GETTY
Cool, enigmatic and unknowable: the qualities that made Nico a star could well have been a selfpreservation response to a childhood surrounded by death and destruction, and a way of dealing with an entertainment industry that saw her as nothing more than a pretty face. In this meticulously researched biography of the German model, actor and singer, author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike suggests that this aloofness was the manifestation of shyness, despite a fiery ambition raging beneath the glacial surface. An introductory quote from Marianne Faithful speaks volumes. “What I have in common with Nico is the understanding of her furious frustration at not being recognised.” Even at the height of her fame, she never received the respect her male counterparts enjoyed as a matter of course. This book attempts to rectify this, taking a deep delve into the experiences that shaped her.