Funny, honest, brilliant and opinionated, A Drink with Shane MacGowan is the highly-acclaimed memoir of a true music icon. 'One of the freshest, most original biographies I've ever read' - Lynne Barber, Observer 'His candour, coupled with an acerbic wit, makes him an ideal guide through an unmistakably colourful life' - Time Out Shane MacGowan was an intensely talented songwriter whose band, The Pogues, merged punk with Irish folk music to create a sound uniquely their own. An anarchic hellraiser with the soul of a poet, he is forever associated with Christmas after the chart-topping success of 'Fairytale of New York', his duet with Kirsty McColl. He grew up on a small farm in Tipperary, won a scholarship to Westminster, was rapidly expelled, became a rent boy, then a central figure of punk and the hugely influential star of The Pogues - until his bandmates got so fed up of his behaviour they kicked him out for a time. MacGowan's music, innovative and powerful, is as distinctive as