Born to a working-class couple in North Harrow, London, Barry Harden admittedly entered the world with significantly less enthusiasm than was present at his conception. Left to his own devices at an alarmingly young age, with no guidebook for the scenic route or the pitfalls, he navigated a treacherous path fraught with a series of escapades-ranging from thrilling to downright hair-raising-that became his crash course on survival.

During the youth-driven cultural revolution of the sixties, he found release in smoky jazz clubs, the beat counterculture, and a pencil stub that helped him channel his inner demons onto scraps of paper and pub serviettes. Somehow, he survived.