Loving Amy

Book excerpt: “Amy was one of those rare people who made an impact . . . She was a bundle of emotions, at times adorable and at times unbearable. . . . Amy’s passing did not follow a clear line. It was jumbled, and her life was unfinished—not life’s natural order at all. She left no answers, only questions, and in the years since her death I’ve found myself trying to make sense of the frayed ends of her extraordinary existence.” Arguably the most gifted artist of her generation, Amy Winehouse died tragically young, aged just twenty-seven. With a worldwide fan base and millions of record sales to her name, she should have had the world at her feet. Yet in the years prior to her death, she battled with addiction and was frequently the subject of lurid tabloid headlines. Amy’s mother, Janis, knew her in a way that no one else did. In this warm, poignant, and at times heartbreaking memoir, she tells the full story of the daughter she loved so much. As the world watched the rise of a superstar, then the free fall of an addict to her tragic death, Janis simply saw her Amy: the daughter she’d given birth to, the girl she’d raised and stood by despite her unruly behavior, the girl whose body she was forced to identify two days after her death—and the girl she’s grieved for every day since. Including rare photographs and extracts from Amy’s childhood journals, Loving Amy offers a new and intimate perspective on the life and untimely death of a musical icon.