Author:Martin Rowson
A few months after two of his parents had died, Martin Rowson had a dream about the house he grew up in which was crammed with tons and tons of stuff, both physical and emotional. In this book Rowson delves into all that 'stuff'; weaving together dreams, family anecdotes and gossip, jokes, advice, history, smells, sounds and sights of the past. The result is a funny, thought-provoking and ultimately moving meditation on families, life, love, disease and the existentialist horrors of clearing out the attic.
Martin Roswson's Stuff may actually be a work of genius... what really astonishes is the strange, robust gravity of the style, combined with an effortless talent for scenic arrangement that manages to fit innumerable disparate incidents into a wholly original shape... a genuinely mature work of commemoration and love, one always attentive to the nuance and texture of things
—— Tim Martin , Independent on SundayAbsorbing and vivid.... the best and most touching element of Stuff is that, unlike so many memoirs concerning parents, it emphatically delivers... It is a lively and entertaining book, yet its earnest concern, in the end, is to examine what truly remains of the dead we have loved, and to face up to all the sorting
—— Lynn Truss , Sunday TimesMartin Rowson is one of the most viscerally distinctive and critically acclaimed cartoonists working in Britain today....Stuff is a rich and profoundly sensitive book
—— Stuart Kelly , Scotland on SundayHe is a sensitive writer, capable of great subtlety and nuanced emotional gear-changes
—— William Leith , GuardianA wonderful evocation of what it was like to grow up in the Sixties and Seventies. The writing is never less than pin-sharp...deeply moving
—— Kathryn Hughes , Mail on SundayStuff is a candid, sanguine, often very amusing, illustration of a serious point of view
—— Ruth Scurr , Daily TelegraphFrequently touching without being mawkish, Stuff is a surprisingly life-affirming read and, despite the emotive subjects being covered, often a very funny one, too
—— New StatesmanStuff is a moving, funny and stylish account of how to hang on to the bits you really need
—— Irish TimesHypnotically readable, this wonderful book is like exploring an attic packed with fascinating odds and ends... Highly evocative, oddly moving, and includes some marvellous trivia
—— Sunday TimesAs fascinating as it is at times utterly disturbing
—— Entertainment Weekly