"Like a lot of my most recent reads, I found a copy of this in my local Underground station book swap/donation area. It's a very moving and insightful, disturbing and sometimes humorous account of Ben coming to terms with a rare illness, a massive change to his life, and the seemingly unending search for clarity about his condition, and an improvement in his health. It is gripping from the first page, and barely touches on his music career, focusing much more on family and his experiences with the NHS. I’ve not read anything else quite like it."

"This may be about the same time, sort of, in my life. It was The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, General Billy Mitchell, for maybe disobeying the orders of just how he should approach sinking Navy ships. The reason that that has a significance to me is that my father’s first assignment in the Air Corps was as an aide to Billy Mitchell in the Philippines, and that’s where he met my mother, my father met my mother. It’s told to me by the family that not only did Jimmy Doolittle bounce me on his knee, but Billy Mitchell did too."

"I would say five would probably have to go The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg’s film, which obviously deals with racism but also deals with a lot of human emotions. Everything from abuse, controlling husbands, abusive parents to family life. Just so much emotion. The music is incredible — Quincy Jones did an incredible job on the soundtrack. The vocalists on the soundtrack were staggering. And the performances by Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, I mean just some of the best performances ever put on screen. Eloquently and beautifully directed by Steven Spielberg — I think, actually, his best work."