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‘That Boy Of Yours Wants Looking At’ is about love, loss, adversity and acceptance.

At its core is a child with a wild imagination and a desire for glamour trying to survive being gay and disabled on a Nottingham council estate in the sixties and seventies.

Simon Smalley takes us on a humorous, riotously colourful, and heart-rending journey through cataclysmic bereavement and being raised by an RAF dad who encouraged his boy to be his true self.  Simon’s tale of self-expression through music and his battle with his body, self-esteem and paranoia is also a poignant account of what it takes to live authentically.

From Simon’s disastrous experiment with polystyrene platforms to his unerring love of punk; from his daily battles with school bullies to making peacock-colour eyeshadow with his dad, this memoir will take you on an emotional journey that will leave you breathless, teary-eyed, and desperate to meet Simon and his uniquely brave father. It is an exceptional story of love, confusion, heartache, and, ultimately, the joy of being true to yourself no matter the odds.


Nicci Robinson, Butterworth Books 2021


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 364 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915009073

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915009074


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