The scene is a remote cottage in Suffolk in the 1990s. Will Self, newly divorced, is the in-demand enfant terrible of the British literary scene. Matthew De Abaitua, an eager young writer fresh out of Malcolm Bradbury’s Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia, is excited to be hired as his ‘amanuensis’. It’s not obvious what that intriguing job title will entail. In this unique, frank and often very funny portrait of one of our most talked-about and controversial literary figures, this book charts the highs and lows of the experience.