Is that It?

Bob Geldof formed Band Aid, orchestrated Live Aid, and is the driving force behind Live 8. He has rallied the forces of rock performers all over the world and inspired millions to raise millions for the starving in Africa. He has met with world leaders and demanded that they change their aid policies. He has travelled in Africa and seen famine first-hand, and he has overseen the disbursement of the millions that Band Aid has raised.

In this vividly honest autobiography, written with wit, candour and characteristic energy, Geldof recounts his extraordinary childhood in Dublin and schooldays that were both horrifying and funny. He describes the origins of New Wave music and the beginnings, triumphs, and eventual eclipse of the Boomtown Rats. He writes of his years with Paula Yates, the formation of Band Aid and its achievements and he writes of his hopes for the future. Widely admired, Bob Geldof is nonetheless ferociously independent and remains the most charismatic and controversial public figure in Britain today.

‘It’s terrific… sheer Geldof, direct, loud-mouthed, honest, button-holing, obscene, compassionate, compelling… Everyone over thirteen should read it’

Hunter Davies, Evening Standard

‘He is funny, frank and often four-lettered - but never boring’

Financial Times

‘Plenty of bright, rebellious, style-setting, charismatic young men have swilled and fornicated, but not many of them have had the urge to kiss the wounded’

Clive James, Observer

‘(It) shows that by a combination of charm, loquaciousness and irrevocable moral certainty, a wayward, catholic, hand-reared boy can shift the world on its axis’

Sunday Times