Jean Jacques Burnel: Strangler in the Light

'Strangler In the Light': conversations with Anthony Boile – English Version (2023) Hardcover first-edition of the new English translation of JJ Burnel’s first official biography.

Bassist, composer and singer of The Stranglers, Jean-Jacques Burnel has been the figurehead of a ship that has sailed the stormy seas of rock and punk since 1974.

For the first time in print, JJ tells his story over a year of interviews grouped in twelve thematic chapters that illuminates every facet of his rich personality and relives how during his life, this ‘French Brit’ or ‘very British Frenchman’ has tried to overcome that identity crisis.

Influential bass playing hero, free-thinker, Shidokan Karate 7th dan black belt, idealistic “Euroman”, reader of Mishima and Plato and producer of Taxi Girl and Polyphonic Size.

Keen on history, mythology and geopolitics, in these pages the Man in Black combines his cerebral and romantic views with his fiery and provocative qualities.

Born in 1980 in Senlis, France, the book’s original author Anthony Boile is a graduate in art history and works for the French Ministry of Culture.

He has notably worked on Kat Onoma, the Velvet Underground and Leonard Cohen, through articles, interviews or musical conferences.

He directed the collective work Éloge du transport, about Rodolphe Burger (Watermarks, 2016) and wrote The Stranglers, Black and White (Density, 2020).

Translated into English (2023) from the original French language version (2022).