"Each chapter feels like an entirely separate found impression or document, without explanation or context, some funny, some strange, some moving. And with the absence of an overt conventional narrative, not so much a "what if?" - which is what I was expecting - as rather, fragments from imagined interior archives. I've never read anything like it. Well, outside the world of continental or South American postmodernism, anyway.  Of course, my sense of it being fragmentary may largely be the result of my general ignorance of the detail of Syd's life, work, and social background, sorry. I think I spotted the Nick allusions, though, or some of them at least. Of course, there is a structure to it, I don't" 

Ken Garner  

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"What a remarkably moving book. Rob Chapman has such a wonderfully engaging style of writing that draws one in to the story of Syd Barrett and Nick Drake from the very first paragraph. It should be depressing, but it’s not. The quality of prose and the deep passion that the author has for his characters guarantee that. " 

Oliver Dowson

   

"I found Unsung a very moving book that is drawn from a deep understanding of the subject matter and the times. The book also reminds me of Peter Ackroyd's English Music, or the Limehouse Golem, or VS Naipaul's Guerrillas, novelistic fictions that take real events and speculate on alternatives or parallel histories in a moving and sympathetic way. I highly recommend it."

Richard James Foster  

 

"One of the best books I have read recently. You don't have to be a fan of either Syd Barrett or Nick Drake to enjoy this brilliantly imagined novel. You don't even need to know anything about the strange days of the early-to-mid 70s to appreciate just how impressively Rob captures the spirit of those times."

Andy Lewis

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"Their voices - and the voices are captured perfectly, both in cadence and vocabulary - echo in the air long after you step back into your own space. Their outer and inner landscapes are carefully, lovingly painted. No detail is overlooked. I kept forgetting I was reading fiction, because it blended so seamlessly with what I already knew about both artists and the places and times they inhabited. Or thought I knew."

Effie

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"Anyone drawn to Syd Barrett and Nick Drake will find much to delight them here. Little clues, playful nods to other realities. Two mythical princes crossing and uncrossing paths. Imaginary meetings of remarkable men. Beautifully-written, insightful and very, very moving. The final chapter stayed in my mind all day, long after closing the book. It's plainly evident that the author enjoyed writing this; there are amusing passages of psychedelic wordplay that at times evoked Brian Aldiss (dare I even say Joyce? I dare!). The final chapter is beautifully written and moving. Although true events are fictionalised, the delivery is believable and the sense of loss evoked is real."

Richard Errington

  

"Midway through the novel, the narrative follows Syd up to the attic at his parents’ home. There, among the rummage, he catches a fleeting glimpse of “a vanity set locked forever because someone lost the little pink key and no one could bring themselves to force it open.” Rob Chapman does not force it open either. He brings it into focus in such a way that it encapsulates “all the stuff that migrates upwards to a darkened loft space, cast off but never cast out because everything retains its sentimental resonance and its shared memories.” You don’t need to open it. Open the book instead."  

Jean-Grégoire Royer

  

"It is important to understand how mental health issues, particularly in young men, were largely brushed under the carpet back in 1974. Syd Barrett is synonymous with mental health problems, but Nick Drake's issues are less recognised outside of his most ardent fanbase. This book very accurately depicts two young men actively skirting around the subject with each other, yet both sending out distress signals at every turn. Please don't be precious about what's fact and what's fiction. Enjoy the book for what it is, a deeply moving and beautifully written piece that quite obviously comes from the author's heart."

Nick

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"Rob is undoubtedly one of our foremost experts on the life and work of Roger (Syd) Barrett, having written the definitive biography, and it would seem he is equally at home with Nick Drake as here he crafts a remarkable narrative which entwines, contrasts and parallels the lives of the two in an utterly convincing way. For those of us well versed in the lives of the two men, the whole thing feels utterly convincing, even though much is clearly a fiction (hard to tell which bits most of the time) - but perhaps there is a better “truth” to be gained from this approach - certainly in the case of Drake - than in the drier approach of the numerous biographies about him. The ending, though expected, is no less moving even though we know it’s coming, and is poignantly and sensitively delivered. In short, this guy writes brilliantly, and creates living, breathing beautifully drawn portraits of two very different, yet similar doomed figures. Why a publisher didn’t pick this up surprises me."

Chris H