Will Hodginson. Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence.

I have been raving about this since it was published in early 2024. It is an exquisite, melancholy, wry and gentle investigation into the life and times of Lawrence, a musician who wants to as big as, say, Coldplay, but never quite makes it despite his absolute commitment to the cause.

It doesn’t matter if you have never heard of Lawrence; in fact, that’s almost the point. This is an investigation into a genuine and deeply eccentric enigma, and it is as funny as it is sad, as uplifting as it is infuriating.

You couldn’t make it up. Luckily for us, Will Hodgkinson doesn’t have to.

Winner of the 2025 Penderyn Music Book Prize. (I don’t know what that is, but it is richly deserved, nonetheless).