Jazz legend, cultural icon, alternately dubbed Lady Day and ‘angel of Harlem’, Billie Holiday’s well-documented drug use and abusive relationships have clouded her story on a personal rather than musical level, and biographical accounts often depict her as a victim. Sixty-five years after her death, Paul Alexander’s Bitter Crop should help to set the record straight.

Taking its title from the lyrics to Strange Fruit – Abel Meeropal’s anti-lynching protest song, made famous by Holiday – Alexander digs deep into archives as well as interviewing a cast of many. Insight into the racial injustice and social backdrop of the era results, while Bitter Crop’s pacing and structure has novel-like qualities. It begins in 1959, the final year of Holiday’s life, as she gets ready for a show in her dressing room at the Flamingo Lounge in Massachusetts; though New York was her turf (she’d been the first African-American woman to sing onstage at the Metropolitan Opera House), due to a 1947 narcotics conviction authorities in the state blocked her from performing in licenced venues.

Despite this obstacle, and ailing health, Holiday never gave up, ploughing ahead with performances and musical ambitions until an untimely death aged 44. Bitter Crop is a compassionate and authoritative reading experience, that connects a great artist’s final months with her past – in this account, she shines bright as a rebellious survivor and accomplished thriver.