Buzzin': The Nine Lives of a Happy Monday

At the height of his initial infamy around the turn of the 1990s, as the maraca-wielding dancer with 'Madchester' giants Happy Mondays, the pop-eyed Mark Berry, forever known to the world as Bez, was visibly a danger to society. He became the so-called Chemical Generation's bug-eyed pied piper, every weekend leading millions out to oblivion and beyond, as they adopted his E-gobbling party lifestyle. Neither an accomplished musician nor even a particularly good dancer, Bez seemed a prime candidate for fleeting celebrity, soon destined to sink into 'Where Are They Now?' obscurity.

That, however, never happened, nor does it show any sign of happening. Through Black Grape, the second band he co-fronted with the Mondays' Shaun Ryder, and his ever-presence in the mass media, Bez's popularity has grown exponentially, his star rocketing ever upwards. When he entered *Celebrity Big Brother* in 2005, he ended up winning the series, as viewers came to understand his fundamental decency and sunny outlook.

His adult life has been extraordinary: unbelievable scrapes with mortality, periods of financial ruin, mind-bending moments like when David Bowie genuflected before him, and enough narcotic-strewn high jinks to fill several more volumes of memoir. This is the story of a 'bad lad' who has turned his life good, tracing his passage from early-thirty-something casualty to middle-aged politician, eco-warrior, and bee aficionado.