Armchair Theatre: A selection of autobiographical columns 2011 - 2018 (Roddy Phillips - A Life in Print - Autobiographical columns)

LP Hartley said, "the past is another country: they do things differently there."For me the past is a newspaper column I can't remember writing, about stuff I can't remember doing.Since the late 1980's I've written about my family life and times in humorous columns for various newspapers and magazines. Since 1994 I've written a weekly column for the grand old Scottish morning newspaper, The Press & Journal, the circulation area of which is larger than Belgium. Obviously there are a lot less sheep in Belgium.To my amazement the columns proved quite popular and they were first published in book form in 2009 under the title, 'The Familiar' by the Edinburgh publisher Black & White.Like all the best career moves the idea of writing a 'living autobiography' happened by accident. The first column was written to fill an unexpected hole in a newspaper. The deadline was tight so I used what was to hand, namely my family's recent move to the country, an event we are still recovering from. Before I knew it one column had turned into a thousand. Most writers would have something better to do, but the truth is, when you get paid to hang your dirty linen out to dry, it becomes addictive. The selection in this volume dates from 2011 to 2018 and marks my family's move from rural Scotland to the sunny south east coast of England.Happily I've never stopped doing stupid things so I've always had plenty of material to work with. No barrel was ever scraped during the writing of these columns. Roddy Phillips