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'Had he not picked up a guitar, and put on the black glasses and porkpie hats, Elvis Costello might easily have been a poet, a Charles Simic or a Paul Muldoon,' New York Times

Elvis Costello, one of the greatest and most influential singer-songwriters, reads his witty, frank and very irreverent take of his 40 years at the top of the music business.

Born Declan Patrick MacManus in London in 1954, Elvis Costello was raised in London and Liverpool, the grandson of a trumpet player on the White Star Line and son of dance-band singer. Costello went into the family business and before he was twenty-four had his first record deal as part of the the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement. His album, 'My Aim Is True', was a huge hit, and with his band, The Attractions, he went on to record some of the most influential albums in the 1980s and 90s. Known for his lyricism, and with a reputation as something of an 'angry young man', he has gone on to become one of he elder statesmen of pop, collaborating with many music legends, including Burt Bacharach, Johnny Cash and Van Morrison. Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and in 2003, Costello and the Attractions were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In this typically idiosyncratic memoir, he charts his often unlikely rise to international success, the experiences that inspired his best-known songs, as well as the absurdities and the darker sides of fame.

Today, Costello returns to the Hammersmith Palais, his father's old stomping ground, and looks back to those heady early days of British punk.

Written and read by Elvis Costello
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.