But you can't put an old head in young shoulders and many inevitably had to learn their lesson the hard way too. In 2005, Doherty became prominent in tabloids, the news media, and pop culture blogs because of his romantic relationship with model Kate Moss and his frequently-publicised drug addictions. He comes across as an intelligent person, but someone who has carried the monkey of addiction on his back for so long.

And I think with Doherty, it really was - on some level - a conscious choice to choose that path, court oblivion and invite the devil into his life. Doherty made eye contact with a homeless man standing back from the crowd, watching, and a silent understanding passed between them. It felt like a very literal recount of Pete's life, with a rather flat style, that didn't really convey the wonderful poetry of Pete's lyrics and outstanding songwriting. But I saw heroin ruin the lives of so many people - many of whom you'd never have expected to get mixed up in such things.

Pete Doherty is perhaps best remembered as the drug-addled frontman of seminal British indie-rock band, The Libertines. I’m fairly certain now those photos of Kate in the studio were actually taken by two Bangladeshi crack dealers.

Photograph: Pete Doherty View image in fullscreen ‘Enduring urge for fame’: The Libertines’ Pete Doherty, left, and Carl Barât in 2014. As the singer notes in the foreword, he’d been clean of drugs for more than a year when they began the process and he’s a lucid, honest presence, admitting at one stage part of him had wanted to be “the most fucked-up person in the world”. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Doherty also reflects on the turbulent relationships with various significant people in his life across the years.

Richards also took into seriously his responsibility somehow to those who are dead and were influenced by his use of drugs. But getting to learn about Doherty's very normal love of antique hunting, collecting military memorabilia, enjoying walks on the beach with his dogs, and having a lifelong love of "Hancock's Half Hour" all helped to round out the very two-dimensional caricature of him that was always portrayed in the media. Doherty comes across as a loveable rogue at heart, who just made the mistake of staring too deeply into the void for too long, only for the void to then hold him in its death-grip for nearly two decades.

Born into a military family, Doherty spent much of his youth moving from place to place across Europe. But these strange little references in certain books I picked up intrigued me, especially to opium, which was described in a luxurious sense, associated with a sensation of peace and accomplishment and a mystical, magical land.On tour in Japan – when he realised how addicted to heroin he was – he says everyone else was “reining it in a bit, and I was really reining it out, if that’s an expression”. Doherty has since joked that the publishers have “taken all the good bits out” – after the lawyers of ex-girlfriend Kate Moss and former Libertines co-frontman Carl Barât had a good look at it. The latter is perhaps the most apt, but it lacks the reflective quality I look for in a memoir; much of the book feels like standard biographical information that one could find on Wikipedia. Carl was never really that into it, but sometimes I’d persuade him to busk, and we’d do ‘Twist and Shout’ on repeat.