Kathy Etchingham lived with Jimi Hendrix for almost three years in the late '60s when the guitarist's potent, far-out music shook the world. This sincere memoir tells of those times, reaffirming the cult of Hendrix as a hard-living genius with a gruelling weakness for drugs, booze and women. Few new insights are offered, however. Domestic life was near impossible and Hendrix was dogged by dope merchants to whom he could not say no. When he died of an overdose in 1970, Etchingham had already left to marry (unwittingly) an associate of the notorious drug trafficker Howard Marks. Overall, this ghost-written book is weakened by sloppy stereotypes and cliches. The most irritating of these concern Etchingham's Irish family - her father was a Dubliner - some of whom are smelly potato-eaters, while others have serious penchants for either prayer or drink. Very passe. This is a book for ardent Hendrix fans only.
Arthur Beesley