Stuart: A Life Backwards

by Alexander Masters (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $4.18

  `Stuart does not like the manuscript. He's after a bestseller, like what Tom Clancy writes . But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs, I point out. You are an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath, I do not add.'

  This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer (`a middle-class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander'), and Stuart Shorter, a homeless, knife-wielding thief. Told backwards - Stuart's idea - it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old and ends with a `happy-go-lucky little boy' of twelve. This brilliant biography, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, presents a humbling portrait of homeless life, and is as extraordinary and unexpected as the man it describes.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.20

  This is a highly original and captivating memoir which has captured the hearts of readers everywhere. Stuart, A Life Backwards , is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator ('a middle class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander) and a chaotic, knife-wielding beggar whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison. Interwoven into this, is Stuart's confession: the story of his life, told backwards. With humour, compassion (and exasperation) Masters slowly works back through post-office heists, prison riots and the exact day Stuart discovered violence, to unfold the reasons why he changed from a happy-go-lucky little boy into a polydrug-addicted-alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality, with a fondness for what he called 'little strips of silver' (knives to you and me). Funny, despairing, brilliantly written and full of surprises: this is the most original and moving biography of recent years.