A candid portrayal of teenage life from the heart of rock n roll bohemia. This summer, Little Brown Books publish Baxter Dury’s memoir ‘Chaise Longue.’
✺ PUBLISHED ON AUGUST 5TH ✺ HARDBACK 224 PAGES
✺ SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER VIA OUR BANDCAMP PAGE ✺
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Methods of parenting and education have progressed in recent years, especially compared to some of the more casually experimental routes inflicted on children of artistic professionals in the 70s and 80s. One experience that would take some beating is that endured by Baxter Dury.
When punk rock star Ian Dury disappeared to make films in the late 80s, he left his teenage son in the care of his roadie in a run-down flat in Hammersmith. But this was no ordinary roadie; this was the Sulphate Strangler. The Strangler, having taken a lot of LSD in the 60s, was prone to depression, anger and hallucinations. He was also, as the name suggests, a drug dealer. What could possibly go wrong?
In a period that we can now only imagine, a young Baxter ricocheted from one adventure to another, narrowly swerving one disaster only immediately to collide with another. From the leafy lanes of Chiswick and beyond through to a post-Franco Barcelona, at times his situation was perilous in the extreme – the world is lucky to have him at all. Chaise Longue is an intimate account of those escapades, evocatively illuminating a bohemian west London populated with feverishly grubby characters. Narrated in Dury’s candid tone, both sad and funny, this moving story will leave an indelible imprint on its readers, who will laugh and cry their way through this extraordinary telling.
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The oat milk latte poet laureate of London’s Ladbroke Grove, Baxter Dury has spent the last 15 years uniquely chronicling the inner workings of his (and everyone’s) human condition over six critically acclaimed albums. His latest, The Night Chancers, was released in March 2020.
Purchase ‘The Night Chancers’ here.
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We’re hosting a book launch at The Social on Wednesday 4th August.
Baxter will be in conversation on the night, as well as reading from Chaise Longue and taking questions from the audience. Books will be sold and signed on the night. Records will be played by Heavenly Jukebox DJs.
