Author Christopher Sandford will read from his book, The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years, at a gathering beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 6 in the Seaside Public Librarys community room.

The author of biographies of Kurt Cobain, Steve McQueen, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and Roman Polanski, Sandford s latest work on the Rolling Stones tells about the human drama at the center of the bands story.

In 1962, Mick Jagger was a bright, well-scrubbed boy, planning a career in civil service, while Keith Richards was learning how to smoke and to swivel a guitar. Add the mercurial Brian Jones, who had been run out of school for theft and playing blues guitar, and the wryly Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, and the potential was obvious.

During the 1960s and 70s, the Stones were admired in some quarters for their flamboyance, creativity and salacious lifestyles, and reviled elsewhere for the same reasons. Although most never expected them to reach 30, they are now approaching their 70s, and in 2012, they marked 50 years of being together as a band.

Sandford interviewed those close to the group; family members, including Micks parents; and the Stones contemporaries. He even examined previously unreleased FBI files.

Sandford has worked as a film critic and music writer for over 20 years and frequently contributes to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone Magazine has called him the pre-eminent author in his field today. Sandford divides his time between Seattle and London.

The Seaside Library is at 1131 Broadway. For more information call (503)738-6742 or visit www.seasidelibrary.org