"Stuart: A Life Backwards" by Alexander Masters

"Stuart: A Life Backwards" by Alexander Masters was the winner of The Guardian First Book Award in 2005.

It is the true story of a erractic, ex-addict, ex-homeless man, Stuart Shorter, told by Alexander Masters.

As the title suggests, the tale is told in reverse, starting with Stuart in his sorry state in his 30s and working backwards to his childhood, with Masters attempting to piece together where it all went wrong. It isn't strictly told backwards as there are passages throughout the book from the latter part of his life surrounding his relationship with the author and the process of writing the book.

It is certainly a worthy subject, but I was left rather disappointed by the book itself, having read the lavish praise heaped upon it by various reviewers. My main problem with it was that there is a lot of Masters in there, and frankly I didn't like him. I found him rather irritating. I found it rather patronising to the subject that he thinks it is astonishing that he was found this homeless man with a personality and wants to share his story with the world. If Stuart was remarkable, then Masters fails to do him justice in this book.

His story is a tragic one (the issue of his childhood abuse was handled well) and there were moments of humour in there (the farcical nature of the British justice system raised a wry smile) but it didn't deliver the emotions promised by the cover reviews.