Pete Doherty is perhaps best remembered as the drug-addled frontman of seminal British indie-rock band, The Libertines. Felt like he was trying to set some records straight although as a book about recovery I was saddened to hear that Pete had fallen into using after the Libertines was formed. I'm sure part of the problem is if so much of one's life revolves around running off to take drugs and passing out, then there's not that much to say. Perhaps this shows the effect such an enormous amount of hard drugs can have on a person – inviting all manner of chaos into their orbit, but diminishing their ability to find meaning outside their addiction, in their passions, their loved ones, or their selves.

Fans of the Libertines – who formed in 1997 – may hope for a work rivalling the literary merit of Patti Smith’s Just Kids or Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. Don't get me wrong, Doherty has definitely been the architect of his own misfortune, but he's also been hounded out of multiple places, just because his "bad-boy" behaviour marked him out as fair game. Doherty has since joked that the publishers have “taken all the good bits out” – after the lawyers of ex-girlfriend Kate Moss and former Libertines co-frontman Carl Barât had a good look at it.drugs are mentioned for the first time and then it's all about jailhouse rock and the romanticizing of drugs - the classic sex, drugs and rock 'n roll story. I really wasn't expecting to come away from this book liking Doherty, but he just completely challenged my preconceptions about him before I'd even finished the first chapter.