Clothes, clothes, clothes, music, music, music, boys, boys, boys

This book is the Sunday Times Music Book of the Year.

It is the Rough Trade Book of the Year. And it is also the Mojo Book of the year. Let others who were there tell their versions if they want to.

This is mine. In 1970, Viv Albertine knew she wanted to be in a band, but had never seen a woman play electric guitar.

Seven years later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all - female punk band, the Slits.

This is the story of how, through sheer will, talent and fearlessness, she forced herself on to a male - dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music. Everything is here, unvarnished and unwashed: art school, squatting, hanging out in Sex with Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, spending a day chained to Sid Vicious, on tour with The Clash, and being part of a brilliant, pioneering group of women making musical history.

The result is a raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers, and a candid account of what happened post-punk, taking in a career in film, IVF, illness, divorce - and making music again, twenty-five years later.

This is a truly remarkable memoir, told in Viv's frank, irreverent and distinctive voice. Utterly shocking, very funny and ruthlessly honest, it is the story of a life lived unscripted, told from the heart.