Fascinating... Hamilton's book deserves to be read, particularly by those who think they've read it all before. In future, all searches for the blues must start here

Provocatively entertaining...Assiduously researched and beautifully written, what this book reminds us is that the blues has always meant something quite different to white audiences than to black ones

Iconoclastic... Marybeth Hamilton proves herself a fine and sensitive detective... It shakes the foundation myth of so much music that followed, as well as explaining a great deal about what it is to be a record collector, itself a dying calling in the age of the iPod

An important and often beautifully written piece of historical revisionism

Hamilton has a keen, unforgiving eye...an eloquent book about people making the forgotten important

Hamilton's outstanding book profiles the folklorists and collectors who shaped the concept of Delta blues... A plausible and provocative book. And it has transformed my view of the blues

Hamilton tells such a good story that she turns a work of scholarship into a page-turner

Hamilton has done a good job of researching a subject that blues fans will find fascinating

Evocative and engaging

Clapton's book is a candid, almost confessional look back on a starry life. This is a compelling, down-to-earth document of the man behind the guitar-hero mask.

Clapton reveals all in this unflinching confessional.

A powerfully honest and very moving insight into the life of a rock legend

Clapton bares his soul. Fascinating. It's an absorbing read, like you've been granted access to a mind finally coming to terms with itself.

Difficult to put down

Clapton provides an orderly account of life in which all other considerations are secondary to the frequently selfish needs of The Artist'

Gold-plated tales of sex, drink, drugs and fame and moments of musical incandescence.

A warm portrait

A harrowing and searingly honest book about the unreal rock star life.

Clapton lays bare his life story in this witty but also painfully honest autobiography. Compelling and accomplished.

A painfully honest insider's account of an age all too often portrayed as one long party

A glorious rock history.

This book does what many rock historians couldn't: It debunks the legend...puts a lie to the glamour of what it means to be a rock star.

Strong stuff. Clapton reveals its author's journey to self-acceptance and manhood. Anyone who cares about the man and his music will want to take the trip with him.

Clapton is honest...even searing and often witty, with a hard-won survivor's humor...an honorable badge of a book.

Riveting

An even, unblinking sensibility defines the author's voice.

An unsparing self-portrait.

Both the youthful excesses and the current calm state are narrated with an engaging tone that nudges Clapton's story ahead of other rock'n'roll memoirs.

Clapton is a confessional, an addiction memoir, and a glorious rock history rolled into one, with a smidgeon of guilt and, ultimately redemption thrown in for good measure.

Clapton fills in many gray areas, recounting his highs and lows with a thoughtfulness often lacking rock memoirs.Methodically he whittles away at the larger-than-life rock god until a vulnerable, messed-up mortal emerges...Clapton is an absorbing tale of artistry, decadence and redemption.It's also an important reminder of the guitarist's imprint on rock music, as a sideman, solo artist and bandleader.Not bad for a blues snob from Surrey.

Clapton: The Autobiography does what many rock historians couldn't: It debunks the legend, de-mythologizes one of the most mythologized electric guitarists ever, puts a lie to the glamour of what is means to be a rock star...It's a cautionary tale that spills over into tragedy several times as love, lives and talents are all wasted.

Like the bluesmen who inspired him, Clapton has his share of scars...his compelling memoir is... a soulful performance.

Charming and surprisingly candid.

Absolutely brilliant