Daisy Jones and The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Bell

Written as though it is a real-life account of the rise and fall of a real-life band, this novel is frighteningly authentic. The level of detail is such, you want to get hold of the albums and listen to the songs. From a troubled background, Daisy Jones is a spoiled little rich girl, who just happens to be insanely talented. From a troubled but poor background, brothers Billy and Graham form The Six around Billy’s songwriting and performing genius. When they coincide musical magic is made, but this is the 70s so sex and drugs do tend to get in the way of rock and roll. Every member of the band and their significant hangers-on has their say on all aspects of the band’s development and demise – expressed in short answers to unseen questions. As the novel’s strapline says: Everyone was there. Everyone remembers it differently. So much is revealed by who does and doesn’t know what is going on as Daisy and Billy’s URST creates mayhem and the band falls apart. The novel’s structure works brilliantly until the end when the previously irrelevant identity of the author/interviewer is revealed, which undermines the credibility of the way some questions are answered. But it’s an enjoyable romp through 70s soft rock that could make a great mockumentary with a killer soundtrack.