Description


The story of Billy Childish, the most famous artist you have never heard of, by legendary music journalist Ted Kessler.

In 1977, 17-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a 3lb club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again. In doing so, Steven Hamper metamorphosed into Billy Childish, a true renaissance man.

Childish has since remained steadfastly true to punk's DIY cred, becoming one of the most recognisable and authentic voices in whichever artistic endeavour he undertakes. He has released over one hundred and fifty albums of raw rock and roll, punk, blues and folk, written many volumes of searing poetry as well as several autobiographical novels. But what he is perhaps best known for in recent years is his painting, for which he is now critically, commercially and internationally feted. He hasn't changed course in any of his disciplines, though. The world just caught up with the sheer volume of his brutally honest work.

To Ease My Troubled Mind is a mosaic portrait collated over a year of interviews with Childish, as well as with close family, ex-girlfriends, band members past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain's most prolific and uncompromising creative force.

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Ted Kessler

To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish

White Rabbit
Signed and Numbered by Billy Childish and Ted Kessler  7 inch EP, woodcut, book uniquely bound and designed by Billy Childish in a Solander Box designed by Billy Childish Track listing for …
Signed Copy
Limited to 500 copies
Released15/08/2024Catalogue Number9781399624374Customer Limit 1Learn more
Released07/07/2024Catalogue Number9781399615532Customer Limit 1Learn more

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