VGC.Mirage Publishing,2000.First UK edition-first printing.Includes Sting's printed signature.White hardback(gilt lettering to the spine) with Dj(small crease,nick and scratch on the Dj cover),both in VGC.Illustrated with b/w photos,drawings,cartoons.Nice and clean pages but pages 65 to 67 are chipped on the edges,some creases on the edges of the pages,small pencil mark impression on the edge of the first blank page of the book.Foreword by Sting.191pp.Price un-clipped.First edition. This is another paragraph Book Description: Sting says: Jim Berryman once told me, after a particularly bad day at the race-track, that he felt so low he wanted to hang himself and would I lend him the money so he could buy himself the rope. Already acclaimed by Journalists and the 'Outlandos Fan Club' on the Web Jim Berryman has a flair and talent for holding your attention through the short, succinct and often very funny chapters of this book. This oblique look at his friendship with Sting is explored from Schooldays right up to the time of Sting being wedded to Trudie Styler and beyond. Jim and Sting have remained friendly despite the gap between wealth and happiness. It was at Sting's prompting that Jim penned this biography, which tracks their friendship through thick and thin from the school playing fields to their days as trainee warehousemen. When Jim meets Dustin Hoffman and Tom Hanks by the poolside at Sting's mansion it seems that their differing worlds are about to collide, but Jim is so funny at this meeting: ?You two look like you're ready to take the plunge?? He says nodding towards the swimming pool. One of the yanks replied: ?I think he's already married.? Jim goes on to write, 'They both departed so I picked up another glass of Krug. I was more used to Newcastle Brown Ale. I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne on a housing estate and I didn't have a brass farthing.' An amazing insight into Sting's rise through the ranks from his schooldays to playing at seedy jazz clubs on Tyneside to eventual stardom. An odder couple couldn't be more likely than the author and Sting. Every chapter, all forty-one of them, has something to make you laugh. Jim Berryman might stand accused of patronising Sting, but he pulls no punches when he says he's the better singer between the two. The rainforest-loving Sting is also accused of pampering to his fans when in the past, Jim says, sting would have had no time for such burning issues.
