Lush were somewhat unusual in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a British guitar band whose lead creative forces were women, leading to some positive attention but also highly negative and, at times, irrational criticism, including bizarre claims their songs were written by their label. Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success’ is the revealing autobiography of Miki Berenyi, former member of British shoegaze band Lush and currently Piroshka. Miki does not sensationalise these elements in the way that some authors might – this is by no means a ‘look at my dreadful childhood’ autobiography – and she takes great care to not pinpoint these occurrences as an excuse for anything she may or may not have done in her later life. I bought a CD of Lush’s greatest hits album Ciao, loved it, devoured their back catalogue and the rest is history.

Berenyi wryly notes that she thoroughly enjoyed the life of rock and roll, drinking too much and engaging in casual hook-ups, which male artists at the time were congratulated for but women were criticised about (often by the exact same commentators). We work closely with publishers and authors to ensure that we offer the best books on the market for your child. A combination of student grants, studying in London and a ridiculously low cost of living (unachievable now in London) gives them weekly access to gigs, and their contacts lead to a job in the industry for Anderson.They were far from an overnight success and once again the author gives the reader, who may have a rose-tinted view of how things work in showbiz, a blunt depiction of the hard edges of the music industry. Fingers Crossed provides a salutary corrective to a much mythologised musical era; it's often extremely funny.

The band were fizzling when their sharp, wry drummer Chris Acland, to whom Berenyi was particularly close, suddenly took his own life in 1996, a denouement that still knocks the wind out of you even though you know it’s coming. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki's own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between 'safe' indie obscurity and 'sell-out' international success. Eventually, the topic of bands raises its crimson-dyed head and we are introduced to Emma Anderson, Steve Rippon and Chris Acland who, along with Miki, make up Lush.There’s an amazing authenticity to having the story told by the author and certain of the phraseology sounds so right in Miki’s voice and accent. Berenyi saves much of her ire for the Britpop era, which saw an explosion of pent-up misogyny and attempts to exploit young women under the guise of empowerment, and women in the business were taken advantage of. Still, there is that invigorating and sparkling energy that one would unmistakably associate with a lover of music and life.

Photograph: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images View image in fullscreen ‘Their gauzy music felt like being cocooned in bejewelled spiderwebs’: Miki Berenyi, second right, with Lush in October 1994. In a way, I admired her, because so many musicians plug away at the music business even after it has become intolerable and the results can be tragic. Miki’s mother, in case you weren’t already aware, is Yasuko Nagazumi, who appeared in the Bond movie You Only Live Twice (with Miki in utero) and the second series of Space: 1999, among others.

It’s impossible for us, on the outside, to understand the feelings that Miki must have about Nora when looking back for this memoir, but she does a very good job of letting us feel just a little bit of what she feels. The relationship between Berenyi and Anderson is the most interesting in the book, as the two women have somewhat different personalities which sometimes clash but also a unified interest in making the best and most interesting music possible, sometimes joining forces to overrule producers, managers and promo people who believe otherwise. Formed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. While denying her interest in music biographies, Berenyi names a few that popped up in her mind during the long pandemic days of writing.