by Alexander Masters (Author)
The winner of the Guardian First Book Award that reinvented the biographic form.
One of the ten books - novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography - that make up our Matchbook Classics' series, a stunningly redesigned collection of some of the best loved titles on our backlist.
Stuart: A Life Backwards expanded the possibilities of what a biography could be: the stories it could tell, and how it could tell them. It is about 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 thief, hostage-taker, psycho and street raconteur.
Told backwards - Stuart's idea - it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old stepping out in front of the 11.15 train from London to King's Lynn, and ends with a `happy-go-lucky little boy' of twelve. Compelling, humane and funny, it is as extraordinary and unexpected as the life it describes.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Edition: 1
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 04 Apr 2019
ISBN 10: 0008329729
ISBN 13: 9780008329723
`Unique and wonderful.' Daily Mail
`Possibly the best biography I have ever read.' Mark Haddon
`This is a very rare and haunting book ... A great first book.' Andrew O'Hagan
'Good books like this appear about once every five years. It's been years since I've been so delighted by a book and so surprised by it ... When I'd finished I felt bereft, as if I'd lost an old friend.' Zadie Smith
`Utterly compelling and very funny.' Daily Telegraph
`One of the most remarkable and touching biographies I've ever read.' Minette Marin, Sunday Times
'I feel so strongly about this strange, funny, sad book that I hardly know where to begin ... My enthusiasm feels almost limitless. A page-turner.' Observer
'Funny and original, a startling book ... By the end I was doubled up in tears, but throughout I was often doubled up with laughter. It is dazzling.' Vogue
'A remarkable biography. Unforgettably moving. A gripping read.' Tim Lott, Sunday Times
`A comedy of errors and horrors deftly handled and with a terrifically droll sense of humour.' Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard
'With his first book, Alexander Masters ... has achieved something remarkable. He has, without patronising, given a voice to the underclass ; at the same time, without preaching, he shows us the value of even the most damaged of human lives ... a powerful book, humane, instructive and entirely original. Sunday Telegraph
Alexander Masters lives in London. His second book, `The Genius in My Basement', was published in 2011.
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