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, bandmembers past and present, friends, foes, collaborators, even his therapist. It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist.
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.
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.
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Kessler's ability as a storyteller results in a profound portrait. Part life story, part art history, part investigation, part lover's quarrel, it weaves a complex, compelling tapestry of Childish from fragments of his existence - ones that in the hands of another would likely have remained shapeless chaos. Here? it's cosmic dust given form.' *Terri White*
'Ted Kessler has elegantly, wittily documented Billy Childish's maverick life, achievements and persona with insight and skill, never allowing himself to be slavishly captivated - or repelled - by Billy's "dangerous charisma".' *Miki Berenyi*
'To negotiate the convoluted live of Wild Billy Childish in text is roughly the literary equivalent of attempting to count the hairs on a copulating yak's back. But somehow Ted does it brilliantly - with style and grace. A story of domestic violent, abandonment, misunderstood artistic integrity, dyslexic poetry... and guitars... Billy told me her probably won't read this book. if so - he'll be missing out.' *Marc Riley*
