Review: Bastardography by Simon Jay

I'm not usually a fan of autobiographies. It takes skill to write something as personal as that without producing either self-aggrandising tripe or sensationalist misery memoirs. But once in a while one comes along that stops you dead in your tracks. And this is one of them.
I plowed through it in less than a day; I was hooked from page 1.

Obviously I would be somewhat biased. Some of you may remember Simon as a bookseller in our shop in the second half of 2012. A fine bookseller indeed he was, but the talent doesn't end there. He's been a writer and actor since childhood, always thinking up tales, plays, always performing - and doing it well. As long as I have known him - which is nigh 9 years now - he has been frantically, feverishly producing, creating, making things, a productivity that I envied much, compared to my own sluggish endeavours, but took equal inspiration from. Last year he took his Donald Trump satire show Trumpageddon to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it sold out continuously through its month-long run, with reviews featured in the Scotsman and Guardian. Not too shabby, eh?

What I only gradually became aware of over the years (and only fully so after reading his book) was that his frenzied productivity served a bigger purpose than just being a creative outlet. Many creative people will tell you that it's a way of exorcising their demons - for Simon it literally became a lifesaver. 

Considering that Simon Jay has lived through incredibly dark and painful moments and struggled with serious mental distress, this book could have easily become self-indulgent – a “Not with the scissors, Daddy” type of book, as he describes it.
Instead, it is a candid, intelligent, self-deprecating (in a good way) and at the same time darkly hilarious account of his struggle with depression, anxiety and Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, exacerbated by realising early on that he is gay while growing up in an entirely homophobic, bullying environment. It makes a harrowing read more often than not, but then he’ll throw in a bizarrely funny or wry comment or description that will reduce you to mad (and not entirely guilt-free) cackles, which reminded me much of the writing of Caitlin Moran, Jeanette Winterson and Augusten Burroughs.

"Bastardography" is not just a heartbreaking meditation on the experience of mental illness but also an acerbic commentary on society’s prevailing homophobic attitudes, dished out mindlessly without a thought for the psychological damage it causes. At the same time it is liberating and downright inspiring to see how Simon relentlessly fought his illness by channelling it creatively – into writing, acting, theatre and any tool possible – and finally found, and continues to find redemption through it. 

It reads as if Quentin Crisp had written “Girl, Interrupted”, roughed up by Shane Meadows’ grit, and pitch black surreal humour massaged into the scrapes. 

I've known Simon for years, but his book opened up a whole new level of him. I knew of things that happened, but not the extent of it, and reading it left me shaken, devastated, but with a new level of admiration for him. You don't need to know him personally to adore this book - his wit, his quirky and at times even surreal charm, his strength and warmth and honesty will win you over. "Bastardography" has, to me, been a balm, an acknowledgement and encouragement, and helped me to accept and continue to deal with my own mental illness, rather than being consumed by it,  in a constructive way. 

With bookish love,

Patty

Simon in 2012 at a book event in our store. 

Simon as Donald Trump at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016

Our dear friend, former bookseller and now actor and writer Simon Jay, permitted us to post his review of the brilliant Straight Jacket on our blog.


"Matthew Todd's book had been on the periphery of my mind since it's publication earlier in the year. I'd wanted to read it as soon as it came out, but something stopped me. I was afraid of opening its pages and confirming what I already knew about myself: that is the huge amount of baggage that is thrust upon a gay child. Todd gives names to that baggage, 'shame' and 'trauma'. It's obvious, even though I was born in 1987, that society's sneering and ignorant attitude towards being different was so palpable. It brought a whole condition of being back to me, especially those feelings of body image, inadequacy and loneliness. I haven't had any personal experience of the drug and alcohol addictions or living with HIV which is described in the book. BUT reading about it has taught me so much about members of my gay brotherhood that I only feel more compassion, more understanding, more love and most of all more RESPECT for them, that to do battle both internally and externally everyday deserves support and our humanity. I feel educated by this book, which lays out not only the patterns of self-destructive behaviour of a new generation, but also sound ideas to build a stronger, healthier and more cohesive community. Todd's book is a call to arms to love ourselves (and each other) for who we are and tto make the world a better place. I thank him for this timely book and advise everyone to read it!!"


Simon Jay can currently be seen in his 5 star Donald Trump satire Trumpageddon at King's Head Theatre in London.

Book Launch of Thomas Brown's Featherbones

One of the greater pleasures of running a bookshop is to receive the honour of hosting a book launch. It doesn't happen very often, which makes the times when it does happen all the sweeter. 
    Launching a book is a little bit like the baptism of a baby. I wouldn't call it a birth - it would take away from the labour of love, pain, frustration, elation, white heat frenzy followed by staring helplessly at a blank screen, unable to form a single sentence, until suddenly that sentence is ready to be born and bursts out of you, and this happens about a million times where you take all these images and moments and scenes and weave them into a tapestry of narration, in which the aim is to never let the reader see your technique but to create the illusion of an alternate reality so seamlessly that characters become alive and sceneries burst with a life of their own. 

Most writers can quite possibly relate to that type of birth - it can take months, even years. But all the pains will be forgotten as soon as you hold your baby in your arms. Letting go of a book is often like letting your kid go out into the world, perhaps never completely happy or comfortable with it, but there it goes. 

Hosting a book launch is like having a party: to welcome the kid, to celebrate the efforts of its parent, to appreciate the beauty of the finished work and marvel at the complexity of its creation. 

So we at Waterstones Witney are delighted to invite everyone to the baptism of Featherbones, the wonderful brain child of Witney author Thomas Brown.

Please join us on Saturday, 13th February, from 1-3 pm, for a reading, a Q&A session, signing and general merriment with snacks, cake and drinks.

If you ever wanted to chat to an author about writing, his inspiration and his way to getting published, now is the opportunity. 
Plus, a party at a bookshop? Come on! It doesn't get better than this! 

Some of you may remember the launch of Mr Brown's first book Lynnwood, back in June 2013, which was a wonderful experience for everyone involved. Mr Brown's dark tale of the primal appetites of a small New Forest village was since shortlisted for the People's Book Prize.

His second novel again deals with the darker side of the human soul. It is an intricately woven tale of a young man's slow mental unravelling as he tries to come to terms with not just a traumatic incident in his childhood, but the very nature of his being. At times, the story is hard to take, as the bleakness and loneliness of the protagonist infiltrates your heart like a cold fog - unlike in other tales, his struggle is not romanticised or sentimentalised, despite the stunning beauty of the prose. 
Leaving the reader defenseless in Felix's increasingly unhinged mind, it begins to blur the lines between nightmare and waking, between reality and delusion, employing all the senses... all the while Felix's ordinary life continues.
Featherbones, with it's mythological elements and intense symbolism mixed into a bleak reality, reminded me much of Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls or Stephen King's Rose Madder - but just as if Susan Hill or Angela Carter had written it. 

We do hope you'll be able to join us. 

Lots of love, 

Patty 

Thoughts on Selznick's The Marvels

Our former bookseller Lewi, poet, writer and aficionado of all things art and Victorian, posted an interesting comment on Facebook about Brian Selznick's beautiful book The Marvels - nutritious  food for thought:

"I go to bed tonight a little saddened. I have just finished reading the most beautiful book, recommended to me by my even more beautiful friend Patty, which is 'The Marvels' by Brian Selznick. It is a tale of two halves where 60% or so consists of hand-drawn scenes which tell one story (and reminded me of a visual representation of a Sigur Ros song), while the rest is dedicated to the written word, which frames the first story in another incredibly delicate, plot-twisting, happy-and-sad-at-the-same-time theme which rounds everything off so sweetly. Without giving too much away, there are a gay man and a gender-fluid girl in the story (who just so happen to be gay and non-binary without having the story revolve around those aspects), which, considering the book is primarily aimed at teenagers, I think it is an absolutely incredible way of showing diversity and a 21st century attitude to "different" types of people with whom we share this planet, no? 

However, upon looking to amazon to see what others thought of it, I was upset and, to be honest, quite angry about how many adults consider the aforementioned themes as, and I quote, "controversial", "not suitable for a young audience" and "requiring parental involvement". 
I'm sorry, but what? How on earth can the account of a fictional man expressing his love for another man, and a girl who does not wish to necessarily be represented as such, be considered as "not suitable" and "controversial"?! How else will teenagers, especially those who are struggling with gender and sexuality identity issues, empathise with others, real or not, who are or have gone through the same thing? How else will they learn tolerance for homosexuality and so forth, if this is being attempted to be taken away from them by fully grown adults - a lot of those reviews were from teachers too! What is it going to take to make people realise that it is okay to have gay and gender-fluid characters in books and for it not to affect the storytelling and the plot and so forth? 

I don't know if it is because of the friends I have or how I was raised or my liberal, mostly left-wing views but I see absolutely no problem with any of it in the slightest, and people suggesting that others do not buy this book for their children because of those "issues" (yet they are quick to say how good Selznick's other books are, which contain heterosexual, gender-conforming characters) are purely adding to the problem by creating a stigma around two already very sensitive issues. I thought this was 2015, not 1815. Many, many people are becoming more open-minded, I know, and I think that is fantastic, and I know those reviews are just electronic words on an electronic screen but they have dampened my spirits and shed a perhaps unwanted light on the fact that we still have a long way to go in the name of social equality."