William Woodard Self (born 26 September 1961) is an English writer, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster.[3][4][5] He has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing. Self is currently Professor ofModern Thought at Brunel University London, where he teaches psychogeography.[6]
His 2002 novel Dorian, an Imitation was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and his 2012 novel Umbrella was shortlisted.[7] His fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque and fantastical, and is predominantly set within his home city of London. His writing often explores mental illness, drug abuse and psychiatry.
Self has also been a regular contributor to British television, initially as a guest on comic panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. In 2002, Self replaced Mark Lamarr on the BBC comedy panel show Shooting Stars[8][9] for two series, but was himself replaced by comedian Jack Dee when the programme returned in 2008.[9] He has since appeared on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time. Self is a contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View,[10] to which he contributes radio essays delivered in his familiar "lugubrious tones".[11] In 2013, Self took part in discussions about becoming the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence,[11] but later withdrew.[12]
Self's parents separated when he was nine, and divorced when he was 18.[18] Despite the intellectual encouragement given by his parents, he was an emotionally confused and self-destructive child, harming himself with cigarette ends and knives before beginning to use drugs.[19]
Self was a voracious reader from a young age. When he was 10, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick.[20][21] Into his teenage years, Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", which stifled his ability to express himself. Self's use of drugs increased in step with his prolific reading. He started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, progressing by way of amphetamines, cocaine and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18.[22] Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient.[23]
After graduating from Oxford, Self worked for the Greater London Council, including as a road sweeper, while residing in Brixton.[26] He pursued a career as a cartoonist for the New Statesman and other publications and as a stand-up comedian.[26] He moved to Gloucester Road around 1985. In 1986 he entered a treatment centre in Weston-super-Mare, where he claimed that his heroin addiction was cured.[22] In 1989, "through a series of accidents", he "blagged" his way into running a small publishing company.[27][28]
Self joined the Observer as a columnist in 1995.[1] In 1997 when covering the election campaign of John Major, he was caught by a rival journalist using heroin on the Prime Minister's jet; he was fired as a result.[31] At the time, he argued "I'm a hack who gets hired because I do drugs".[32] He joined the Times as a columnist in 1997.[1] In 1999 he left the Times to join the Independent on Sunday,[1] which he left in 2002 for the Evening Standard.[1]
He has made many appearances on British television, especially as a panellist on Have I Got News for You and as a regular on Shooting Stars. Since 2008 Self has appeared five times on Question Time. He stopped appearing in Have I Got News for You, stating the show had become a pseudo-panel show. Between 2003 and 2006, he was a regular contributor to the BBC2 television series Grumpy Old Men.[33]
Since 2009, Self has written two alternating fortnightly columns for the New Statesman. The Madness of Crowds explores social phenomena and group behaviour, and in Real Meals he reviews high street food outlets. For a May 2014 article in The Guardian, he wrote: "the literary novel as an art work and a narrative art form central to our culture is indeed dying before our eyes", explaining in a July 2014 article that his royalty income had decreased "dramatically" over the previous decade. The July article followed the release of a study of the earnings of British authors that was commissioned by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.[34]
Self has given his reason for writing as follows: "I don't write fiction for people to identify with and I don't write a picture of the world they can recognise. I write to astonish people."[36] "What excites me is to disturb the reader's fundamental assumptions. I want to make them feel that certain categories within which they are used to perceiving the world are unstable."[37]
Zack Busner is a recurring character in Self's fiction, appearing in the short story collections The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Grey Area and Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe, as well as in the novels Great Apes, The Book of Dave, Umbrella and Shark. Busner is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practising in London and is prone to self-promotion at the expense of his patients. He is often the antagonist of the stories he appears in, although not always with villainous intent.
Among Self's admirers was the American critic Harold Bloom.[47] Journalist Stuart Maconie has described him as "that rarity in modern cultural life, a genuine intellectual with a bracing command of words and ideas who is also droll, likeable and culturally savvy."[48]
Political views
In the 2015 UK general election Self voted Labour in a general election for the first time since 1997. In May 2015, he wrote in The Guardian: "No, I'm no longer a socialist if to be one is to believe that a socialist utopia is attainable by some collective feat of will – but I remain a socialist, if 'socialism' is to be understood as an antipathy to vested interests and privileges neither deserved nor earned, and a strong desire for a genuinely egalitarian society."[49] In March 2017, he wrote in the New Statesman: "Nowadays I think in terms of compassionate pragmatism: I'll leave socialism to Žižek and the other bloviators."[50]
Will Self is married to the French novelist Nelly Kaprielian-Self.[54]
He was previously married from 1989 to 1997 to Kate Chancellor. They have two children, a son, Alexis, and a daughter, Madeleine. They lived together in a terraced house just off the Portobello Road.[55] In 1997, Self married journalist Deborah Orr, with whom he has sons Ivan and Luther. In 2017, Orr and Self separated, and Self was living in a rented flat in Stockwell.[2] Orr died on 19 October 2019.
Self has stated that he has abstained from drugs, except for caffeine and nicotine, since 1998. In 2024 he wrote: "I gave up smoking – and indeed, consuming nicotine in any way, shape or form – almost six years ago".[56][57] In the same column he revealed that he had been diagnosed with myelofibrosis. It is a progression of the blood disease polycythaemia vera with which he was diagnosed in 2011.[58][59]
He has described himself as a psychogeographer and modern flâneur, and has written about walks he has taken.[61] In December 2006, he walked 26 miles (42 kilometres) from his home in South London to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving at Kennedy Airport he walked 20 miles (32 kilometres) from there to Manhattan.[56] In August 2013, Self wrote of his anger following an incident in which he was stopped and questioned by police in Yorkshire while out walking with his 11-year-old son, on suspicion of being a paedophile. The police were alerted by a security guard at Bishop Burton College. He had asked the security guard for permission to cross the school grounds.[62]
In September 2018 Self was accused of "mental cruelty" by Orr in relation to their divorce, in a series of posts on Twitter.[63]
Self's mother died in 1988.[27] His 2024 novel Elaine is partially based on his mother's diaries.[64]
In 2016, the British Library acquired Self's archive; the collection is a hybrid archive of paper and born-digital material.[75] The Papers of Will Self are divided into two parts: family papers and personal and literary papers. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.[76]
Self has also compiled several books of work from his newspaper and magazine columns which mix interviews with counter-culture figures, restaurant reviews and literary criticism.
The Minor Character – Self's short story was turned into a short film on Sky Arts which starred David Tennant as "Will".
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↑ Bloom, Harold (2002). Genius: a mosaic of one hundred exemplary creative minds. New York: Warner Books. p.648. ISBN0-446-69129-1. There are a few affinities, except perhaps with the admirable Antonia Byatt, in the generation after: novelists I also now admire, like Will Self, Peter Ackroyd, and John Banville.
↑ Stuart Maconie. "My People". Radio Times 2–8 February 2013, p.125
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