Poly Styrene was a singer-songwriter, an artist, a free-thinker, a post-modern design pioneer and a long-lasting spiritual seeker: a real punk icon. However this rebel queen with the cheeky smile was also a latter-day pop artist with a wickedly perceptive gift for satirising the world around her – her brightly coloured, spirited visual sharply at odds with the stark monochrome design and nihilism of punk. Here, for the very first time, the vibrant jigsaw of Poly s inspiring and typically moving story has been adoringly pieced together by her daughter, singer-songwriter Celeste Bell, and writer/artist Zoë Howe (author of the acclaimed Common Ladies? The Story Of The Slits, amongst numerous others). From maturing mixed-race in Brixton in the 1960 s, to being at the forefront of the emerging punk scene with X-Ray Spex in the 1970 s, to finding faith with the Hare Krishna movement, to stabilizing single motherhood with a solo music career and typically debilitating psychological health problems, the book truthfully and honestly checks out Poly s remarkable life, up until her unforeseen death in2011 Based on interviews with those who knew and liked Poly whether personally or through music, this narrative history book consists of statements from Vivienne Westwood, Don Letts, Glen Matlock, Jonathan Ross, Neneh Cherry, The Slits Tessa Pollitt, Thurston Moore, Jon Savage, and lots of others. Greatly highlighted throughout consisting of individual photos, leaflets from the punk scene and hand-drawn artwork and lyrics for X-Ray Spex and beyond the book beautifully records Poly Styrene s creative and personal tradition, reminding us that if anyone had the power to turn our worlds dayglo, it was her.
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