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Will Self

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Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Self is currently Professor of Modern Thought at Brunel University London, where he teaches psychogeography.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His 2002 novel Dorian, an Imitation was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and his 2012 novel Umbrella was shortlisted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque and fantastical, and is predominantly set within his home city of London. His writing often explores mental illness, drug abuse and psychiatry.

Self is a regular contributor to publications including The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times and the London Review of Books. He has been a columnist for the Observer, The Times, the New Statesman, the Evening Standard and The New European. His columns for Building Design on the built environment, and for the Independent Magazine on the psychology of place brought him to prominence as a thinker concerned with the politics of urbanism.

Self has also been a regular contributor to British television, initially as a guest on comic panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. In 2002, Self replaced Mark Lamarr on the BBC comedy panel show Shooting Stars<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="The Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> for two series, but was himself replaced by comedian Jack Dee when the programme returned in 2008.<ref name="The Guardian"/> He has since appeared on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time. Self is a contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to which he contributes radio essays delivered in his familiar "lugubrious tones".<ref name="theguardian.com">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2013, Self took part in discussions about becoming the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence,<ref name="theguardian.com"/> but later withdrew.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life

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Self was born in Charing Cross Hospital<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb.<ref name=autogenerated3>Template:Cite news</ref> His parents were Peter John Otter Self, Professor of Public Administration at the London School of Economics, and Elaine Rosenbloom, from Queens, New York, who worked as a publisher's assistant.<ref>M. Hunter Hayes Understanding Will Self, p.7</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Hayes2007">Template:Cite book</ref> His paternal grandfather was Sir Albert Henry Self. Self spent a year living in Ithaca in upstate New York.<ref name=autogenerated3 />

Self's parents separated when he was nine, and divorced when he was 18.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the intellectual encouragement given by his parents, he was an emotionally confused and self-destructive child, harming himself with cigarette ends and knives before beginning to use drugs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Self was a voracious reader from a young age. When he was 10, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto3">Template:Cite web</ref> Into his teenage years, Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", which stifled his ability to express himself. Self's use of drugs increased in step with his prolific reading. He started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, progressing by way of amphetamines, cocaine and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18.<ref name="autogenerated2">Template:Cite journal</ref> Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref>

Self attended University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead.<ref>Have I Got News For You?, Series 13 episode 1</ref> He later attended Christ's College, Finchley, from where he went to Exeter College, Oxford, reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics and graduated with a third class degree.<ref name="autogenerated2" /> At Oxford, he was editor of and frequent contributor to an underground left-wing student newspaper called Red Herring/Oxford Strumpet, copies of which are archived in the Bodleian Library.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

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File:Willselfauthor.jpg
Self at a 2002 book signing

After graduating from Oxford, Self worked for the Greater London Council, including as a road sweeper, while residing in Brixton.<ref name="you_ask_the_questions">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He pursued a career as a cartoonist for the New Statesman and other publications and as a stand-up comedian.<ref name="you_ask_the_questions" /> He moved to Gloucester Road around 1985. In 1986 he entered a treatment centre in Weston-super-Mare, where he claimed that his heroin addiction was cured.<ref name="autogenerated2" /> In 1989, "through a series of accidents", he "blagged" his way into running a small publishing company.<ref name="theparisreview.org">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The publication of his short story collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity brought him to public attention in 1991. Self was hailed as an original new talent by Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Beryl Bainbridge, A. S. Byatt and Bill Buford.<ref name=autogenerated2 /> In 1993, he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 "Best Young British Novelists".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Conversely, Self's second book, My Idea of Fun, was "mauled" by the critics.<ref>No 242: Will Self The Guardian (1959–2003) London 16 September 1993: A3.</ref>

Self joined the Observer as a columnist in 1995.<ref name=autogenerated4 /> In 1997 when covering the election campaign of John Major, he was caught by a rival journalist using heroin on the Prime Minister's jet; he was fired as a result.<ref name="Addicted_to_transmogrification">Template:Cite news</ref> At the time, he argued "I'm a hack who gets hired because I do drugs".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He joined the Times as a columnist in 1997.<ref name=autogenerated4 /> In 1999 he left the Times to join the Independent on Sunday,<ref name=autogenerated4 /> which he left in 2002 for the Evening Standard.<ref name=autogenerated4 />

He has made many appearances on British television, especially as a panellist on Have I Got News for You and as a regular on Shooting Stars. Since 2008 Self has appeared five times on Question Time. He stopped appearing in Have I Got News for You, stating the show had become a pseudo-panel show. Between 2003 and 2006, he was a regular contributor to the BBC2 television series Grumpy Old Men.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Since 2009, Self has written two alternating fortnightly columns for the New Statesman. The Madness of Crowds explores social phenomena and group behaviour, and in Real Meals he reviews high street food outlets. For a May 2014 article in The Guardian, he wrote: "the literary novel as an art work and a narrative art form central to our culture is indeed dying before our eyes", explaining in a July 2014 article that his royalty income had decreased "dramatically" over the previous decade. The July article followed the release of a study of the earnings of British authors that was commissioned by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Self is a professor of Modern Thought at Brunel University London. He was appointed in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Literary style

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File:Will Self at Humber Mouth 2007.jpg
Self in 2007

Self has given his reason for writing as follows: "I don't write fiction for people to identify with and I don't write a picture of the world they can recognise. I write to astonish people."<ref>M. Hunter Hayes Understanding Will Self, p.1</ref> "What excites me is to disturb the reader's fundamental assumptions. I want to make them feel that certain categories within which they are used to perceiving the world are unstable."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

When he was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and those of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick.<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto3"/> Self admires the work of J. G. Ballard, Alasdair Gray and Martin Amis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto2">Template:Cite web</ref> He has said that he previously admired William Burroughs but went off him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has cited writers such as Jonathan Swift, Franz Kafka,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Lewis Carroll<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Joseph Heller<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as formative influences on his writing style.<ref name="auto2"/> Other influences on his fiction include Hunter S. Thompson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Self credits Céline's book Journey to the End of the Night with inspiring him to write fiction.<ref name="Self on Celine">Template:Cite news</ref>

Zack Busner is a recurring character in Self's fiction, appearing in the short story collections The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Grey Area and Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe, as well as in the novels Great Apes, The Book of Dave, Umbrella and Shark. Busner is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practising in London and is prone to self-promotion at the expense of his patients. He is often the antagonist of the stories he appears in, although not always with villainous intent.

Among Self's admirers was the American critic Harold Bloom.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Journalist Stuart Maconie has described him as "that rarity in modern cultural life, a genuine intellectual with a bracing command of words and ideas who is also droll, likeable and culturally savvy."<ref>Stuart Maconie. "My People". Radio Times 2–8 February 2013, p.125</ref>

Political views

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In the 2015 UK general election Self voted Labour in a general election for the first time since 1997. In May 2015, he wrote in The Guardian: "No, I'm no longer a socialist if to be one is to believe that a socialist utopia is attainable by some collective feat of will – but I remain a socialist, if 'socialism' is to be understood as an antipathy to vested interests and privileges neither deserved nor earned, and a strong desire for a genuinely egalitarian society."<ref name="theguardian">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2017, he wrote in the New Statesman: "Nowadays I think in terms of compassionate pragmatism: I'll leave socialism to Žižek and the other bloviators."<ref name="newstatesman">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In July 2015 Self endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.<ref name="youtube">Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He said during a Channel 4 News interview that Corbyn represents a useful ideological divide within Labour, and could lead to the formation of a schism in the party.<ref name="londonlovesbusiness">Template:Cite news</ref>

Self is a republican.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

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Will Self is married to the French novelist Nelly Kaprielian-Self.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He was previously married from 1989 to 1997 to Kate Chancellor. They have two children, a son, Alexis, and a daughter, Madeleine. They lived together in a terraced house just off the Portobello Road.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1997, Self married journalist Deborah Orr, with whom he has sons Ivan and Luther. In 2017, Orr and Self separated, and Self was living in a rented flat in Stockwell.<ref name="Appleyard2017">Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref> Orr died on 19 October 2019.

Self has stated that he has abstained from drugs, except for caffeine and nicotine, since 1998. In 2024 he wrote: "I gave up smoking – and indeed, consuming nicotine in any way, shape or form – almost six years ago".<ref name="tribune">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the same column he revealed that he had been diagnosed with myelofibrosis. It is a progression of the blood disease polycythaemia vera with which he was diagnosed in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He sent his younger children to private schools after they experienced bullying at state schools in Lambeth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He has described himself as a psychogeographer and modern flâneur, and has written about walks he has taken.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2006, he walked Template:Convert from his home in South London to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving at Kennedy Airport he walked Template:Convert from there to Manhattan.<ref name="tribune" /> In August 2013, Self wrote of his anger following an incident in which he was stopped and questioned by police in Yorkshire while out walking with his 11-year-old son, on suspicion of being a paedophile. The police were alerted by a security guard at Bishop Burton College. He had asked the security guard for permission to cross the school grounds.<ref name=Independent81813>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2018 Self was accused of "mental cruelty" by Orr in relation to their divorce, in a series of posts on Twitter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Self's mother died in 1988.<ref name="theparisreview.org" /> His 2024 novel Elaine is partially based on his mother's diaries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Self has discussed his Jewish heritage, by way of his mother, and its impact on his identity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2006, Self 'resigned' as a Jew as a protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2018 he stated in an interview with the BBC that he had rethought his position, due to the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Britain.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Self is Template:Convert tall,<ref>The Calgary Herald (Alberta) 23 July 2006 Sunday Final Edition Meaning of Masculinity: It's the subject of almost everything Will Self writes</ref> collects vintage typewriters<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and used to smoke a pipe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His brother is the author and journalist Jonathan Self.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Self became a vegetarian in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

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In 2016, the British Library acquired Self's archive; the collection is a hybrid archive of paper and born-digital material.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Papers of Will Self are divided into two parts: family papers and personal and literary papers. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.<ref>The Papers of Will Self, archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 13 May 2020</ref>

Awards

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Works

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Novels

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Short story collections

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Non-fiction

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Self has also compiled several books of work from his newspaper and magazine columns which mix interviews with counter-culture figures, restaurant reviews and literary criticism.

Television

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  • The Minor Character – Self's short story was turned into a short film on Sky Arts which starred David Tennant as "Will".

References

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