Stuart, a life backwards is the story of a friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic, knife-wielding beggar whom he gets to know during a campaign to release charity workers from prison. Interwoven into this is StuartsMoreStuart, a life backwards is the story of a friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic, knife-wielding beggar whom he gets to know during a campaign to release charity workers from prison.
Interwoven into this is Stuarts confession: the story of his life, told backwards. With humour, compassion (and exasperation) Alexander Masters slowly works back through post-office heists, prison riots and the exact day Stuart discovered violence, to unfold the reasons why he changed from a happy-go-lucky little boy into a polydrug-addicted-alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality, with a fondness for what he called little strips of silver (knives, to you and me).