Raised by his grandmother in Tennessee, Gil Scott-Heron's journey from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most uncompromising and influential songwriters of his generation is a remarkable one. In this, his heartfelt, beautifully written and posthumously published memoir, we are given bright insights into the music industry, New York, the civil-rights movement, modern America, governmental hypocrisy, Stevie Wonder and our wider place in the world. It is also a fitting testament to the generous brilliance of Gil Scott-Heron and to the Spirits that guided him.

The Nigger Factory is a scornful statement on the way in which human beings are conditioned to think. On the campus of Sutton University, Virginia, the students are trying to carry forth the message of reconstruction to a university resistant to change. The failure of the Sutton to embrace the changing attitudes of the Sixties has necessitated extreme action and the revolution is nigh.

First published in 1970 and digging the rhythms of the street, where the biggest deal life has to offer is getting high, THE VULTURE is a hip and fast-moving thriller. It relates the strange story of the murder of a teenage boy called John Lee - telling it in the words of four men who knew him when he was just another kid working after school, hanging out, waiting for something to happen. Just who did kill John Lee and why?

Now And Then is not merely a collection of a songwriter's lyrics; the song-poems of this undisputed 'bluesologist' triumphantly stand on their own, evoking the rhythm and urgency which have distinguished Gil Scott-Heron's career. This collection of poems carries the reader from the global topics of political hypocrisy and the dangers posed by capitalist culture to painfully personal themes and the realities of everyday life. His message is black, political, historically accurate, urgent, uncompromising and mature and as relevant now as ever.