'[I'm] a tasteful thief. The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.'

 David Bowie, 1976

Was Bowie an aloof and unavailable artist, or a ‘Starman’ who descended to bring good news to the masses and a chameleon? This book presents Bowie as revealed by the testimony of his closest friends and partners, a Bowie with humour, grace and humility and a highly focused Bowie - a borrower of ideas combining disparate ideas from multiple sources creating new visions.

A study of the people from whom Bowie borrowed from is long overdue. Bowie’s own genius is beyond question, but Nick Smart teases out the elements on which Bowie built his success. His profound sense of artifice, his ability to tap into the zeitgeist of his times and his gift for gathering ideas and influences from a variety of sources and rearranging them to produce not only new perspectives but also brand-new ideas made him the artist he became. Having interviewed dozens of David Bowie’s friends and collaborators as joint editor of David Bowie Glamour magazine, Nick finds himself with an enviable perspective about what – and who – made the David Bowie that is celebrated worldwide today.

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