Welcome to Mike’s Memoirs, here you’ll find info on ‘One of Its Legs are Both the Same’ (out now) and ‘A Pocket Full of Days’ Part 1, also now available, released on 1st August 2018. Part 2 will be out in early Spring 2019.
In brief, ‘Legs’ is my memoir of childhood and into my twenties through the period of the mid 1950s to the late 1970s. It’s a reassessment of how I got to be who I am from someone who was only recently diagnosed with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, a.k.a. Asperger’s. More about ‘Legs’ here.
‘Pocket Full’ is a two part memoir that is ‘sorta, kinda’ the sequel to ‘Legs’, but which tells it’s own story about my relationship with Jo, a young woman I had an on and off again relationship over twenty five years. It’s a tale of a pair of Hansel and Gretel misfits and a classic story of ‘can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em’. More about ‘Pocket Full’ here.
Herewith, then, among these pages more about ‘Legs’ and ‘Pocket Full’, including how to buy copies, some questions and answers, some relevant pics, a selection of reviews, music, some further interesting links and contact me stuff.
Cheers,
MikeC
More About ‘One of its Legs are Both the Same’.
‘One of Its Legs are Both the Same’ is my memoir of being, as my mum would say, ‘different’. It’s an intriguing and rollicking tale of the ‘hippie’ era of the early 1970s, centred on my shared experiences at ‘the cottage’, a close-set pair of small fruit-pickers’ cottages in Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia. The story features murderous rats, painfully low door lintels, angry spiders and a rabid duck, and is interspersed with earlier recollections of relevant, if at times irreverent, childhood events. Forced to face demons of my own making, and finding guardian angels in unexpected places, I eventually find understanding of my life of difference amidst trauma, bizarre happenings (including being sexually molested by a glowing cat), serendipity and near misses, as well as beauty and much laughter.
Oh, and a lot of no sex.
While my memoir is about my experiences as someone with high functioning autism, it doesn’t focus on or provide explanations based on my condition, but readers may do so if they choose. ‘Legs’ is an open and frank recount of what was happening at the time, with no attempt to pigeonhole either myself, my condition, or any particular event.
More About ‘A Pocket Full of Days’
‘A Pocket Full of Days’ is a two part memoir which in the main follows on from the first, ‘One of its Legs are Both the Same’, in a ‘sorta, kinda’ way. It’s about my twenty five year odd (very!) relationship with a young woman called Jo and seeking an answer to the question ‘Am I my brother/sister’s keeper?’, i.e. am I responsible for my life and you yours and that’s an end to it? While these are murky waters to peer through to find meaningful answers, ‘Pocket Full’ is my attempt to at least find answers for myself, and to find personal truth in one story. While the heart of ‘Pocket Full’ takes place immediately after the events of ‘Legs’, it also recounts events from periods that overlap, e.g. childhood, teenage years, to provide context for the main story, particularly for those who haven’t yet read ‘Legs’.
I recommend you read my first memoir before this one as you will bring insights that I hope will enrich your experience. However, it’s not necessary for you to have done so, and it might be interesting to read this memoir first as ‘reverse engineering’ is one of my favourite things.