The View host Sara Haines reveals the touching note Matthew Perry wrote to her brother to support him through his own alcoholism struggles I���ve talked way to much about these asides but I genuinely found them compelling (again, not because of what they say but just because they’re there at all). Here’s a very good book you would probably […] I was going to say ‘enjoy’ but that’s only half the right word - It is enjoyable - funny in places, just beautifully written in others. But it does start with poverty and intergenerational shame and does also end (nearly) with a vividly described schizophrenic episode. It is the most enjoyable literary encounter I have had with either of those things.

Toy Fights: A Boyhood, by Don Paterson Book review: Toy Fights: A Boyhood, by Don Paterson

What led me to request an arc for a memoir by a poet I've never heard of, I don't know. I just had a feeling it would be worth the read, and it was, mostly. I enjoy memoirs by those close to my own age, as reading about someone else's similar experiences is almost like reminiscing with an old pal. Though Paterson grew up in Scotland, we still have plenty in common, and I really enjoyed the first part of his story as he described his childhood filled with religion, origami, and The Osmonds. I lost interest in the later parts of the book, as the author (who is also a jazz musician) delves quite heavily into music. I love listening to it, but reading about it? Not so much. The violence at your school, though you are funny about it, sounds horrifying. Do you feel scarred by it? You live in Kirriemuir, Angus, with your partner, and have twin sons from a previous relationship. Why does being Scottish matter so much to you? Intentionally or not - it’s also well-timed - Scottish literature at the mo - and realistically for quite a while now - is practically defined by a particular type of story: 70s, council estate, escape, return - whether fiction (Shuggie Bain for instance being a work of fiction marketed as essentially a memoir - which is ethically preferable to the reverse if nothing else), essay (Andrew O’Hagan: LRB), and autobiography (many). Abbey Clancy, 37, enjoys a family day out to Thorpe Park with rarely seen lookalike sister Elle, 26Schizophrenia... narcissists... origami, the peculiar insanity of Dundee, sugar, religious mania...” are included in Don Paterson’s long list of what this book is about. Not surprisingly for a poet who loves music more than poetry – “my minor curse is that I seem to be a bit better at the thing I love a bit less” – the list includes “the sexual excesses of the Scottish club band scene, and... the lengths we go to not to be bored”. Life is sweets! Jamie Laing says building his Candy Kittens brand has brought his boyhood dreams to life - and that making them 100 per cent vegan was a 'no-brainer'

TOY FIGHTS | Kirkus Reviews TOY FIGHTS | Kirkus Reviews

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Toy Fights: A Boyhood by Don Paterson | Goodreads

Great British Bake Off 2023: Sixth contestant to leave is announced after screwing up Technical challenge Matthew Perry is seen dining out with a female friend at the Hotel Bel-Air the day BEFORE he was found dead in his hot tub at home Don Paterson, 59, is one of our most outstanding poets, a winner of the Whitbread poetry prize, the Costa poetry award, all three Forward prizes, the TS Eliot prize (twice), and the Queen’s gold medal for poetry. He is about to publish Toy Fights, a memoir of his life up to the age of 20. The book should carry a warning: anyone wanting a quiet book should read elsewhere – it will make you laugh aloud. It describes growing up on a Dundee council estate, an unruly school life and the beginnings of his obsession with music (Paterson was later a guitarist with the Celtic-influenced, Euro-jazz band Lammas). His gloriously gnarled humour never upstages seriousness, particularly in his account of a psychiatric breakdown as an adolescent, recalled with unself-pitying precision. Olivia Rodrigo is dating British actor Louis Partridge after meeting 'through mutual friends' and hitting it off after a number of nights out in London Coleen Nolan shares an update on her family as she makes a heartbreaking admission: 'I've been feeling so redundant'For obsessives it’s a focus – I could latch on to it to stop my brain from eating itself. I still do it. At the last school council at St Andrews [Paterson is soon to retire as professor of poetry at the university], I found myself folding an alien tortoise. Don Paterson (pictured as a child) was born in 1963, a harsh time in Scotland. In line with Scottish educational policy at the time, discipline was enforced through corporal punishment, officially the threat and practice of beating children insensible Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City: Mary Cosby tells Whitney Rose to 'grow up' and calls her a 'bobblehead' before storming out of restaurant