Pipe Dreams

From working with The Beatles to designing album covers for The Who, Cream and Elton John and producing the bestselling children's books The Butterfly Ball and The Peacock Party, Alan Aldridge's creative career has been defined by diversity and originality. But before embarking on a life in art, Aldridge's London upbringing in the early 1960s brought him into contact with gritty East End gang culture. In Pipe Dreams, Aldridge revisits his early years and reveals a life very different from the later glamour of his rock and pop associations and artistic success. Threatened and coerced by a London gang leader, his first trip abroad results in his arrest by the French authorities and incarceration in Paris' notorious Santé prison facing a one-year sentence. Beset by fleas and the constant threat of violence, he is made to work in the appalling conditions of the prison kitchen under the watchful eye of a brutish, alcohol-soaked chef. His only respite is the camaraderie of his cell- mates and painting for the prison doctor. As befits the Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, only one person can tell what is true and what is imagined in this blending of fact and fiction - and he's not letting on.

COVER: Paperback

CONDITION: Pre-Loved

TYPE OF BOOK: Teen Fiction

SUB-TYPE: Fantasy

ISBN: 9781909964068

LANGUAGE: English

SUGGESTED AGE LEVEL: Young Teen

AUTHOR'S NAME: Alan Aldridge

NO OF PAGES: 266

PUBLISHER NAME: Published July 25th 2014 by Spellbinding Media (first published October 1st 2002)