An extraordinary achievement. A moving, funny and beautifully written memoir by musician, DJ and writer Ben Watt which carefully chronicles his parents' lives, their marriage and their decline into old age Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, 2014
Born in 1962, Ben Watt is a musician, songwriter, DJ and author. His first book, Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, voted a Sunday Times Book of the Year by William Boyd and shortlisted for the Esquire Non-fiction Book of the Year. He is perhaps most well known for his twenty-year career in alt-pop duo Everything But The Girl (1982–2002). He is also an international club and radio DJ, and since 2003 has run his own independent record labels Buzzin’ Fly and Strange Feeling. Having recently returned to songwriting and live performance, his first solo album for thirty years is expected in 2014. He lives in north London with his wife Tracey Thorn and their three children. Follow him on Twitter: @ben_watt www.benwatt.com
Neither sentimental nor savage, yet often wise, moving and
entertaining within the same paragraph, Romany and Tom is a major
achievement to rival any of Watt's recordings
*Guardian*
You know when everyone last month was going 'Ben Watt's Romany &
Tom is amazing?' I've just read it. It really is
*Caitlin Moran*
Romany and Tom may be the most beguiling book you’ll read all year
... He has a songwriter’s gift for the deft phrase, while his
powers of observation and recall are quite extraordinary ... Rather
like Watt’s musical compositions ... this book is at once downbeat
and uplifting
*Mail on Sunday*
A poignant, life-affirming work
*Financial Times*
INCREDIBLE … I read it in two huge gulps. It’s funny, incredibly
moving, beautifully written, really thought-provoking
*Alexis Petridis*
Forget Morrissey: Romany & Tom is the most beautiful, compelling
memoir by a musician you’ll read for a very long time
*John Niven*
[An] elegantly written and clear-sighted memoir ... Romany and Tom
is a tender work infused with the understanding that this is the
final chapter of two rich and complex lives ... Watt’s reluctance
to sentimentalise the experience makes it that much more powerful,
cutting to the heart of the frustrations that come with caring for
one’s parents who were, not long ago, just like us
*Independent on Sunday*
It is a beautiful book, a story which will resonate with many and
in many different ways. There are moments when I laughed and parts
when I had to stop reading for a bit, draw breath and then
continue
*Gideon Coe, BBC 6 Music*
Watt has written about personal trauma before in his 1996 memoir
Patient. This … pulses with the same combination of clarity and
kindness. Unsentimental and humane
*Telegraph*
Closely observed, brilliantly written and unsparing
*David Hepworth*
As a DJ and one half of Everything But The Girl (with his partner
Tracey Thorn), Ben Watt knows better than most the impact fame can
have on identity. But in his poignant new memoir, Romany and Tom,
he channels that knowledge through his parents’ lives
*Harper’s Bazaar*
Moving and evocative
*Alan Johnson, Observer Books of the Year*
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