Review by Eric Page
This is the glorious chatty, indiscrete, but always humble tale of life lived in every way possible, a winding collection of uproarious and often moving stories spanning 60 years of Geoff Deane‘s life (so far) pulled together and shared during lockdown in a series of very funny online vignettes.
Growing up in London as a clothes obsessed Jewish suede head in Tottenham dancehalls, via straight Bowie boy frequenting London’s gay clubs, gender confusion in Manhattan’s Studio 54, and on to huge career success as a screenwriter. This memoir, told in vivid detail with plenty of small touches to bring the stories to real life, is a joy to read.
Deane has had a remarkably wide set of experiences and careers, he’s been a kitchen porter at Jewish functions, flogged suits down Brick Lane market, sang in culty punk band the Leyton Buzzards then segued to a floppy-haired pop star in Modern Romance. In 1984 he penned gay anthem You Think You’re a Man? for drag icon Divine, wrote for The Face and Arena and is author of Kinky Boots, the Tony Award-winning Broadway stage show.
The book captures his audacious ride through life in the kind of candid detail that people often leave for posthumous memoirs, so it’s all the more fun to hear Deane’s sometimes bashful, always celebratory take on his own riotous experiences. He’s good at serving context, reflecting on his own behaviour, then and now, and being as respectful as possible to people who are dragged along in his steeplechase life, but it’s all about the laughs.
He writes in glorious London prose, cockney slang and Yiddish, he’s blunt but polished like a well-loved brass knuckleduster, throw in some Polari and an agile ability to record the vocal diversity of the communities he’s living in with a candid forthright manner and this man’s a charm. He’s the one you sit next to on the train and end up joining him for a drink or ten in a late-night dive bar in whatever town you end up in. This is British raconteur at its best, exploring class, culture, fame and infinite diverse fortune with humour.
Deane’s a rascal and knows it, he’s also fun and deeply kind and not adverse to stepping up when there’s some facing off to do. Skipping though this instantly recognisable world, he drops famous names like fag buts, but it’s the content of the stories attached which are the joy here. Not celebrity for the sake of it, but brazen, glorious, joyful living life.
The book made me laugh out loud and left me smiling, it’s such a good natured, positive romp and Deane’s the kind of mate we all need in our life. To keep us on our toes and remind us of the possibilities and opportunities that a little cheeky charm can bring our way.
This is a tale of a fortunate life, grasped and wrung out, told with self-depreciating humour by a man with some considerable insight into his own and the wider world’s bullshit, and is a splendid book.
Out now £8.99
For more info or to order the book see the publisher’s website here:
You must be logged in to post a comment.