To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorized Unauthorized History of Billy Childish

The story of Billy Childish, the most famous artist you’ve never heard of, by legendary music journalist Ted Kessler

In 1977, seventeen-year-old Steven Hamper was a stonemason in the dockyards of Chatham, Kent, in England. His heart, however, beat in sync with the punk rock tremors of the era, seduced by its celebration of amateurism. So, in a gesture of revolutionary defiance, he took a three-pound club hammer and smashed his hand, vowing to never work again. In doing so, Steven Hamper meta...