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''Stuart: A Life Backwards'' is a
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
by
Alexander Masters
Alexander Wright Masters is an English author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Masters is the son of authors Dexter Masters and Joan Brady. He was educated at Bedales School, and took a first ...
of his friend Stuart Clive Shorter, formerly, at various times, a prisoner and a
career criminal
A habitual offender, repeat offender, or career criminal is a person convicted of a crime who was previously convicted of crimes. Various state and jurisdictions may have laws targeting habitual offenders, and specifically providing for enhanced o ...
. It explores how a young boy, somewhat disabled from birth, became mentally unstable, criminal and violent, living homeless on the streets of Cambridge. As the title suggests, the book starts from Shorter's adult life, and works backwards to trace through his troubled childhood, examining the effects his family, schooling and disability had on his eventual state.
The book won the
Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 2005 for biography, and the 2006
Hawthornden Prize
The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...
. It won the 2005
Guardian First Book Award
The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...
. Recently many secondary schools across the UK have included it in their higher education academic syllabus for English language.
A television dramatisation with the same name, starring
Tom Hardy as Shorter and
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence O ...
as Masters was co-produced by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
and
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
in 2007. Tom Hardy was nominated for a
2008 BAFTA for his portrayal of Stuart Shorter. Additionally, Laurence Hobbs was cast in the role of Smithy.
A stage production premiered in 2013 adapted by double BAFTA-winning writer
Jack Thorne
Jack Thorne FRSL (born 6 December 1978) is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.
He is best known for writing the stage play ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', the films ''Wonder'' and '' Enola Holmes'', an ...
produced by
HighTide
HighTide is a theatre company based in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. It is one of the UK’s leading producers of new plays, and the only professional theatre company focused on the production of new playwrights. The company produces around six new prod ...
Festival Theatre and the
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre (often referred to simply as "The Crucible") is a theatre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England which opened in 1971. Although it hosts regular theatrical performances, it is best known for hosting professional snooker's m ...
Sheffield.
Perrier Award
Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of natural bottled mineral water obtained at its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier is known for its carbonation and its distinctive green bottle.
Perrier was part of the ...
winner
Will Adamsdale
Will Adamsdale (born 1974) is an English actor, comedian and writer.
Adamsdale was educated at Eton College and the Oxford School of Drama. In 2004, he starred in a self-penned one man show called ''Jackson's Way'' at the Edinburgh Fringe. Th ...
played Alexander Masters and
Fraser Ayres
Fraser Stuart Ayres (born 1980) is an English actor, best known for his role as Clint in the BBC comedy series '' The Smoking Room''.
Ayres first joined the youth core at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester and has done other television includ ...
played Stuart Shorter, and was nominated for Best Actor in
The Stage
''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...
Awards.
The life of Stuart Shorter
Stuart Shorter (born Stuart Clive Turner on 19 September 1968 in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
– died 6 July 2002 in
Waterbeach
Waterbeach is an expanding village north of Cambridge on the edge of The Fens, in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was designated a "new town" in 2018.
History Early periods
Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Rom ...
,
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
) was a homeless man and advocate whose life was chronicled by
Alexander Masters
Alexander Wright Masters is an English author, screenwriter, and worker with the homeless. He lives in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Masters is the son of authors Dexter Masters and Joan Brady. He was educated at Bedales School, and took a first ...
in his book.
Early life
Shorter was born in a condemned cottage on the edge of Cambridge, the son of Andrew Turner (called Rex in the book and dramatisation), a
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
and Sonia (Judith), (née Tierney), a barmaid. Sonia later remarried, to David Shorter
aul
An aul (; ce, oil; russian: аул) is a type of fortified village or town found throughout the Caucasus mountains and Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia.
The word itself is of Turkic origin and simply means ''village'' in many Turkic language ...
Stuart had two brothers and one half-sister, Andrew
avvy Kai
arcusand Zoe
aren Aren may refer to:
People
; Given name
* Andreas Arén (born 1985), Swedish ski jumper
* Aren b, also known as Brendan Vintedge, American singer-songwriter
* Aren Davoudi (born 1986), Armenian basketball player
* Aren Kuri (born 1991), Japanese bas ...
most noted in the novel are his older brother, Gavvy, and younger sister, Karen. Marcus is only mentioned briefly in the book. Shorter suffered from
facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a type of muscular dystrophy, a group of heritable diseases that cause degeneration of muscle and progressive weakness. Per the name, FSHD tends to sequentially weaken the muscles of the face, ...
, which he inherited from his father, and
borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong ...
.
As a child, Shorter was sexually abused by his brother, and also by a
babysitter
Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child. Babysitting can be a paid job for all ages; however, it is best known as a temporary activity for early teenagers who are not yet eligible for employment in the general economy. It provides auton ...
, after which he was put into a children's home. Here, he was abused again by the
paedophile
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
Keith Laverack, who in 1997, was jailed for 18 years for various offences against children. During his adult life, Shorter was in and out of various
homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
hostel
A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...
s, as well as spending much time in
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
for a number of
violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, violent act is t ...
s. He also fathered one son, the Little'Un, who lives in Norwich.
Activism
In 1998, following a five-year jail sentence for
armed robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
, Shorter was living in a subterranean
multi-storey car park
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
when he was rescued by two outreach workers, who found him a
flat
Flat or flats may refer to:
Architecture
* Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries
Arts and entertainment
* Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch
* Flat (soldier), ...
to live in. He subsequently became one of the first people to bring ''
The Big Issue
''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or indivi ...
'' into Cambridge, and his work as an activist for the homeless began when he presented a short
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
documentary, ''Private Investigations'', denouncing police plans to ban homeless people from the city centre.
In 1999, Shorter became a leading figure in the campaign to release Ruth Wyner and John Brock, the Director and Day Centre Manager of Wintercomfort for the Homeless, who had been sent to prison because some of the people they were looking after had been secretly trading drugs on the charity's premises. Shorter negotiated with police to organise marches and vigils, and arranged the campaign's most successful gesture, a three-day sleep-out of homeless people outside the
Home Office in London – which ended in the release of the "Cambridge Two" after just six months.
Death
On 6 July 2002, just outside his home village of
Waterbeach
Waterbeach is an expanding village north of Cambridge on the edge of The Fens, in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was designated a "new town" in 2018.
History Early periods
Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Rom ...
, Stuart Shorter was hit by the 11.15pm London to
King's Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
train, and was killed instantly. He was 33 years old. As to the cause of his death, the jury returned an
open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...
. Despite an overall lack of evidence that Shorter purposefully walked in front of the train, the coroners report stating that this was contrary to how his body was positioned at the time of death, there are hints that suggest Shorter may have intended to die. Shorter had a long history of attempted suicides and his sister Zoe once mentioned in an interview that Shorter informed her that were he ever to commit suicide he would make it appear accidental as he felt that the prospect of his mother losing both sons to suicide would be too much for her to bear.
[{{cite news , url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/sep/10/familyandrelationships.socialexclusion , title=Life after Stuart , work=The Guardian, accessdate=8 November 2011 , location=London , first=Louise , last=Carpenter , date=10 September 2006]
References
External links
*
Stuart: A Life Backwards'
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
programme page