Listen and read

Step into an infinite world of stories

  • Listen and read as much as you want
  • Over 400 000+ titles
  • Bestsellers in 10+ Indian languages
  • Exclusive titles + Storytel Originals
  • Easy to cancel anytime
Subscribe now
Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Stuart: A Life Backwards

9 Ratings

4.7

Duration
9H 33min
Language
English
Format
Category

Biographies

A unique biography of a homeless man and a complete portrait of the hidden underclass.

‘So here it is, my attempt at the story of 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 this century: a man with an important life. I wish I could have presented it to Stuart before he stepped in front of the 11.15 train from London to Kings Lynn.’

Stuart Shorter’s brief life was one of turmoil and chaos. In this remarkable book, a masterful act of biographical restoration, Alexander Masters retraces Stuart’s troubled journey. Stuart was homeless, with many of the problems this sub-section of English society display; alcoholism, drug-addiction, crime, violence. Scattered with glimpses of the author’s friendship with Stuart in the years before his death, Masters gives us Stuart’s life in reverse, tracing his route backwards through the post-office heists and attempts at suicide and the spells inside many of this country’s prisons, on back to a troubled time at school and learning difficulties and a violent childhood that acted like a springboard into the trouble that was to follow him all his life.

This extraordinary book is a glimpse at the underbelly of English society, a world largely hidden from our lives. Funny, despairing, uplifting, brilliantly-written, it is one of the most original biographies of recent years.

© 2012 Fourth Estate (Audiobook): 9780007493982

Release date

Audiobook: 27 September 2012

Others also enjoyed ...

  1. A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip Alexander Masters
  2. The Genius in my Basement Alexander Masters
  3. Becky: The Heartbreaking Story of Becky Watts by Her Father Darren Galsworthy Darren Galsworthy
  4. A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming (An Insider's Look at the True Crime Story of the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader) Kerri Rawson
  5. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Michelle McNamara
  6. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman
  7. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor Adam Kay
  8. Shuggie Bain: Winner of the Booker Prize 2020 Douglas Stuart
  9. Tears of the Silenced: An Amish True Crime Memoir of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Brutal Betrayal, and Ultimate Survival Misty Griffin
  10. The Spider and the Fly: A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder Claudia Rowe
  11. Cruel to Be Kind: Saying no can save a child’s life Cathy Glass
  12. A Stolen Life: A Memoir Jaycee Dugard
  13. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Roxane Gay
  14. Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson, Life Inside His Cult, and the Darkness that Ended the Sixties Dianne Lake
  15. Secret Slave: Kidnapped and abused for 13 years. This is my story of survival Anna Ruston
  16. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
  17. My Brother the Killer Alix Sharkey
  18. North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Unusual Family, and How I Survived Both Cea Sunrise Person
  19. Innocent: The True Story of Siblings Struggling to Survive Cathy Glass
  20. Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and my Father, Warren Jeffs Rachel Jeffs
  21. The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for My Father...and Finding the Zodiac Killer Gary L. Stewart
  22. Where Has Mummy Gone?: A young girl and a mother who no longer knows her Cathy Glass
  23. The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Jeff Guinn
  24. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit John E. Douglas
  25. Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
  26. My Dark Vanessa: A Novel Kate Elizabeth Russell
  27. Mr Nobody Catherine Steadman
  28. The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson
  29. Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng
  30. The Dutch House: A Novel Ann Patchett
  31. The Essex Serpent: A Novel Sarah Perry
  32. Norse Mythology Neil Gaiman
  33. The Master: Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize Colm Tóibín
  34. A Woman Is No Man: A Novel Etaf Rum
  35. The Doll Factory Elizabeth Macneal
  36. The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel Peter Swanson
  37. Tom Lake: A Novel Ann Patchett