Threepenny memoir: The Lives Of A Libertine, By Carl Barât

Perhaps this less infamous ex-Libertine's autobiography is not the one we would really wish to be reading, but it turns out that Carl Barât 's story is inextricably tied up with Pete Doherty's rise and fall.

The pair met while Barât was at Brunel University, at which point the younger Doherty was clean. Not for long. Barât 's story - a well-crafted one which tells of squatting in Camden, contending with first the menial day jobs and then the corrupting effects of fame ("you begin to feel like the centre of the universe") - reveals, through his friendship with Doherty, the Romantic principles on which the band was conceived and the implosions which ultimately led to its demise.