Editing Billy Childish (section)

==Background==
[[File:Childish,-The-Drinker-600.jpg|thumb|right|120px|Billy Childish, ''The Drinker'', oil painting, 1996]]
Billy Childish was born, lives, and works in [[Chatham, Kent]]. He has described his father, John Hamper, as a "complex, sociopathic narcissist": Hamper was jailed during Childish's teenage years for drug smuggling.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/31/my-old-man-tales-of-our-fathers-ted-kessler-review |title=My Old Man: Tales of Our Fathers edited by Ted Kessler – review |last1=Adams |first1=Tim |date=31 May 2016 |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=31 May 2016 |archive-date=1 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601135647/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/31/my-old-man-tales-of-our-fathers-ted-kessler-review |url-status=live }}</ref> Although he had an early and close association with many of the artists who became known as "[[Young British Artists|YBA]]" artists, he has resolutely asserted his independent status. He was [[child sexual abuse|sexually abused]] when he was aged nine by a male family friend: "We were on holiday. I had to share a bed with him. It happened for several nights, then I refused to go near him. I didn't tell anyone".<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22876-2475809.html | work=[[The Times]] | location=London | title=The importance of being Childish | date=2 December 2006 | access-date=26 April 2010 | archive-date=8 August 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808134720/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22876-2475809.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> 

He left secondary school at 16, an undiagnosed [[dyslexia|dyslexic]]. Refused an interview at the local art college, he entered [[Chatham Dockyard]], Kent, as an apprentice stonemason. During the next six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of conventional employment), he produced some 600 drawings in "the tea huts of hell". On the basis of this work, he was accepted into [[Saint Martin's School of Art]], where he was friends with the artist [[Peter Doig]], to study painting. However, his acceptance was short-lived and he was expelled in 1982 before completing the course. He then lived on [[the dole]] for 15 years. In 2006, Childish turned down the offer to appear on Channel 4's ''[[Celebrity Big Brother (UK TV series)|Celebrity Big Brother]]''. Childish has practised [[yoga in Britain|yoga]] and [[meditation]] since the early 1990s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2002_feb/interview_billy_childish.html|title=INTERVIEW: BILLY CHILDISH|website=3ammagazine.com|access-date=9 June 2021|archive-date=23 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723131155/http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2002_feb/interview_billy_childish.html|url-status=live}}</ref>