Sting and I

'A fat book from the fat ex-grammar school boy. Ex-bookie, ex-bon vivant and man-aboot-the-toon, who has lightened my life with his humour and tales of woe for more years than any self-respecting pop star should sensibly admit to.' - Sting. Jim Berryman knew Sting more than two decades before he was 'An Englishman in New York', when he was just Gordon Sumner, a boy for whom the idea of joining the Police would have meant nothing more that becoming a law-enforcer. In the early 1960s, Sting and Jim were fellow reluctant schoolboys just starting at St Cuthbert's in Newcastle. Both had a cynical sense of humour and a shared sense of bewilderment at the incomprehensible antics of their Catholic teachers which was to last until the day they left the institution and their lives took radically different paths. As Sting became enormously successful, his friend began to realise that the blunt, well-grounded fellow-shirker he used to know still lurked under the popular public perception of the crusading superstar. Now Jim reveals, for the first time, the roots of Sting's incredible climb to international fame and fortune. It's a story that's intertwined with Jim's own struggle to make his way and, however tough the fight became, it's one he relates with humour, irreverence and unfailing good spirit. Jim is the only person to write about Sting with the perspective of a personal friendship which stretches back more than 40 years. Sharing his hopes, dreams and fears as well as getting into trouble together and playing pranks, Jim shows a side to Sting that has never been seen before, one which will be a complete revelation to his millions of fans around the world.

James Berryman is 48, single and lives in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where he was born and raised. Educated at St Cuthbert's Grammar School, where he first met Sting, he has had many jobs, including being a bookie and entrepreneur.