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Sick Of Being Me, the new novel from the author of The Guy's Who Wrote Them - Sean Egan.

"Sean Egan tells a dark and dirty tale about the world of rock and roll: the sleazy, desperate bottom of the Rockpile where the people who don't 'make it' live."

Few rock 'n' roll novels are as dead-on in their realism and few writers are able to describe both drugs and rock with such vivid and compelling language. Where High Fidelity and About A Boy were light and fluffy, Egan's Sick Of Being Me is dark but honest, though it never loses sight of its pure rock 'n' roll heart." - Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain.

Sick Of Being Me is the story of guitarist Paul Hazelwood who, on the cusp of his thirties, is beginning to come to the agonising realisation that talent doesn't necessarily bring success.

London

After a curtain-raiser that reveals his misery as he grapples with the fact of the failure of his musical career and his not-unrelated addiction to heroin, we follow the course of his life from his childhood on a London council estate through the multitudinous musical ventures that he sees as the only way out of his dreary background and through the exhilarating ups and the unusually harrowing downs of his personal life. Back in the present, a traumatic incident caused by his heroin addiction makes Paul ponder on whether the desire for stardom is, like the craving for smack, an addiction that he has to wean himself off.

Vulnerable, truthful, moving and beautiful, Sick Of Being Me is one of the great coming-of-age tales of our time

The Author

Sean Egan has written for, amongst other outlets, Sky Sports, Billboard.com, Rolling Stone.com, Billboard, Classic Rock, Goldmine, Record Collector, Serve And Volley, Tennis World, Uncut and Vox magazines.

He is the author of The Guys Who Wrote Them, Star Sail: The Verve (Omnibus), Animal Tracks: The Story Of The Animals - Newcastle's Rising Sons (Helter Skelter), Not Necessarily Stoned But Beautiful: The Making Of Are You Experienced (US title: Jimi Hendrix And The Making Of Are You Experienced) (Unanimous/A Capella) and the forthcoming Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes - The Story Of The Creation (Cherry Red).

Sick Of Being Me is his first novel. Its manuscript has garnered some extraordinary endorsements from an array of well-known authors and musicians including Charles R. Cross, Richie Unterberger, Gary Valentine (ex Blondie) and Frank Allen (The Searchers).

"Sean Egan's new novel is a brutal but poignant journey into the raw underside of rock 'n' roll. Egan writes with such an authenticity that his characters seem real: They are cut straight from the pages of NME or a sordid chapter in VH1's 'Behind the Music' strand.

"When you put down the book you half expect to find a Coronets CD at your local shop. Few rock 'n' roll novels are as dead-on in their realism and few writers are able to describe both drugs and rock with such vivid and compelling language. This book reads like a cautionary tale: it should be required reading for anyone starting a band, or toying with a life of drugs, for that matter. Where High Fidelity and About a Boy were light and fluffy, Egan's Sick Of Being Me is dark but honest, though it never loses sight of its pure rock 'n' roll heart." - Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography Of Kurt Cobain.

"Sean Egan tells a dark and dirty tale about the world of rock and roll: the sleazy, desperate bottom of the Rockpile where the people who don't 'make it' live. The central character Paul finds he has a natural ability as guitarist but he doesn't get the breaks. Given a chaotic upbringing by his dysfunctional, penniless parents, his ambition to make it as a musician too soon brings him into contact with hard drugs. He quickly becomes addicted to heroin, a smack habit which creates a battleground of his need to score and his need to play." - John Steel, The Animals.

"Very convincing and authentic both in its depiction of the music scene and the drug scene. The chapters involving the drug dealer genuinely disturbed me: though the book is set in the '90s, he reminded me of several characters I met back in London in the '60s, the time of the Kray twins and many others like them. A very talented writer." - Vic Briggs, former guitarist with Brian Auger's Trinity, Dusty Springfield and Eric Burdon & The Animals.

"Sean Egan writes with warmth, humour and gut-wrenching honesty about the gritty, real-life roots of the rock and roll life. From the innocence of the Beatles to the junk-infested squalor of a tragic wanna-be, he tells a moving story that will click with anyone who has stood in front of a mirror playing air guitar." - Gary Valentine, former bassist and songwriter with Blondie and author of New York Rocker: My Life In The Blank Generation.

"If these pages are the script of Sean Egan`s passage to manhood he has endured more of the seamier side of life than one should ever be asked to. If it is fiction then he is the possessor of a marvellously vivid imagination which will serve him well as a writer in the years to come. Its gritty realism holds the reader firmly in its thrall with powerfully descriptive paragraphs that trace a boys`s rites of passage through the post-Beatle years in which a drug fuelled music scene takes its heavy toll. Gripping stuff." - Frank Allen, The Searchers and Author Of Travelling Man: On The Road With The Searchers

Harrowing

"A harrowing look at the face of the rock 'n' roll dream you don't read about in standard bios - the insecurities, self-doubt and abuse that both fuel pop star aspirations and lead many of its followers into destitute self-destruction. Told with wry unflinching detail and gallows humour, it's not just the drama of rock 'n' roll...but also of failure; the harsh odds stacked against talented and critically acclaimed musicians even making a living at the business; and the fragility of the close bonds that bring bands together in the first place. For Egan's anti-hero, the demons that drive him to find his salvation in rock 'n' roll are the same ones that lead him into the gutter.

"It might take place in the world of rock 'n' roll and junkies but in his protagonist's struggle to balance his impulses, we recognize more universal battles waged by all of us." - Richie Unterberger, author of Unknown Legends Of Rock 'N' Roll, Turn! Turn! Turn! and Eight Miles High.

Sick Of Being Me by Sean Egan is available now, from Askill Publishing.

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