Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman was born in South London in 1936. He joined The Rolling Stones in 1962 and played bass for the band for 31 years. Although best known for his music, Bill has pursued many other interests since leaving the stones in 1993. Bill is an avid archivist, collector, photographer, author, and has kept diaries since a young age. He also has a great interest in history and archeology, and has carried out extensive research on the London neighbourhood of Chelsea, where he has lived and worked for much of his life. Bill is the published author of thirteen books.

Bill’s latest release (October 2023) is his illustrated childhood memoir 'Billy in the Wars', where he recalls his experiences as a young boy growing up in wartime Britain. Bill brings history to life through the personal lens of his childhood memories, where grim anecdotes of war are punctuated by moving moments of childhood innocence and joy.

Three-year-old William George Perks (now Bill Wyman) was living with his parents and brother in working-class Sydenham, South London, when war broke out. Over the coming years he experienced endless terrifying hours spent in air-raid shelters, the constant droning of doodlebugs overhead, a near miss with a German fighter-bomber, and evacuations from London to new rural adventures.

Out of a backdrop of constant fear and hunger, Bill learned the importance of persistence, courage and resilience; values that ultimately led him out of his neighbourhood and on to a vast and exciting future.