dorling kindersley books

The underwater section of the Iceberg still has to be photographed. We set off.

"We" are the two Richards, myself, Jake, and Tricia, the photographer, a bundle of astonishing self-contained energy. And Bill, still hunched in front of the computer, busily chipping away at the Iceberg. This is pretty much where, occasionally throwing out directions ("Don't forget to photograph that picture of me and Chris Farlowe"), he remains during the shoot, which spreads out over 3 valuable days. This, when he is not on stage with the Rhythm Kings, is obviously where he is most comfortable.

One key objective of the mission, apart from photographing as much of the submerged Iceberg as possible, is to seek Wyman's approval for the revised, re-revised designs for Chapters 1 and 2.

He seems to like them, but I am not completely convinced. A modest man, he is not one to openly criticise. We will get the feedback later, via Richard H.

I give Bill's chatelaine a handful of ponies to keep us in sandwiches, snacks, coffee and tea and whatever. And we are spoilt.

We set up a makeshift studio and start to photograph: instruments, posters (mainly framed) and other larger Stones-related objects. The rest of the Iceberg is scattered in as many trunks as a herd of elephants stuffed with documents (contracts, letters, statements, press clippings), complete bound sets of Melody Maker, NME, Rolling Stone, books, records, stage clothes, tour T-shirts, endless RS merchandising paraphernalia. And none of this stopped when Bill left in the early 1990s, because the rest of the gang still send him stuff.

The team spend the rest of the week transporting, selecting, shooting and cataloguing; a picture framer has been hired to reframe the innumerable posters and ephemera stripped out for the camera. Also on hand is the redoubtable Kingsley.

Ever one to avoid anything too strenuous, I retire to the safety of the office after the first day. The rest of the team are grappling with chapters 3 and 4, while I have to prepare to sell the book to the UK sales team.

I feel I am being thrown to the dogs.