Be afraid. Hunter S. Thompson - godfather of Gonzo, high priest of excess and supreme chronicler of the American nightmare - takes on the one subject too scary for anyone else to tackle: himself. In Kingdom of Fear, his long-awaited memoir, the Good Doctor looks back over decades of fast living, hard drinking and sharp writing. It is a story of crazed road trips fuelled by bourbon and black acid, of insane judges and giant porcupines, of girls, guns, explosives and, of course, bikes. He also takes on his dissolute youth in Louisville; his adventures in pornography, campaigning for local office in Aspen; and what it's like to accidentally be accused of trying to kill Jack Nicholson . . . And alongside this 'depraved and terrifying adventure', Hunter S. Thompson exposes the darkness at the heart of America today: a time when the 'goofy child President' and the New Dumb have taken control, and the nation thralls to Bush's War on Terror, War on Evil, War on Iraq and even War on Fat . . . a time when the fear and loathing are greater than ever.