The London that David Bowie was born into on January 8, 1947 still bore the scars of World War II. This was a landscape pockmarked by bombsites, the detritus of destruction and inhabited by a shell-shocked population living with rationing, austerity and making do.
Then again, nothing was conventional about him right from the start. Born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London to Haywood ‘John’ Jones – a PR executive for the children’s charity Barnardo’s – and cinema usherette Margaret ‘Peggy’ Burns, the future Starman was eight months old before his parents married. Both had children from previous relationships and his father had had showbiz ambitions of his own when he tried to launch his previous wife, Hilda, as a singer. His efforts came to naught.
By all accounts, Bowie’s early years were far from straightforward. In 1996, he told the BBC’s Alan Yentob: “It wasn’t a particularly happy childhood. My parents were cold emotionally and there weren’t many hugs. I always craved affection because of that.”
Despite a 10-year age difference, Bowie was close to his older half-brother, Terry Burns, who would prove to be a huge influence on his life as well as trying to protect him from the schizophrenia on
