Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey

Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey, by Ed Sheeran and Phillip Butah. 

With words by Ed Sheeran and illustrations by his childhood friend, artist Phillip Butah (who produces artwork for Sheeran's albums and singles), and accompanying photos, Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey is an exclusive, fully authorised, first-person account by Ed of how he became an internationally renowned singer-songwriter.

In the book, Ed explores his early musical experiences and influences as well as his time recording and touring, right up to the release of his second album, 'x'. The book reveals what drives and inspires Ed as he continues to evolve as an artist, while coping with stratospheric success, and is an honest account of what it takes to make it in the music business.

With Phillip Butah's distinctive portraits of Ed throughout, this is a unique book celebrating a unique musician. It includes Ed's recollections of working tirelessly on the London gig circuit and self-releasing EPs, working hard on finding his sound, signing to Asylum Records and recording his huge hit album, '+', performing at the Grammys, touring with Taylor Swift and sell-out headline gigs at Madison Square Garden. It takes us up to Ed as a musician today, including recording his new album, 'x'

I don't usually read autobiography type books, but this was Ed Sheeran's so of course I was going to read it! I was given this by a friend as an early birthday present, and I loved it! This book was a lot bigger than I thought it was, and it looked a little bit daunting, but as I had a quick flick through the pages I realized that there were quite a lot of pictures, beautiful pictures at that! I should have expected this from the title of the book, but I'm not always the smartest person. 

Something that has always put me off reading books about people's life is the pointless stories that they feel they need to tell to gain a bit of sympathy, or the constant name dropping. However I didn't find any of that in this, of course Ed spoke of the obstacles in his life, but they always seemed to be told in an upbeat and positive which only made me respect him more. This book was pretty informative and it did really show you the journey he's been on to get to where he is now and the hard work he's put in to get things in life. 

It's fair to say that I probably am being biased towards this book because it's about Ed, and I am slightly in love with him. But honestly this is a good autobiography and the artwork is incredible. I think the books costs £18.99 which is really quite expensive considering that the book isn't particularly word heavy, but I loved it none the less and I'm sure that any fan of Ed will too.