Serge Gainsbourg is synonymous with Je T' Aime Moi Non Plus on which he & Jane Birkin simulated the sounds of sexual congress But this 1969 UK no 1 was but a sideshow in an impressive career as a composer novelist film director & actor The first full biography in English Alan Clayson's book reveals the entire sordid story Gainsbourg was an inlikely pop star & an even less likely lover of icons like Birkin Brigitte Bardot & Catherine Deneuve But from humble beginnings he went on to write songs for Dionne Warwick & Sacha Distel A natural at courting controversy his outrages included a scandalous arrangement of La Marseillaise among songs on female masturbation incest Nazism & in 1988 a rapping ode to oral sex He continued to be newsworthy the world over until his body's final rebellion at the age of 61 after a lifetime of violation