White Rabbit scoops Ted Kessler's 'tour-de-force' biography of Billy Childish

White Rabbit has scooped To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish by music journalist Ted Kessler. 

Publisher Lee Brackstone acquired world all-language rights from Becky Thomas at Lewinsohn Literary. The book will be published on 4th July 2024 in hardback, e-book and audio. White Rabbit will also publish a special edition, limited to 333 copies, which will be signed by Childish and Kessler and bound in lime-green, linen-covered boards with foiled titles.

"How do you even start to describe the life and achievements of an artist as exceptional and prolific as Billy Childish?", said Brackstone. "A writer, a poet, a painter, a musician; his fingerprints are all over British culture but the man himself remains an enigma. Ted Kessler’s Authorised Unauthorised portrait is a tour-de-force biography that places Billy’s art in the context of his life, beautifully illustrated with rare photographs and artwork by Childish himself. It is testimony to a life lived literally in the service of art."

To Ease My Troubled Mind is a "mosaic portrait" of Childish brought together from years of interviews with the artist, his close family, past and present band members and his friends, among others. Brackstone continued: "It is an unflinching, yet frequently spiritual and funny portrait of an artist whose obstacle-strewn upbringing formed the backbone of his work: raised in a broken home and abused as a child, Childish was an undiagnosed dyslexic in remedial class at school who is nevertheless now Britain’s most prolific and uncompromising creative force."

Kessler added: "The circumstances of this book are typical: he invited me to write it, offered complete access to every nook and cranny of his work and personal life for over a year, but then said he had no intention of ever reading it – hence the Authorised Unauthorised subtitle. He is an inspirational character and collaborator, whose self-aware honesty is some kind of superpower, the like of which I’ve never previously encountered."

Childish commented: "Who could unravel the mystery? Ted was the fellow. ’It’s your book’, I told him. ’I won’t read it, or stick my neb in, but do recheck facts as best you can, and allow contradictory statements, by all parties, to remain.’ So it is The Authorised Unauthorised – unread and unchecked by myself, as I prefer not to know and Billy Childish can remain a mystery unto myself."