Mercury is the star of Dawson’s show

Freddie & Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody. By Mike Dawson, Random House, €19

In November 1991,one day after publicly disclosing that he had Aids, Freddie Mercury died. As Queen followers around the world mourned, Mike Dawson, a young Queen fanatic, became so upset in class that he had to go to the school nurse.

‘‘Someone died,” he explained to her, sobbing. ‘‘But it’s so stupid. I didn’t even know him.”

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