Prince: The Man and His Music

The newest, most updated book on Prince available today

Famously reticent and perennially controversial, Prince was one of the few music superstars who remained, largely, an enigma--even up to his premature death on April 21, 2016. A fixture of the pop canon, Prince is widely held to be the greatest musician of his generation and will undoubtedly remain an inspiring and singular talent.

This meticulously researched biography is the most comprehensive work on Prince yet published. Unlike other Prince books, this one eschews speculation into the artist's highly guarded private life and instead focuses deep and sustained attention exactly where it should be: on his work. Acclaimed British novelist and critic Matt Thorne draws on years of research and dozens of interviews with Prince's intimate associates (many of whom have never spoken on record before) to examine every phase of the musician's 35-year career, including nearly every song--released and unreleased--that Prince has recorded. Originally released in the UK in 2012, this first US publication of Prince includes updated content detailing the artist's two 2014 albums, tour, 2015 Tidal release, and other career events.

This astonishingly rich, almost encyclopedic biography is a must-have for any serious fan of Prince.

Matt Thorne was born in Bristol in 1974 and educated at Cambridge University and the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of six novels, including Eight Minutes Idle, which won an Encore Award and was recently adapted into a film, and Cherry, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. He is also the author of three children’s books and the 39 Castles series, as well as the coeditor of the anthologies All Hail the New Puritans and Croatian Nights. He runs the MA in Creative Writing program at Brunel University in London and is a regular reviewer of literature, film, music, and TV for UK radio and newspapers.