Playing the bass with three left hands

I have written a new book which is due to be published by the excellent people at Faber and Faber in early Sept. 

Here is a lovely picture of the book resting on a nice blanket courtesy of Tess Parks. 

I don’t know if it is a book about bands or not. Mainly it seems to be about blundering into things, somehow coming out on the other side feeling a bit more tired, and then having to dig a big hole with a thin shovel. It’s got some drugs in it and a (very)  little bit of sex but hopefully not in any boring ways. It’s about a little market town in the midlands that produced some notorious, influential and unlikely bands during the fag end of the eighties.  That is quite interesting in itself I suppose. I have tried be honest, but this book is  true only in the ways that hallucinations and memory are sometimes true.

Some of it is obviously gibberish. It contains fireballs that smell of lavender, sweaty eggs at Watford Gap, a deaf nun, and a rusty tin of feet-go-cold spray that was never meant for human consumption. It starts off pretending to be an imaginary viking and ends up not shooting someone with a longbow. Given the circumstances we might consider that to be a happy ending.

You can pre-order the book from Faber here and get a very generous thirty percent discount on your pre-order. All you have to do is  add the code CARRUTHERS in the ‘Click to apply code’ box during checkout on the Faber site.

Here is what some people think of the show so far.

"In these front line despatches from the arse end of Satori, Will Carruthers nails perfectly the glorious shimmer and swoon rising out of the unspeakable lifestyles of alternative Rugby, and demonstrates how something bordering on the sacred can emerge from the hilariously, painfully profane. Written with a naked honesty, Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands expertly captures the sticky textures of a place, a time and a sound that will never be repeated. It is a chronicle of hepatitis and heroism that no one interested in the music of transitioning centuries can afford to miss. Buy this immediately." 

Alan Moore

"Every bit as splendid as I had been hoping! I cannot possibly count the number of times that I cackled out loud. Took a brief break between Parts 3 & 4 to go to the Co-Op. Managed to avoid being kidnapped by Michael Tyack.
It really is a joy, mate. An absolute joy.
Pat Fish
 

'Mr William Carruthers: a man who dwells in the land described by Robert Walser 'where to be free often means being an outlaw, where the sorrows of the many produce the glittering happiness of the few, where the artist either dies of surrenders his art, and where nobility and refined sentiment go round in rags while brazen, ungainly vice dwells in palaces.'

Andrew Weatherall 

'Opening the cover was like Will pulling up outside in a beat up fast car. Reading it was like jumping in and hanging on while speeding somewhere unspecified but scarily enjoyable.'

Tim Burgess