In 1968, the 19 year-old Nick Drake had everything to live for. The product of a loving, creative family and a privileged background, he was not only a handsome and popular Cambridge undergraduate, but also a new signing to the UK's hippest record label, Island. Three years later, however - having made three well-reviewed but low-selling albums - he had been overwhelmed by a mysterious mental illness. Based back in his family home in rural Warwickshire as of 1971, he largely withdrew from life and died in obscurity and despair in 1974. In the decades since he has become the subject of ever-growing fascination and speculation. Combined sales of his records now stand in the millions, his songs are frequently heard on TV and in films, and it is no exaggeration to call him one of the most widely known and best loved singer-songwriters of his generation. Nick Drake: The Authorised Biography will be the only life of Nick to be written with the approval and involvement of his estate. Drawing on copious original research, new interviews with close family friends, schoolfellows and musical contemporaries and collaborators, as well as deeply personal archive material unavailable to previous biographers - including his father's diaries, his Cambridge essays and letters home from school, university and elsewhere - this book is the most comprehensive and authoritative account possible of this beloved figure's short and enigmatic life.

It wasn't just clothes and hair that changed as the 1960s progressed - social awareness crept into youth culture and music ceased to be simply about dancing. A counter-culture gradually emerged, and rock 'n' roll was its defining feature. Pop music broadened beyond the traditional guitar-bass-drum format and started to experiment with new sounds. Musicianship reached unsurpassable levels, and for a brief, glorious time, genuinely experimental music coincided with the popular taste. The explosion of imagination and ambition that characterised the psychedelic movement of the late 1960s stretched the possibilities of the pop song to their limits. Never before or since were so many classic albums made in such a short time. Psychedelia is the most colourful, detailed and authoritative guide to these albums ever published. One hundred of them are evaluated here, using contemporary reviews, rare photographs and interviews, accompanied by a plethora of iconic images and reproductions of cover artwork.