STUART: A Life Backwards

Told backwards - Stuart's idea - the novel starts with a deeply troubled 32 year old stepping out in front of the 11.15 train from London to King's Lynn, and ends up with a 'happy-go-lucky' little boy of 12. Compelling, humane and funny, it is as extraordinary and unexpected as the life it describes. 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. An unforgettably moving prize winning novel, 294pp, illus. and in the collectable 4th Estate Matchbook Classics wraparound paperback edition.