Tony Parsons
From Tarry Stool to Teenage Icon
Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean
By Donald Spoto
HarperCollins 275pp £18 order from our bookshop
When the biggest American rock star of the Nineties, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, removed the top of his head with a shotgun, his mother commented that her boy had ‘joined the stupid club’ – meaning the crowded fraternity of star-crossed young celebrities who died before their time.
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