Nick Johnstone - Amy Amy Amy

A my Winehouse was invited to participate in this telling of her story but did not reply, making this an unauthorised account of her career and life to date. Interviews were also requested with Darcus Beese, Raye Cosbert, Nick Godwin and Nick Shymansky, all of whom also declined or did not reply. I would therefore like to thank those who did agree to be interviewed and the many who offered help with research or volunteered information or detail.

S tep out of Southgates celebrated circular London Underground station and you step out of a time warp. Its brickwork is stained with pollution and years of commuters charging in and out on the pulse of the rush hour. You note a florist, a dry cleaner, an Indian restaurant. You note a blue plastic display bin containing copies of the free weekly newspaper, The Jewish News. This is north London, the heart of Jewish London. At the newsagent at the entrance/exit to the station, The Jewish Chronicle is sold out. You stand and look at the station. Its a monument, a beautiful London landmark. Designed by Charles Holden, it opened in 1933 and bore all the Art Deco/Streamline Moderne touches of the time. The station has a sci-fi look to it, like a spaceship from an episode of The Twilight Zone. Today, on account of its supreme architectural merits, its a Grade II-listed building.

The only fast thing in Southgate is the pace of the traffic passing through. The soundtrack is of agitated drivers over-riding clutches and brakes. Bearing left and walking up Chase Side, you take in the distinctive retail landscape of the typical suburban British high street, gathered here collectively under the umbrella of Southgate

Shopping Centre, London Borough of Enfield. An off-licence, a tapas bar, a Wimpy restaurant, a sandwich bar, a Nat West bank, a charity shop, a gift cards shop, a cheap clothes outlet, a restaurant advertising itself as offering Italian/Indian cuisine, a Barclays bank, a Costcutters supermarket, the ubiquitous McDonalds restaurant, an opticians, a kebab shop, a Chinese medicine practice, a florist, a betting shop, a dental practice and so on.

Outside convenience shops, pyramid stacks of avocadoes, papaya, oranges, apples, tomatoes, onions. Inside, shelves heaving with chocolate bars, brands of chewing gum; refrigerated cabinets packed tight with chilled soft drinks. On the magazine stands, the days national newspapers, this weeks local papers, magazines of all kinds, covering all manner of subjects. The date is Tuesday, 12 August, 2007, and all the papers are leading with one story, and its the story of a Southgate girl turned celebrity. Shes on the brink of international stardom and now officially a serious star at home, as much for her calamitous lifestyle as her music. That local girl is, of course, Amy Winehouse, who grew up here in Southgate.

Southgate was originally the South Gate of the Kings hunting grounds, Enfield Chase. Becoming independent from Edmonton in 1881, the suburb started to come into its own when nearby Palmers Green station opened, leading to a population boom. Then, in 1933, when the North Circular Road was completed, it ran through Southgate, connecting the emerging north London suburb to central London. The same year, as the Piccadilly Line pushed ever further outwards, Southgate underground station opened. These developments led to a housing boom, which mostly saw the construction of endless semi-detached houses.

Carrying on up Chase Side, the suburban sprawl continues as you pass estate agents, faded office blocks, Southgate Police Station, a bakery, a post office, the Southgate Club Ltd (members only), a shop selling only products that cost one pound, several pubs, a charity shop with a well-thumbed biography of Princess Diana displayed prominently in the window, a BP petrol station and finally, just off the high street, a large Asda supermarket. Walking further up the hill, there are two houses with the official England Football Team poster in their windows. A wreck of a car is dumped on a grass verge, flat tyres. A bus stop is splashed with graffiti. Two cars in quick succession drive by bombing the neighbourhood with hip-hop.

It was here that Amy Winehouse grew up. Her father Mitchell, then 34, better known as Mitch Winehouse, was a double-glazing salesman. Her mother Janis, 28, a pharmacy technician, had put herself through an Open University science degree and would later go on to study at the London School of Pharmacy. The couple lived in a small two-bedroom flat at the time of Amys birth, and subsequently moved to a typical Southgate Thirties semi-detached house. Amy was not their first child. They already had a son, Alex, who was born four years earlier, in 1979, when Mitch was 31 and Janis 25.

Their only daughter, Amy Jade Winehouse, was born at Chase Farm hospital in Enfield on September 14, 1983. According to data from 2006, the hospital sees over 500,000 patients per year. A district general hospital, it is located in north Enfield on The Ridgeway. Some of the hospitals buildings hark back to the 19th century, with others having been added since. For instance, in the Seventies, ahead of Amys birth, a purpose-built building was erected, which thereafter and still today houses the childrens services and maternity departments.

Speaking to The Daily Mail in 2007, Janis said of Amy as a child, She was a beautiful child always busy, always curious. She was always very cheery but she was also shy. Shes never been an easy child.

She also mentioned how Amy, even as a child, got into her fair share of scrapes. As a toddler in her pram she once nearly choked on Cellophane. Another time she went missing in the park. Shes tough, like me I see that as my gift to her.

When Amy was four, she began attending Osidge Primary School in the borough of Barnet. The school, today a two-form entry, grant-maintained primary, is located at Chase Side, Southgate. Children start at the school, in reception class, during the academic year, September to August, in which their fifth birthday falls, and remain at the school until the age of 11, when they transfer to state-funded secondary schools or private schools. Classes number up to 30 children. The school, heavily oversubscribed, with a waiting list from the age of three, has children of many religions and offers a multi-faith approach to Religious Education. The school also has a strong focus on music education. According to a 2006 inspection report, it had 419 pupils of mixed gender. Many pupils graduate from Osidge Primary School at the age of 11 and move around the corner to continue their studies at Ashmole Secondary School on Cecil Road, also in Southgate.

It was at Osidge that Amy met and became close friends with fellow singer/songwriter Juliette Ashby, as Amy later told The Observer in 2007: We met at Osidge when we were about four. One of my first memories is that wed play this game where Juliette was Pepsi and I was Shirley, the backing girls for Wham! I think we clicked because we were both a bit off-key. Ashby told The Observer how the two of them were always getting into trouble: I used to egg Amy on a bit more because she was more fearless. One of our best routines was that one of us would run out of the classroom in tears, and the other would say that theyd have to go out and comfort her. And then wed just sit in a room somewhere, laughing for the rest of the lesson.

Ashby also told The Observer what it was like to be friends with Amy: Amy was always keeping her friends on their toes. I made her a friendship brooch once and she threw it in the sandpit.

For Amy the friendship also had its usual ups and downs: She was the one with the upper hand. Juliette always had strawberry shoelaces in her bag, and you knew you were flavour of the day if she offered you one.