Halfway to Paradise: The Life of Billy Fury

“There’s only ever been two English rock’n’roll singers, Johnny Rotten and Billy Fury.” – Ian Dury

If he’d merely stood like a statue on stage, he would have flooded theatres with hormonal longings, but he was incapable of standing still. He pulsed. He writhed. He invalidated the manufacturer’s guarantee on microphone stands. He provoked shock and awe.

From Billy’s troubled childhood in Liverpool, via gold and silver lamé, to his later years as a farming ornithologist and a comeback cut short...