To drink his Vitamin Water, for instance, he unscrews the cap with his teeth or with his short arms, balances the bottle with his bottom nubs while regripping with his arms, tilts the liquid into his throat and moves on to his next destination with the bottle in his mouth.

The book covers in detail lead singer Dave Gahan's near-fatal heroin addiction and his painful recovery.

Do you flipping think I'm stupid?

This half-embrace of failure, as Coward suggests, is something the British like to think of as distinctly British.