Life with David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars

From the stylist behind David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust look, an electrifying peek behind the curtains during a legendary chapter of pop culture history.

Suzi Ronson was working in a Beckenham hair salon in the early seventies when Mrs Jones came in for her weekly shampoo and set. After being introduced to her son David and his wife Angie, Suzi finds herself at the Bowies’ bohemian apartment and is soon embroiled in their raucous world.

Having crafted his iconic Ziggy Stardust hairstyle, Suzi becomes the only working woman in David’s touring party and joins the Spiders from Mars as they perform around the globe. Amid the costume blunders, parties and groupies she meets her husband-to-be, Mick Ronson, and together they traverse the absurdities of life in show business, falling in with the likes of Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan and Lou Reed along the way.

Dazzling and intimate, Me and Mr Jones provides not only a unique perspective on one of the most beguiling stars of our time but also a world on the cusp of cultural transformation, charting the highs and lows of life as one of the only women in the room as it happened.

Guest speakers:

Suzi Ronson is an author, songwriter, and former hairdresser and stylist. Her memoir, Me and Mr Jones, prompted the novelist Hanif Kureishi to declare that “few can offer such insight, and tell this fascinating story with such verve.”

Travis Elborough has been described by The Guardian as “one of the country’s finest pop culture historians.” He's the author of many books, including Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, and The Atlas of Vanishing Places, which won the Edward Stanford Travel Book Award in 2020.