Product Description

Byron Rogers' two previous biographies have been real critical and sales successes: 7000 hardbacks sold of The Man Who Went into the West, three printings of the paperback already, the award of the James Tait Black Prize and reviews praising a work of genius; The Last Englishman hailed by Simon Jenkins as a minor masterpiece, serialised on Radio 4, five hardback printings alone. Now Byron tackles, in his own idiosyncratic and compulsively readable way, a third biographical subject: himself. Several years ago he started receiving letters forwarded to him by his then-employer, the Daily Telegraph Magazine. But these weren't the usual readers' letters. These were passionate, not to say, steamy, love letters. They were also from women he'd never met. But they seemed to know all about him, the illustrious journalist...Rogers' quest to find out about this other Mr Rogers - not your normal kind of imposter, but one who did you the double-edged favour of spreading far and wide your undeserved reputation for unbridled priapism - is what sets off this strange and hilarious memoir. For, having written two acclaimed biographies of singular, indeed maverick, literary figures - J.L.. Carr and R.S. Thomas - there remained only one eligible subject for the completion of the trilogy: B.D. Rogers...Byron Rogers' books for Aurum include his biography of R.S. Thomas, The Man Who Went into the West, which won the James Tait Black Prize, The Last Englishman, The Bank Manager and the Holy Grail and An Audience with an Elephant. He lives in Northamptonshire and in Wales.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188917 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
`One of the finest and funniest national newspaper journalists in Britain' -- The Scotsman, July, 2009

`Rogers has produced one of the most delightful books crafted by an author for whom English is not the first language...fascinating and affectionate' -- The Independent, July, 2009

`just about the funniest writer I know...a wonderful book' -- Andrew Martin, Daily Mail, July, 2009

`Rogers is a star writer...On every page there is a strange incident, a funny anecdote, a striking image. The reader is glad to be reading and glad the Byron Rogers exists' -- Daily Telegraph, July, 2009

`endearing and very funny'
-- Mail on Sunday, August, 2009

Customer Reviews

ME
I would always await his columns in the papers with anticipation to discover what fascinating little nugget he could turn into the light for us all to have a look at so awaited this with some anticipation. I have to say I'm not disappointed
Much is made of the fact that as a boy he didn't learn English until five, but I think this helps explain that sense of being an existentialist outsider who observes life that informs his work. A feeling which never veers into the alienation that his hero R.S. Thomas cultivated, because Rogers still is passionate about the actual rather than the abstract as in the cloning of Britain's streets. A passion which is very much discernible through the wry almost self-mocking tone he adopts about himself, especially when talking about the tea dancing Lothario who stole his identity. So in that sense the title of the book can be explained as an examination of what made him, because I would imagine an impostor forces you to examine your own life, comparing what you think he's left out. A book that I will reread again and again from a man I would love to take the pub and buy his beer all night long just for the chance to listen instead of just read.

Me- The Authorised Biography
I find the book very humerous, although some parts are a little explicit but knowing the author so well it does not surprise me. I hope he carries on writing.

Enid Williams

Fun in the deep end of the typing pool
There's a photograph on page 211 which shows the author dressed as a cowboy, grinning at a woman with whom he is in some sort of pre-line-dance clinch, or perhaps it's a post-shoot-out embrace. She herself has the broadest of smiles, a flower in her hair and is almost wearing a skimpy outfit. There is no caption to the photo and it seems to bear no relation to the text either side of it, which only adds to the charm and makes it all the more Byron(Rogers)esque, summing up this wonderful, picaresque book by its very incongruity. The memoir opens with an hilarious bang - the theft of Byron's good name by a priapic impostor back in the '80s. One amorous letter he received - addressed, accurately in one sense, to Byron Rogers - congratulated him on his sexual prowess and urged him to get in touch if he fancied another session with Gilly and Angie from an (anonymous) typing pool. Hilarious for us the reader, unsettling for the victim. The story then rewinds to childhood before setting off in search of anecdote and adventure. Some tales made me laugh out loud, even on a second read, others to fall quiet, such as his encounter with a school bully, now a grown man, and the jolly old cove's apparent ignorance of his adolescent cruelty. By turns reflective and impish, Byron Rogers' writing is always unaffected, wryly self-critical and shot through with a lyrical melancholy that only the true Welshman can conjure without it sounding naff. Loved it.