Will Self Biography | Will Self
Will Self is an English author, journalist, political commentator and television personality who was born on 26 September 1961, in Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom.
Self has written eleven novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas, and five collections of non-fiction writing.
His 2002 novel Dorian, an Imitation was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and Self 2012 novel Umbrella was shortlisted. Self fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical, and is predominantly set within his home City of London. Self writing often explores mental illness, drug abuse and psychiatry.
Self is a regular contributor to publications as well as The Guardian, Harper’s, The New York Times and the London Review of Books. Self currently writes a column for the New Statesman, and over the years he has been a columnist for the Observer, The Times, and the Evening Standard.
Self columns for Building Design on the built environment, and for the Independent Magazine on the psychology of place brought Self to prominence as a thinker concerned with the politics of urbanism.
He is a regular contributor on British television, initially as a guest on comic panel shows such as Have I Got News for You. In the year 2002, he replaced Mark Lamarr on the anarchic BBC comedy panel show Shooting Stars for two series, but was Self replaced by comedian Jack Dee when the programme returned in 2008.
Self has since appeared on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time. He is contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View, to which he contributes radio essays delivered in Self familiar “lugubrious tones”. In 2013, he was in talks to become the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence, but later backed out of the talks.
Will Self Early Life
He was born at Charing Cross Hospital in London and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb. Self parents were Peter John Otter Self, Professor of Public Administration at the London School of Economics, as well as Elaine Rosenbloom, from Queens, New York, who worked as a publisher’s assistant. Self paternal grandfather was Sir Albert Henry Self. As a child, he spent a year living in Ithaca in upstate New York.
His parents separated when he was nine, and divorced when he was 18 years. Despite the intellectual encouragement given by Self parents, Self was an emotionally confused and self-destructive child, harming himself with cigarette ends as well as knives before beginning to experiment with drugs.
He was a voracious reader from a young age. When Self was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert’s Dune and those of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Into Self teenage years, he claimed to have been “overawed by the canon”, stifling his ability to express himself.
Nevertheless, his dabbling with drugs grew in step with his prolific reading. He started smoking cannabis at the age of 12 years, graduating through amphetamines, cocaine, and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18 years. He struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 years became a hospital outpatient.
He attended University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead. Self later attended Christ’s College, Finchley, from where he went to Exeter College at the University of Oxford, reading Philosophy, Politics as well as Economics, graduating with a third class degree.
At Oxford Self became editor of and frequent contributor to an underground left-wing student newspaper known as Red Herring/Oxford Strumpet, copies of which are archived in the Bodleian Library.
Will Self Career
After graduating from Oxford, he worked for the Greater London Council, including a period as a road sweeper, while living in Brixton. Self pursued a career as a cartoonist for the New Statesman and other publications and as a stand-up comedian. Self moved to Gloucester Road around 1985.
In the year 1986 Self entered a treatment centre in Weston-super-Mare, where he claimed that his heroin addiction was cured. In the year 1989, “through a series of accidents”, Self “blagged” his way into running a small publishing company.
The publication of Self short story collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity brought him to public attention in 1991. He was hailed as an original new talent by Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Beryl Bainbridge, A. S. Byatt, and Bill Buford. In 1993 Self was nominated by Granta magazine as one of the 20 “Best Young British Novelists”. Conversely, his second book, My Idea of Fun, was “mauled” by the critics.
He joined the Observer as a columnist in 1995. Self gained negative publicity in 1997 when Self was sent to cover the election campaign of John Major as well as was caught by a rival journalist using heroin on the Prime Minister’s jet, as well as was fired as a result. At the time, Self argued “I’m a hack who gets hired because I do drugs”. Self joined the Times as a columnist in 1997. In 1999 Self left Times to join the Independent on Sunday, which Self left in 2002 for the Evening Standard.
Self has made many appearances on British television, especially as a panellist on Have I Got News for You and as a regular on Shooting Stars. Since 2008 he has appeared five times on Question Time. Self stopped appearing in Have I Got News for You, stating the show had become a pseudo-panel show. 2003-2006 Self was a regular contributor to the BBC2 television series Grumpy Old Men.
Since 2009, he has written two alternating fortnightly columns for the New Statesman. The Madness of Crowds explores social phenomena as well a group behaviour, as well as in Real Meals Self reviews high street food outlets.
For a May the year 2014 article in The Guardian, he wrote: the literary novel as an art work as well as a narrative art form central to our culture is indeed dying before our eyes, explaining in a July the year 2014 article that Self royalty income had decreased dramatically over the previous decade. The July article followed the release of a study of the earnings of British authors that was commissioned by the Authors’ Licensing as well as Collecting Society.
He is a professor of Modern Thought at Brunel University London. Self was appointed in the year 2012 and continues to serve in this capacity.
Will Self Age | Birthday
Will Self is an English author, journalist, political commentator and television personality who was born on 26 September 1961, in Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom as William Woodard Self, he is currently 58 years old
Will Self Wife, Children
His mother died in the year 1988. Self was married from 1989 to 1997 to Kate Chancellor. The couple have two children together, a son Alexis and a daughter Madeleine. The couple lived together in a terraced house just off the Portobello Road.
In the year 1997, He married journalist Deborah Jane Orr, with whom Self has sons Ivan and Luther. In 2017, Orr and Self separated, and he was living in a rented flat in Stockwell. Orr died on 20 October 2019.
He has stated that Self has abstained from drugs, except for caffeine and nicotine, since 1998. Self sent his children to private schools, owing to his children being bullied at state schools in Lambeth.
Self has described himself as a psychogeographer and modern flâneur and has written about walks he has taken. In December 2006, Self walked 26 miles from his home in South London to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving at Kennedy Airport Self walked 20 miles from there to Manhattan.
In August 2013, he wrote of his anger following an incident in which Self was stopped and interrogate by police in Yorkshire while out walking with his eleven-year-old son, on suspicion of being a paedophile.
The police were warned by a security guard at Bishop Burton College. Self had asked the security guard for permission to cross the school grounds. In September 2018 he was accused of “mental cruelty” by Orr in relation to their divorce, in a series of posts on Twitter.
He has discussed his Jewish heritage and its impact on his identity. In the year 2006, Self ‘resigned’ as a Jew as a protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 2018 Self stated in an interview with the BBC that he had rethought his position.
He is 6 feet 5 inches (196 cm) tall, collects vintage typewriters and smokes a pipe. Self brother is the author and journalist Jonathan Self.
Will Self Salary
Details about Self’s salary are not yet disclosed. However, information about how much he makes will be updated as soon as it is available.
Will Self Net Worth
Self is an English author, television personality, and journalist who has an estimated net worth of $3 million as of the year 2020.
Will Self Height
Self is an English author, television personality, and journalist who has a height of 6′ 6″ (1.98 m) tall
Will Self Books
Self Books Umbrella 2012, The Book of Dave 2006, The Quantity Theory of Insanity 1991, Great Apes 1997, How the Dead Live 2000, Cock and Bull 1992, Phone 2017, Shark 2014, My Idea of Fun 1993, Walking to Hollywood 2010, The Butt 2008, Tough,
Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys 1998, Grey Area 1994, Dorian, an Imitation 2002, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis 1996, Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe 2004, Psychogeography 2007,
The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker 2012, Junk Mail 1995, Sore Sites 2000, Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes 2008 Design Faults in the Volvo 760,
Turbo 2005, A Guimba 2010, Wie Tote leben 2002, Slump 1985, A story for Europe 1996, Nicola Hicks 1998, Spass. Eine Moritat 1997, And Entirely Women 2001
Frequently Asked Questions About Self
How old is Self?
Self is an English author, journalist, political commentator and television personality who was born on 26 September 1961, in Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom as William Woodard Self, he is currently 58 years old
Who is Self ex wife? | Who is Self married to?
Self was married Deborah Orr 1997 – 2018 and Kate Chancellor 1989 – 1997
How tall is Self?
Self has a height of 6′ 6″ (1.98 m) tall
How much is Self worth?
Self has an estimated net worth of $3 million as of the year 2020.
Is Self dead or alive?
Self is still alive and in good health.
Where is Self now?
Self is an English author, journalist, political commentator and television personality
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