Stuart: A Life Backwards

A life lived on the streets of Cambridge

Stuart: A Life Backwards was Alexander Masters' attempt to reveal, in murder-mystery style, what turned his friend Stuart Shorter – who did not live to see the book published – from a happy child into a violent, homeless addict.

Told backwards, from his death towards his childhood, the book asks the question Stuart himself posed: ‘What murdered the boy I was?’ It won the Guardian First Book Award and the Hawthornden Prize. Below are extracts, articles and notes.

Stuart: A Life Backwards

Stuart does not like the manuscript. Two years’ worth of interviews and literary effort to write a biography of this annoying man who now sits squeezed into my armchair, his ugly mug pushed forward in objection. ‘What’s the matter with it?’ ‘It’s bollocks boring.’ Put briefly, hi…

My Friend Psycho, from The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph Stuart: A Life Backwards was an attempt by Alexander Masters to reveal in murder-mystery style what turned his friend – who didn’t live to see it published – from happy child to violent junkie. Here Masters explains how he adapted it for television, and wonder…

Stuart and Gavvy on holiday

Stuart Images Stuart, 3, and Gavvy, 5, on holiday The first decade of Stuart’s life is easy to summarise. He does not remember it. ‘I blew it out.’ ‘“Blew it out”? How can you blow your memory out? It’s a faculty, Stuart, something you’re born with, not a candle.’ <div

Funny days

Funny Days: Aged 15-21 The first time Stuart became homeless he was high on glue, not heroin. Aged 15, full of zing. The streets were not exactly cosy, but they were not friendless either – a sort of home from home – they suited his temperament. He wanted to live. His brain wasn’…

Stuart Shorter

Stuart Shorter ‘Stuart Shorter, thief, hostage taker, psycho and sociopath street raconteur, my spy on how the British chaotic underclass spend their troubled days at the beginning of the 21st century: a man with an important life.’ Chapter 0. <div