Will Self

Early life Self was born in Charing Cross Hospital and brought up in north London, between the suburbs of East Finchley and Hampstead Garden Suburb. His 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. His paternal grandfather was Sir Albert Henry Self. Self spent a year living in Ithaca in upstate New York. Despite the intellectual encouragement given by his parents, he was an emotionally confused and self-destructive child, self-harming with burns from cigarette embers and cuts from knives before beginning to use drugs.

Self was a voracious reader from a young age. When he was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Into his teenage years, Self claimed to have been "overawed by the canon", which stifled his ability to express himself. Self's use of drugs increased in step with his prolific reading. He started smoking cannabis at the age of 12, progressing by way of amphetamines, cocaine and LSD to heroin, which he started injecting at 18. Self struggled with mental health issues during this period, and aged 20 became a hospital outpatient.

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

Career

After graduating from the University of Oxford, Self worked for the Greater London Council, including as a road sweeper, while residing in Brixton. He pursued a career as a cartoonist for The New Statesman and other publications and as a stand-up comedian.

The publication of his short story collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity brought him to public attention in 1991. Self was hailed as an original new talent by Salman Rushdie, Doris Lessing, Beryl Bainbridge, A. S. Byatt and Bill Buford. Conversely, Self's second book, My Idea of Fun, was "mauled" by the critics.

Self joined The Observer as a columnist in 1995. At the time, he argued "I'm a hack who gets hired because I do drugs". He joined The Times as a columnist in 1997.

Since 2009, Self has written two alternating fortnightly columns for New Statesman. The Madness of Crowds explores social phenomena and group behaviour, and in Real Meals he reviews high street food outlets. For a May 2014 article in The Guardian, he wrote: "the literary novel as an art work and a narrative art form central to our culture is indeed dying before our eyes", explaining in a July 2014 article that his royalty income had decreased "dramatically" over the previous decade. The July article followed the release of a study of the earnings of British authors that was commissioned by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.

In 2012, Self was appointed Professor of Contemporary Thought at Brunel University London.

Self is a presenter for programmes on BBC Radio 4.

Literary style

Self has given his reason for writing as follows: "I don't write fiction for people to identify with and I don't write a picture of the world they can recognise. I write to astonish people." "What excites me is to disturb the reader's fundamental assumptions. I want to make them feel that certain categories within which they are used to perceiving the world are unstable."

When he was ten, he developed an interest in works of science fiction such as Frank Herbert's Dune and those of J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick. Self admires the work of Ballard, Alasdair Gray and Martin Amis. He has said that he previously admired William S. Burroughs but went off him. He has cited writers such as Jonathan Swift, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll and Joseph Heller as formative influences on his writing style. Self credits Céline's book Journey to the End of the Night with inspiring him to write fiction.

Zack Busner is a recurring character in 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. Busner is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst practising in London and is prone to self-promotion at the expense of his patients. He is often the antagonist of the stories he appears in, although not always with villainous intent.

Among Self's admirers was the American critic Harold Bloom. Journalist Stuart Maconie has described him as "that rarity in modern cultural life, a genuine intellectual with a bracing command of words and ideas who is also droll, likeable and culturally savvy."

Political views In the 2015 general election, Self voted for the Labour Party in a general election for the first time since 1997. In May 2015, he wrote in The Guardian: "No, I'm no longer a socialist if to be one is to believe that a socialist utopia is attainable by some collective feat of will – but I remain a socialist, if 'socialism' is to be understood as an antipathy to vested interests and privileges neither deserved nor earned, and a strong desire for a genuinely egalitarian society." In March 2017, he wrote in the New Statesman: "Nowadays I think in terms of compassionate pragmatism: I'll leave socialism to Žižek and the other bloviators."

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

Self is a republican.

Personal life From 1989 to 1997, Self was married to Kate Chancellor. They have two children: a son, Alexis, and a daughter, Madeleine. They lived together in a terraced house just off the Portobello Road. In 1997, Self married journalist Deborah Orr, with whom he has sons Ivan and Luther. In 2012, Orr and Self were living in a Victorian townhouse in Stockwell, which collapsed. In 2017, Orr and Self separated, and Self was living in a ex-council flat in Stockwell. In October 2008, Self sent his younger children to private schools after they experienced bullying at state schools in Lambeth. In September 2018, Self was accused of "mental cruelty" by Orr in relation to their divorce, in a series of posts on Twitter. Orr died on 19 October 2019. As of 2024, Will Self is married to the French novelist . Self's 2024 novel Elaine is partially based on the diaries of his mother, who died in 1988.

Health Self is tall. Since 1998, Self has abstained from drugs, except for caffeine and nicotine. In 2024, he wrote: "I gave up smoking – and indeed, consuming nicotine in any way, shape or form – almost six years ago". He had previously smoked a pipe. Self was diagnosed with blood disease polycythaemia vera in 2011. This developed into myelofibrosis. Self became a vegetarian in 2015, for aesthetic rather than ethical reasons, later describing himself as flexitarian rather than total vegetarian.

Jewish heritage Self has discussed his Jewish heritage, by way of his mother, and its impact on his identity. In 2006, Self 'resigned' as a Jew as a protest against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 2018, he stated in an interview with the BBC that he had rethought his position, due to the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Britain.

Other activities and interests Self has described himself as a psychogeographer and modern flâneur, and has written about walks he has taken. In December 2006, he walked from his home in South London to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving at Kennedy Airport he walked from there to Manhattan. Self collects vintage typewriters.

Archive In 2016, the British Library acquired Self's archive; the collection is a hybrid archive of paper and born-digital material. The Papers of Will Self are divided into two parts: family papers, and personal and literary papers. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue. The archive consists of 24 large boxes of papers, artwork, audio-visual material and a hard disk drive.

Awards 1991: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for The Quantity Theory of Insanity 1998: Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from The Paris Review for Tough Tough Toys for Tough Tough Boys 2008: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction for The Butt

Works Novels Cock and Bull (1992) My Idea of Fun (1993) The Sweet Smell of Psychosis (illustrated novella) (1996) Great Apes (1997) How the Dead Live (2000) Dorian, an Imitation (2002) The Book of Dave (2006) The Butt (2008) Walking to Hollywood (2010) Umbrella (2012) Shark (2014) Phone (2017) Elaine (2024) The Quantity Theory of Morality (2026)

Short story collections The Quantity Theory of Insanity (1991) Grey Area (1994) Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys (1998) Dr. Mukti and Other Tales of Woe (2004) Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes (2008) The Undivided Self: Selected Stories (2010)

Non-fiction Self has also compiled several books of work from his newspaper and magazine columns, which mix interviews with counter-culture figures, restaurant reviews and literary criticism. Junk Mail (1996) Perfidious Man (2000) photography by David M. Gamble Sore Sites (2000) Feeding Frenzy (2001) Psychogeography (2007) Psycho Too (2009) The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Prawn Cracker (2012) Will (2019) Why Read: Selected Writings 2001–2021 (2022)

Television The Minor Character – Self's short story was turned into a short film on Sky Arts, which starred David Tennant as "Will".