David Brun-Lambert shows how Simone saw herself as a lifelong victim of racism, right from being turned down by the prestigious music school that would have enabled her to become a classical musician. Undiagnosed bipolar disorder, he argues, added to her torment. But it was her unforgettable voice, and, at best, her utterly magnetic performances, that kept people coming to a sold-out Ronnie Scott’s every time she was in residency, and the way she sang her hardest songs like “Mississippi Goddam”with such fire and fury that they became anthems of political change, and means so many people can only be curious about the real life of the mecurial woman behind the piano.