Eric Clapton's autobiography: The Living in the shadow of a missing mother

The dedication in Eric Clapton's autobiography is to what you might imagine were all the most important women in his life: his grandmother Rose, his wife Melia and his children Ruth, Julie, Ella and Sophie. Missing is his mother. He clears his throat of discomfort when I point that out.

The book is in fact all about his mother, or the lack of her, and his attempts to replace her with other women.

Extracts of the long-awaited book, Eric Clapton: The Autobiography, were published in The Sunday Times yesterday. They also shed light on Clapton's battle with his parentage, heroin addiction and alcoholism.