There is something obviously tragic and unfair, yet also undeniably uncanny, about the plethora of deaths of treasured musicians at a young age, more spookily specifically at 27 years old. Some will say it is inevitable when you consider the fast-drinking, high-living, burning-the-candle-at-both-ends lifestyles that these people take up, but surely there is more to it than that? Whatever the causes, this timely book includes entries on a range of artists who famously died at 27, but many others who died at other points in their teens, twenties and early thirties – at the height, or just before the achievement, of their creative potential. It is pointless to pine for the music that could have been, and best to celebrate