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  • Published: 8 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473528307
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448

Reckless




A powerful and uncompromising memoir from one of rock’s most charismatic stars

By the time she was 14, Chrissie Hynde knew she had to get out of Akron, Ohio. Her perfect ’50s American childhood upturned by a newly acquired taste for rock ’n’ roll, motorbikes and the ‘get down boys’ seen at gigs in and around Cleveland – Mitch Ryder, the Jeff Beck Group, the Velvet Underground and David Bowie among the many.

Wrapped up in the Kent State University riots and getting dangerously involved in the local biker and drug scenes, she escaped - to Mexico, Canada, Paris and finally London where she caught the embryonic punk scene just in time not only to witness it first-hand, but more importantly to seize the opportunity to form her own band, the Pretenders.

Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Vivienne & Malcolm, Ray Davies … on every page household names mingle with small town heroes as we shift from bedroom to biker HQ; from squat to practice room; from pub gig to Top Of The Pops – the long and crooked path to stardom, and for the Pretenders, ultimately, tragedy.

That Chrissie Hynde is alive to tell the tale is, by her own admission, something of a miracle. Throughout she is brutally honest, wryly humorous and always highly entertaining. She has written one of the most evocative and colourful music memoirs to be published in recent years.

  • Published: 8 September 2015
  • ISBN: 9781473528307
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 448

About the author

Chrissie Hynde

CHRISSIE HYNDE is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known as the leader of the Pretenders. Hynde released nine studio albums as the Pretenders, beginning with1980’s Pretenders, which Rolling Stone ranked in the top 15 best debut albums of all time. Most recently, she released the album Stockholm, under her own name, in 2014. She lives in London.

Praise for Reckless

Chrissie Hynde’s autobiography Reckless ... out-rocks them all

Washington Post

Chrissie Hynde has just written the rock memoir of the year.

Krissie Murrison, The Sunday Times

Chrissie Hynde has just written the rock memoir of the year

Sunday Times

Chrissie Hynde’s autobiography, Reckless…out-rocks them all.

Washington Post, Washington Post

She writes just like she lives, and just like she makes music. She does it her way, which is an inimitable multiplicity of things: impulsive, untamed, ragged, proud, a little sad around the edges

Daily Beast

Frank, fearless, but also lots of fun

Good Housekeeping, Good Housekeeping

Full of engaging stories, dry wit and revelations

Guardian

Golden...Amazing anecdotes

Jude Rogers, The Observer

She writes beautifully

Mail on Sunday

Hundreds of great moments...Fantastic autobiography.

Danny Baker, BBC Radio 5 Live

Through all of the tragedy and mishaps, Reckless remains first and foremost a love letter to rock ’n’ roll

New York Times

Hynde is a canny writer… Reckless is the tale of a girl who dares to dream.

Fiona Sturgess, Independent on Sunday

Something close to rock’s Joan Didion

New York Times

She's as sharp as a tack and dryly funny...Hynde's memoir is wonderfully written. Hynde is made of music, of the kind of music that pulls you in and eats you up, and she has survived it. She is a remarkable woman...

India Knight, Sunday Times, Culture

Defiant and unexpectedly lyrical memoir

Jane Shilling, Daily Mail

Fascinating

Uncut

Fascinating memoir

Financial Times, Financial Times

Fascinating.

Robert Elms, BBC Radio London

She still writes like an angel on angel dust.

Julie Burchill, The Spectator