48 Facts About Will Self

1.

William Woodard Self was born on 26 September 1961 and is an English author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster.

2.

Will Self has written 11 novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and nine collections of non-fiction writing.

3.

Will Self's fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque and fantastical, and is predominantly set within his home city of London.

4.

Will Self's writing often explores mental illness, drug abuse and psychiatry.

5.

Will Self is a regular contributor to publications including The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times and the London Review of Books.

6.

Will Self currently writes a column for the New Statesman, and he has been a columnist for the Observer, The Times, and the Evening Standard.

7.

Will Self is a regular contributor to British television, initially as a guest on comic panel shows such as Have I Got News for You.

8.

In 2002, Will Self replaced Mark Lamarr on the BBC comedy panel show Shooting Stars for two series, but was himself replaced by comedian Jack Dee when the programme returned in 2008.

9.

Will Self has since appeared on current affairs programmes such as Newsnight and Question Time.

10.

Will Self is a contributor to the BBC Radio 4 programme A Point of View, to which he contributes radio essays delivered in his familiar "lugubrious tones".

11.

In 2013, Will Self took part in discussions about becoming the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Writer-in-Residence, but later withdrew.

12.

Will Self was born in London and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

13.

Will Self's parents were Peter John Otter Self, Professor of Public Administration at the London School of Economics, and Elaine Rosenbloom, from Queens, New York, who worked as a publisher's assistant.

14.

Will Self spent a year living in Ithaca in upstate New York.

15.

Will Self's parents separated when he was nine, and divorced when he was 18.

16.

Into his teenage years, Will Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", which stifled his ability to express himself.

17.

Will Self started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, progressing by way of amphetamines, cocaine and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18.

18.

Will Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient.

19.

Will Self attended University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead.

20.

Will Self later attended Christ's College, Finchley, from where he went to Exeter College, Oxford, reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics and graduated with a third class degree.

21.

Will Self pursued a career as a cartoonist for the New Statesman and other publications and as a stand-up comedian.

22.

Will Self gained negative publicity in 1997 when he was sent to cover the election campaign of John Major and was caught by a rival journalist using heroin on the Prime Minister's jet; he was fired as a result.

23.

Will 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.

24.

Since 2008 Will Self has appeared five times on Question Time.

25.

Will Self stopped appearing in Have I Got News for You, stating the show had become a pseudo-panel show.

26.

Since 2009, Will Self has written two alternating fortnightly columns for the New Statesman.

27.

Will Self is a professor of Modern Thought at Brunel University London.

28.

Will Self has said that he previously admired William Burroughs but went off him.

29.

Will Self has cited influences such as Jonathan Swift, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll and Joseph Heller as formative influences on his writing style.

30.

Zack Busner is a recurring character in Will Self's fiction, appearing in the short story collections The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Grey Area and Dr Mukti and Other Tales of Woe, as well as in the novels Great Apes, The Book of Dave, Umbrella and Shark.

31.

Will Self is often the antagonist of the stories he appears in, although not always with villainous intent.

32.

In July 2015 Will Self endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.

33.

Will Self said during a Channel 4 News interview that Corbyn represents a useful ideological divide within Labour, and could lead to the formation of a schism in the party.

34.

Will Self was married from 1989 to 1997 to Kate Chancellor.

35.

In 1997, Will Self married journalist Deborah Orr, with whom he has sons Ivan and Luther.

36.

In 2017, Orr and Will Self separated, and Will Self was living in a rented flat in Stockwell.

37.

Will Self has stated that he has abstained from drugs, except for caffeine and nicotine, since 1998.

38.

Will Self sent his younger children to private schools after they experienced bullying at state schools in Lambeth.

39.

Will Self was diagnosed with the blood disease Polycythaemia vera in 2011.

40.

Will Self has described himself as a psychogeographer and modern flaneur, and has written about walks he has taken.

41.

Will Self had asked the security guard for permission to cross the school grounds.

42.

In September 2018 Will Self was accused of "mental cruelty" by Orr in relation to their divorce, in a series of posts on Twitter.

43.

Will Self has discussed his Jewish heritage and its impact on his identity.

44.

In 2006, Will Self 'resigned' as a Jew as a protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

45.

Will Self's brother is the author and journalist Jonathan Self.

46.

In 2016, the British Library acquired Will Self's archive; the collection is a hybrid archive of paper and born-digital material.

47.

The Papers of Will Self are divided into two parts: family papers and personal and literary papers.

48.

Will Self has compiled several books of work from his newspaper and magazine columns which mix interviews with counter-culture figures, restaurant reviews and literary criticism.