Stuart

This is a major new launch for the paperback edition of the most original, captivating and award-winning memoir of the year. "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 ca...

This is a major new launch for the paperback edition of the most original, captivating and award-winning memoir of the year. "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.

亚历山大•马斯特斯（Alexander Masters, 1965— ），英国传记作家，现居英国剑桥，曾在一家流浪汉收容所工作过。《倒带人生》（2005）是其处女作，该书荣获《卫报》“第一书奖”，并被英国广播公司（BBC）制作成电影，由汤姆•哈迪和本尼迪克特•康伯巴奇饰演剧中角色。他的第二部书《我地下室里的天才》（2011）是关于住在他所住公寓地下室里的一位天才数学家西蒙•菲利浦斯•诺顿的生平。