Launch of Alone, Desperate and Going Nowhere / Friday 11 March / 6 – 9pm

A novel by Paul Haworth Published by TRUE TRUE TRUE London launch at X Marks the Bökship 210 / Shop 3, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 Friday 11 March 2011, 6–9pm 8pm: poem > reading > song by Paul Haworth Alex ‘Abs’ Brenchley is back. The seven-foot tragedy opens the sequel to Silk Handkerchiefs with the words “2008 was the worst year of my life.” This is the story of that year. Cocks. The shake, pull, grope, yank and dangle of cocks. The wan light of the car lending them a gruesome pallor. Tuggatuggatuggatugga. You?ve never seen anything like it. Old-man cocks, hanging out of flies, poking from bushy pubes. A couple did have their trousers down at the ankles. More animated, exhibitionist, they groaned and swayed their hips, with acrobatic hand-actions. One had a thermos on the bonnet and would take sips of his beverage, surveying the other men as well as the spectacle within this little hatchback… Where a couple was getting it on. Alone, Desperate and Going Nowhere sweeps our hyper-emotional hero across England, into the depths of despair and deranged behaviour, towards a mythical destination – The Lady Field – a fabled area of Hampstead Heath where it isn’t just men who are cruising. Carnforth yobs, Sex and the City: The Movie, dogging fanatics, Christian Slater, Community Support Officers and the Page Street Gang – these are just some of the forces Alex is up against as he seeks to find the manhood, absolution and purpose in life that will empower him to win the love of Trevoreesia, his Absqueen. All the while, the economy is collapsing – “My life had been in crisis for so long and now the world was catching up,” observes Alex – and the soundtrack to this far-gone era is Take That’s cruel taunt: THIS COULD BE THE GREATEST DAY OF OUR LIVES. Does that day come for Alex Brenchley or will he remain, always and forever, Alone, Desperate and Going Nowhere? Mixing Cockney, teen lingo, Victorian slang and inventive wordplay, Haworth’s colourful style makes for an exhilarating and addictive read. This is the second part in a trilogy of comedic novels about Alex Brenchley. Paul Haworth (Lancaster, 1982) is the author of Silk Handkerchiefs and Andy de Fiets: Letter to Robin Kinross (written with Sam de Groot), both published in 2009 by TRUE TRUE TRUE, Amsterdam. Active also in hip-hop, painting and radio, Paul has recently participated in exhibitions and performances at the Barbican Art Gallery (London), Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius), SMBA (Amsterdam) and Motto (Berlin). He studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (Oxford) and De Ateliers (Amsterdam). Published February 2011 by TRUE TRUE TRUE 18 × 11 cm, 128 pages, £8.50 ISBN 978-94-90006-03-7 Made possible in part by Fonds BKVB www.truetruetrue.org