Horatio Clare is an award winning writer and broadcaster. And if there was an award for being a lovely bloke he’d probably have won that too.
I first came across Horatio through his book Heavy Light in which he writes vividly about his experience of the highs and lows of bipolar disorder and what it’s like to be sectioned.
But there are many other books too – from traversing the oceans on containers ships, to following swallows across hemispheres, or stumbling stoned through the chaos of his 20’s … each one is written in a prose style that carries you effortlessly along with him, whatever the adventure,
So on a cold, dark November night I drove to Horatio’s family home in the Black Mountains to talk to him about creativity and the peculiar profession that is being a writer.
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Horatio Clare is an award winning writer and broadcaster. And if there was an award for being a lovely bloke he’d probably have won that too.
I first came across Horatio through his book Heavy Light in which he writes vividly about his experience of the highs and lows of bipolar disorder and what it’s like to be sectioned.
But there are many other books too – from traversing the oceans on containers ships, to following swallows across hemispheres, or stumbling stoned through the chaos of his 20’s … each one is written in a prose style that carries you effortlessly along with him, whatever the adventure,
So on a cold, dark November night I drove to Horatio’s family home in the Black Mountains to talk to him about creativity and the peculiar profession that is being a writer.
It’s often said that you shouldn’t meet your heroes. So it was with some trepidation that I went down to Brighton one rainy day in January to meet Henry Normal.
Henry’s name always used to pop up on the credits of some of my favourite TV shows. Paul Calf’s Video Diaries, Mrs Merton, The Royle Family, The Mighty Boosh … I could go on.
But I needn’t have worried about meeting him. Henry’s a lovely man.
And his creative endeavours extend even beyond those TV classics. He’s a poet, a writer and someone who thinks a lot about creativity, the world and our place in it.
Our conversation begins with his early life in the slums of Nottingham. He tells me how Jack Benny and Dean Martin got him thinking about a life beyond the narrow streets of St Anne’s. He tells me what it was like to write with Steve Coogan and Caroline Aherne, and there are some great stories about the making of Mrs Merton and the Royle Family. And we talk about Henry’s son, Johnny and how he inspired Henry to return to poetry after a break of 20 years.
The Wind Thieved Hat
Horatio Clare is an award winning writer and broadcaster. And if there was an award for being a lovely bloke he’d probably have won that too.
I first came across Horatio through his book Heavy Light in which he writes vividly about his experience of the highs and lows of bipolar disorder and what it’s like to be sectioned.
But there are many other books too – from traversing the oceans on containers ships, to following swallows across hemispheres, or stumbling stoned through the chaos of his 20’s … each one is written in a prose style that carries you effortlessly along with him, whatever the adventure,
So on a cold, dark November night I drove to Horatio’s family home in the Black Mountains to talk to him about creativity and the peculiar profession that is being a writer.
