Boy on Fire by Mark Mordue review – Nick Cave's pre-fame years

This thorough portrait of the artist as an adolescent uncovers the passions and environmental factors that shaped the rock great's singular style

At 63, the singer-songwriter Nick Cave cuts an urbane, almost sanctified figure. Currently based in Brighton, this erudite career artist's recurring preoccupation, since the 2015 death of Arthur, one of his teenage sons, has been transmuting profound grief into beauty.

For many decades, though, Cave fronted a series of bands whose confrontational performances dealt in threat, derangement and deeply corporeal concerns. In his 20s, he was a goth poster boy, a heroin addict whose musings on toxic masculinity and God, outlaws and perdition fuelled a succession of swaggering bands and a lasting myth.