Louis Armstrong was a character of epic proportions. Raised on the streets of New Orleans, he spent time in reform school and as a pimp before starting to play the cornet in the city's bordellos and nightclubs. A dazzling and groundbreaking musician, composer and singer, he took jazz from its roots in New Orleans to the world and helped create the jazz age.

Married four times, with countless other romantic involvements, a life-long believer in marijuana and an accomplished storyteller and correspondent, Armstrong chronicled his life experiences creating an extraordinary hitherto unexplored archive. These intimate personal records reveal in vivid detail a man of passion and political belief, courage, humour and genius.

LAURENCE BERGREEN is also the author of Capone: the Man and his Era; The Life of Irving Berlin; James Agee: A Life; The Rise of Network Broadcasting.

'It's all there: the proselytising, the marijuana and laxatives, the women, the food, the protective mask and, as far as possible, the face behind it' - GEORGE MELLY, The Sunday Telegraph

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