White Rabbit scoops The Jesus and Mary Chain book 

Lee Brackstone, publisher at White Rabbit, has acquired world rights in all languages for Never Understood: The Story of the Jesus and Mary Chain, by William and Jim Reid with Ben Thompson. 

“For five years after they’d swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents’ East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister”, the publisher teased. “They knew they couldn’t play in the same band because they’d argue too much, so they’d describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realised that these two perfect bands were actually the same band, and the name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.” 

It continued: “More than 40 years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands for the very first time – a funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.” 

Brothers William and Jim Reid are founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Thompson is a critic, ghostwriter and radio host. 

Jim Reid said: “It’s got plenty of warts, we can assure you of that. In fact, it might be all warts.”

Publisher Brackstone added: “The working title for this book was ‘Never Understand’ – a great Mary Chain song everyone knows from 1984 – but as the writing process drew towards its conclusion, William suggested changing the title to ‘Never Understood’ – a great lesser known Mary Chain track from 1998; that switch is a perfect representation of the way this book blurs the line between the present and the distant and recent past, while illuminating hidden vistas of this band’s psychic hinterland. When I commissioned this book I was hopeful with the guiding hand of Ben Thompson we might end up with a classic. What we have ended up with exceeds even my wildest hopes and expectations: not merely a classic, but one of the greatest music memoirs I have ever published.” 

Never Understood will be published by White Rabbit on 15th August 2024 in hardback, trade paperback, e-book and audiobook digital download, alongside a White Rabbit special edition and a vinyl audiobook.