Boy Friends: 'Astonishingly compelling' STEPHEN FRY

Description

'A lovely book: bright and heartfelt, funny and refreshing.' - ANDREW O'HAGAN 'A beautiful, moving, life-affirming book.' - IAN RANKIN Friendships just might be the greatest love affairs of our lives . . . In 2018 poet and author Michael Pedersen lost a cherished friend, Scott Hutchison, soon after their collective voyage into the landscape of the Scottish Highlands. Just weeks later, Michael began to write to him. As he confronts the bewildering process of grief, what starts as a love letter to one magical, coruscating human soon becomes a paean to all the gorgeous male friendships that have transformed his life. 'Astonishingly compelling...as perfect a portrait of friendship as I've ever read.' - STEPHEN FRY 'Michael writes with true sensitivity and power...he is a master of words; he plays them like music.' - KAE TEMPEST 'Tender, funny...it lifted my spirits in the way Ali Smith does.' - VAL McDERMID

Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author. He has published two successful chapbooks and an acclaimed debut collection Play With Me. His second collection, Oyster, was published in 2017 and was illustrated by and performed as a live show with Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchinson. Pedersen has been named a Canongate Future 40; was a finalist in the 2018 Writer of the Year at The Herald Scottish Culture Awards; was awarded the 2014 John Mather Trust Rising Star of Literature Award; and won the 2015 Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. Pedersen also co-founded Neu! Reekie!, a prize-winning arts collective known for producing cutting edge shows around the world.

"Despite its plaintive origins, this brims with beauty and love." -- Publishers Weekly "Pedersen offers an extended reverie on the dynamics of male friendship, an underexplored literary landscape...A consistently intimate and often moving memoir of friendship." -- Kirkus "A love letter to friendship." -- Jackie Kay "With a dazzling and inventive use of language...this sweetly unconventional work...whilst dripping in raw grief is uncommonly romantic, irreverent and at times laugh out loud funny. A delight really. And that's that." -- Shirley Manson "Those hungry for the bone-deep truth about grief will devour Michael Pedersen's account of a friend lost...a dazzling act of generosity and an entirely original blast of non-fiction."-- Terri White "Michael writes with true sensitivity and power . . . he is a master of words; he plays them like music." -- Kae Tempest "This book is a first in so many ways;. . .The world needs more of Michael Pedersen- lots more." -- Bill Drummond "A beautiful, moving, life-affirming book." -- Ian Rankin "Astonishingly compelling . . . as perfect a portrait of friendship as I've ever read." -- Stephen Fry "Send it to every friend you've ever loved." -- Charlotte Church