Book review: Prince, By Matt Thorne

Clad in (what else?) a purple jacket, Thorne's updated epic of scholarly fandom boasts just the kind of passionate excess that has marked the 35-year top-flight musical career of Prince Rogers Nelson.

From Dirty Mind through to 20Ten and beyond, Thorne traces, dissects and usually acclaims every incarnation of the shape-shifter. Yes, he will tire out unbelievers.

But beyond the close analysis, Thorne also explains how Prince has ridden every wave of technological and stylistic change. So his stormy progress through the music biz becomes a history of its transformation.