The memoir of an English potter, currently best-known for hosting The Great Pottery Throwdown, where he is regularly moved to literal tears by contestants' work and struggles. He's an enormous man with a very down-to-earth manner and brilliantly skilled hands who gets very emotional over art. It says something about how much men are socialized to not display emotions other than anger that people are constantly asking him if it's an act. It's not.

His memoir is unsurprisingly charming, funny, and sweet. He grew up with an alcoholic mother and cold, bitter father, (but enough about that, this isn't a misery memoir, he hastens to reassure us), has OCD and is so severely dyslexic that I am really curious how he managed to write an entire memoir (dictation? a ghost writer?), was in a somewhat successful punk band, became a professional potter, and got famous for making a video in which he dresses in drag and sings a song about pottery. Oh yeah, and while he was an apprentice his car got trashed by three lions. In England.

It's a lovely, quick-read memoir in his distinctive voice. My one criticism is that the only visual element is badly reproduced snapshots, so you may as well buy the ebook edition which is quite cheap and just look up anything you want to see.

ioplokon: purple cloth (Default)

From: [personal profile] ioplokon


Very cool. Though it's also worth mentioning that the acceptability of his affect is largely due to his physical stature and that he "reads" very masculine. People love it because it's incongruous. But I do think there's something very admirable about how he's able to use people's amusement/surprise to open the door a bit for others who are less physically imposing/"unexpectedly sensitive". A lot of other guys who are the "gentle giant" type will carve out space for themselves by holding the real crybabies (to use one of the milder terms) at arms' length (eg: professional athletes who cry in interviews one day and make fun of everyone else for being "soft" the next). He doesn't do that and the show's producers/editors have created a pretty expressive environment around it.

But this sounds like a great read!

(also, my mom was like, "would you really cry because a cup was the correct weight" and now having done some pottery, yes!)
ioplokon: purple cloth (Default)

From: [personal profile] ioplokon


I had that impression. I just think in these discussions it's underexamined the extent to which women's emotioal expression is even more constrained (they are punished for being overly emotional and punished for being cold, without even getting into how neutral affects are perceived...)
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)

From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard


Finally got around to reading this, now that I have time to read. I was surprisingly meh about it! I did finish it, and he seems like a nice enough guy, but the book didn't do what I was counting on it to do, which is make me interested in learning more about pottery. Oh, well!
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)

From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard


Dick Francis made me interested in accounting! Now, that's an accomplishment.
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)

From: [personal profile] sabotabby


I so need to watch the British one after I'm done with the Canadian one.
landingtree: Small person examining bottlecap (Default)

From: [personal profile] landingtree


This sounds great and also I think my flatmates would like the show! I might try it.
pauraque: bird flying (Default)

From: [personal profile] pauraque


What happened with the lions? I tried googling but couldn't find anything (and started to feel that my search terms were making it sound like I had a fetish for TV presenters being mauled by zoo animals).
.

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