Bøker av Alex James

I was the Fool-king of Soho and the number-one slag in the Groucho Club, the second drunkest member of the world's drunkest band. This was no disaster, though. It was a dream coming true.'For Alex James, music had always been a door to a more eventful life. But as bass player of Blur - one of the most successful British bands of all time - his journey was more exciting and extreme than he could ever have predicted. In Bit of a Blur he chronicles his journey from a slug-infested flat in Camberwell to a world of screaming fans and private jets - and his eventual search to find meaning and happiness (and, perhaps most importantly, the perfect cheese), in an increasingly surreal world.

There is nothing that can touch the sound made by a close-knit group of people who have been playing together for years and years and years, playing as though their lives depended on it. For many years, all our lives did, and actually, I'd suddenly realised, they did still.One winter's night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn't spoken to - or even shouted at - each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run.This is the story of what happened next. Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex describes how the band made a surprise - and emotional - return, recording an acclaimed album and playing sold-out shows around the world, from Colchester to Colombia and beyond. Plus: how he went on a crash diet to fit back into his 'Britpop Trousers,' somehow organised an entire festival of his own, and tried to perfect the recipe for a giant Frazzle. Over the Rainbow is a heartfelt and hilarious account of what it feels like to be catapulted back into the limelight with one of the world's biggest bands. It is a love letter to Blur, to friendship and to music. And it shows us all that, however old - or hungover - we might feel, nothing's ever truly over: it's always just the start of the next thing.

In a dystopian future shattered by a Second American Civil War, a breed of powerful psychics – the hypers – begin to emerge. But when the fascist global government commands they be hunted to extinction by the evil Bureau 88, the survivors take to the streets, living off their wits, maintaining a low profile, and keeping the use of their powers to a minimum…But something else is emerging from the shadows – something that feeds off the flesh of those in despair… and the misery created by the fascist elite. It’s called The Fear, and only the hypers can fight it… because only the hypers possess The Wrath.Reduced now to a rag tag collection of reckless young loners – the most cunning, powerful and determined of the hypers have been unknowingly corralled into one lonely city at the bottom of the world… but can they live long enough to accept an offer they can’t refuse – to unite and make a stand? Or will they each die alone in the dark, hunted by the Bureau – and consumed by The Fear?

This is the story of Alex James's transition from a leading light of the Britpop movement in the 1990s, to gentleman farmer, artisan cheese-maker and father of five.All Cheeses Great and Small is the follow-up memoir to Alex James's first book, Bit of a Blur, the story of his excessive pop star lifestyle during the nineties. But now Alex has grown up, fallen in love and got married. He has also fallen passionately for his new home, an enormous rambling farmhouse in the Cotswolds, set in two hundred acres of beautiful British countryside.The farm represents not just a new house for Alex, but also a new career. As he breathes new life into the old farm he chances across an unexpected calling: making cheese. His cheeses, Blue Monday, Farleigh Wallop and Little Wallop have received widespread media interest and are now sold through many outlets.The story culminates with an account of the triumphant reformation of Blur for Glastonbury 2009.