Boy About Town

Autobiography is rarely this can-do and candid.

David Quantick

Charming coming of age tale … An innocent’s story, engagingly told.

Mojo

A five star book from the ace face biographer …This honest, pre-pubescent tale of Fletcher’s formative years is frank, candid and, at times, more brutally gory and sexually explicit than a ‘This is England’ sequel. But as his innocent, bullied, under-developed, paternally undernourished, maternally pampered, determined, stubborn squeaky voiced, rubbish-at-sex music-obsessed skinny body is laid out in a top fifty countdown for all to poke at… he suddenly matures, and emerges as a keen, spirited, clever and resourceful fifth year ready to start a record label … right after he loses his virginity.

Julie Hamill Blog

[A] gripping account of the post-punk period ... one of the most essential accounts of this tumultuous yet highly productive period of British music ... Tony Fletcher is an extraordinary character … This book will certainly bring back scores of vivid memories for those of us around Tony Fletcher’s age, and is required reading for anyone who wishes to know more about the late 1970’s music scene. More than that though, is the amazing human story and vivid characterisation that will have you hooked throughout as this period once again truly comes to life.

louderthanwar.com

Brought back happy memories when bands and their fans were as one.

Damian O'Neill, The Undertones

Funny, fascinating, and at times quite moving

The Bookbag

Fletcher paints a vivid picture of the time – both through the eyes of a boy dealing with growing up and into the underground music scene of bands, fanzines, small record labels, and a staunchly independent spirit …It’s a great read and one which potentially invites the difficult second album syndrome.

Monkey Picks

A must for anyone with an interest in the 1970s and 80s music scene … Featuring a vibrant cast of supporting characters … Boy About Town in an evocative and wholly original account of growing up and coming of age in the glory days of the 1970s.

City Life

[An] excellent memoir of adolescent angst and musical obsession … it is surprisingly candid, wryly funny, occasionally harrowing, yet always honest in its descriptions … brilliantly written.

All Mod Icon

Even if you weren’t there when all this happened, the fast paced narrative will make you feel as if you were … An excellent read and I really would urge anyone with even a passing interest in punk, The Jam, The Who or what it was like being a music mad teenager in London in the late seventies to check it out.

Faith Magazine

Wearing the right clothes, liking the right bands – this book summons up what it meant to be a teenager in the 70s.

Guardian

[A] compelling and evocative memoir …full of great memories of bands, gigs, clothes, girls and parties. It celebrates the vitality of youth and the spirt of the times.

Sabotage Times

Praise for A Light That Never Goes Out: [A] meticulous biography…This exhaustive, well-researched account brings fresh detail and thought to the party.

The Sunday Times

Praise for A Light That Never Goes Out: The story of the Smiths told on the basis of interviews with just about every surviving participant in the Smiths' story. As the story winds on, a chain of no-shows, fits of pique and self-sabotage ... reaches its denouement with an episode from April 1987, just prior to the band's formal break-up. Fletcher is the first writer to have got the full story. Such material highlights the extent to which Fletcher has done his research.

Guardian

Praise for A Light That Never Goes Out: An exhaustive labour of love that was three years in the writing but which will be lapped up by fans of the band...written with a real sense of love and affection for the group who, though they were only together for a mere five years, tilted the world on its axis to a degree not seen since the heyday of the Beatles and the Stones…Fletcher is excellent when it comes to widening the view to include the cultural and historical factors behind the band's emergence and the city from which they came.

Irish Independent