First Book

"These are the writings of a slightly distressed man who never got offered psychiatric drugs but instead found poetry and performance and now publication. This is the better option." - John Hoggett

Description

John Hoggett is a modern beatnik commenting on climate change and child sexual assault. This book is his life and it is also not his life. 'First Book' is a witty collection of poetry and freeform prose tackling subjects such as abuse, homosexuality and political issues such the environment and pacificism. John's life has links to the artistic elite of the country and to homeless drug users. This is an adventurous and experimental work, both in terms of content and form, which will be enjoyed by anybody with a liking for creative writing, left-of-centre politics and writings about life's varied experiences.

About the Author

John Hoggett has lived in Reading for nearly thirty years, has historical links to the artistic elite of the country and is immensely talented. He started out as a young hippy, working on organic farms, cooking bread and getting into the groove (man). John later became an Anarcho-Eco-Activist and was inspirational, in a small way, in the Newbury Anti-bypass campaign of the 1990's. He mixed this Earth Lover action with a penchant for performing in drag and flirting outrageously with cabaret audiences. His father once tried to strangle his stepmother and John has found his family "difficult." This makes his writing an interesting mix: personal, piquant, political, smutty in places, and at times lyrical. He grippingly tells the stories that obsess him and enthrals us at the same time. He immodestly once said of himself that he was the mongrel child of Julie Burchill and Quentin Crisp. Dear reader, you decide.