This is an excellent survey of the work of the English painter Stanley Spencer.It contains work from the early periods of his life that you rarely have an opportunity to see. There is a very in depth and critical veiw into the life of this great artist. The reproductions of the work are almost all in color and of high quality. This is a book that clearly shows that Spencer was that English artist who has been the inspiration of many English artist who followed him. The range of his work is truly exceptional from the religious to the nude studies and portraits of family. This is the Book that is a must to have if you are looking at figurative painting in the 20th century. It is expansive and completely beautiful.

This is a massive work, and some of the parts dealing with the minutiae of English parliamentary ministerial work was heavy-going. But the account of the years after 1930 is full of interest and the two chapters covering the years from 1937 to 1947 are very touching. This book is more defensive of Baldwin than is his authorized biographer, and makes a good case that Baldwin's course in those fateful years from 1933 to 1937 was understandable, tho not prophetic. I felt the way Baldwin was savaged after 1939 was repulsive, especially when one remembers that Labor in those years(1933 to 1937)was calling for disarmament and was rewarded for that extremely short-sighted course by its stunning electoral victory in 1945. I was glad I read this book, albeit it was not the easiest book to read. A momentous and worthwhile book.

That Stanley Booth is one of America's finest profile writers AND a close friend of Keith Richards should have ensured this biography would be a moving, essential read. Instead, it is sloppy and a little sad.
Most disappointing is the fact that a significant chunk of the material seems lifted from Booth's far superior "True Adventures of the Rolling Stones." Admittedly "True Adventures," is great source material, even when cannibalized. Unfortunately, Stones fans must still endure Booth's account of his first meeting with Mick Jagger in which songs such as "Backstreet Girl" and "Connection" are linked to the album "Beggars Banquet" rather than "Between the Buttons."
To be fair, accounts of Keith's childhood and adolescence are enlightening, as are some anecdotes from the '70s and '80s. But this is a book that needed re-thinking, or at least savvy editing. Those who want a fresh, revelatory biography on Keith, or a worthy example of music writing from Booth, will have to look elsewhere.

Stanley Booth bases his capability of writing keith richards' life on the fact that he 'lived in social intercourse with him'. although he manages to create few moments of intimacy, his book is more like a glance on the stones career through richards' eyes, rather than a true biography of keith. if you like to read the story of the stones, you would find Booth's previous book - 'the true adventures of the stones' - more complete. if you are interested in keith's biography, Victor bockris' book ( 'keith richards - the biography') is more focused. most of 'standing in the shadows' is based on conversations with keith. when not recycled, some of the quotes are valuable for those who, like me, find keith richards interesting.

Stanley Booth is overqualified, to say the very least, to write this biography of Keith Richards, the muscle behind the music of the Rolling Stones; having toured with the band in 1969, he chronicled the events leading up to their December, 1969 brush with darkness at Altamont. His focus here is not on the whole band, but on the Keith himself, the Human Riff, "the world's blackest white man" and the creator of such rock classics as "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Happy." This book draws heavily from previously published material - that's a drawback; however, said material is superior in almost every respect to just about anything else you'll find about the place, concerning rock music, American culture, sex, drugs, religion, and politics. Booth, a Southern boy, obviously loves how this Englishman took to his own heart the Mississippi Delta blues of black American musicians, and made it into something...else. Booth is not incapable of being critical towards his subject; he is unsparing in his criticisms of Keith's bull-in-a-china-shop lifestyle, his drug addictions and self-denial concerning his addiction problems, but mostly, this book celebrates the life, music, and adventures of the greatest living symbol of rock's defiant spirit.