John Peel had a pioneering radio career that spanned almost forty years, in which he championed left-field sounds from Captain Beefheart to Siouxsie and the Banshees. When he died suddenly at the age of sixty-five in October 2004, millions mourned the loss of this quirky, influential figure. This highly successful biography by Michael Heatley, now in paperback, traces Peel's fascinating life from boyhood and adolescence to his early counter-culture days on pirate radio, and charts his lengthy maverick career at Radio One up to his later years where he found a new audience on Radio Four's popular Saturday morning show, Home Truths.