Henry Normal is a writer, poet, TV and film
producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester
Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. In June
2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television.
Henry co-wrote and script edited the
multi-award-winning Mrs Merton Show and the spin-off
series Mrs Merton and Malcolm. He also co-created and
co-wrote the first series of The Royle Family. With Steve
Coogan, he co-wrote the BAFTA-winning Paul and Pauline Calf Video
Diaries, Coogan's Run, Tony
Ferrino, Doctor Terrible, all of Steve's live
tours, and the film The Parole Officer. Setting up Baby
Cow Productions in 1999, Henry Executive Produced all, and script edited many,
of the shows of its seventeen-and-a-half-year output during his tenure as MD.
Highlights of the Baby Cow output during this time include Oscar-nominated
Philomena, I Believe in Miracles,
Gavin and Stacey, Moone Boy,
The Mighty Boosh, Marion and Geoff,
Red Dwarf, Uncle, Nighty
Night, Hunderby, Camping
and Alan Partridge.
Since retiring in April 2016, Henry has written
and performed five BBC Radio 4 shows, A Normal Family,
A Normal Life, A Normal Love A Normal Imagination and A Normal Nature, combining comedy, poetry and stories
about bringing up his autistic son. A Normal Life
was awarded the Silver ARIA for Best Comedy/ Entertainment production
at the 2017 Radio Academy Awards.
Born in St. Anne's, Nottingham, Henry now lives in
Brighton with his wife - screenwriter Angela Pell - and their son Johnny. He
was recently given a Honorary Doctorate of letters by Nottingham Trent
University and has had a beer named after him in his home city.
Henry's all-new collection Swallowing the Entire Ocean will be published in Spring 2019.
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The Department of Lost Wishes contains over a hundred poems personally selected by the author from his early works.
Green are the English
pastures
Green - the jealousy of
lovers
Green are the fruit pastels
I always offer to others
"Distinctly funny" - Time Out
Cover photo by Richard Davis.
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This Phantom Breath was
written between August 2016 and August 2017.
The poems
in this collection are concerned with love, death, truth and other inconvenient
distractions.
I wrap these bandages about
my face
and wear dark shades for
fear
that you should peer into my
eyes
and see nobody there
"Witty and uncannily accurate with his observations" - The Stage
Cover art by Johnny Carroll-Pell.
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Henry
Normal's first poetry book in over twenty years, combining both new and
selected poems from his previous performance work.
This collection encompasses
the subjects of love, death, loneliness, loss, human frailty and other classic
conversation stoppers.
First published by Five Leaves in 2016, Staring Directly at the Eclipse has been revised and reissued by Flapjack Press in 2018.
"Succinct, heartrending and peppered with gentle punchlines" - The Guardian
"The Alan Bennett of poetry" - The Scotsman
Cover art by Johnny Carroll-Pell.
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Johnny Carroll-Pell is a young artist who is diagnosed as severely autistic. Though he finds verbal communication challenging, Johnny finds expression through painting.
To coincide with the first major exhibition of his paintings at Brighton's Phoenix Art Gallery, this book contains 100 full-colour pictures celebrating his art. The title replicates his popular Facebook page Art By Johnny and several further exhibitions around the country.
The paintings and photos here are selected by his parents, Henry Normal and Angela Pell, who have written a book about bringing Johnny up called A Normal Family. Johnny is also the subject of several BBC Radio 4 shows, a couple of poetry books written by his dad, and the inspiration for the film Snow Cake, written by his mum.
"Many artists would envy the spontaneity and freedom of expression that Johnny shows as he paints - and the joyous and arresting results speak for themselves. Years ago we used to say that people with autism showed no emotion and had no imagination: looking at these beautiful paintings makes me ashamed that we could ever have been so blind." - Jane Asher, National Autistic Society President
"Painting is his chosen outlet of expression and this collection ... is testament to his talent. It depicts a dazzling, sensual world of intense colours and lights. There is a spontaneity and energy about his work that is compelling." - Veronica Groocock, Literary Life
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Raining Upwards is Henry's first all new poetry
collection in over twenty years.
These poems explore
relationships with science, nature, humanity, and other vital matters we are usually too busy to think
about.
Includes a Foreword by Tim Firth.
Read a review of Raining Upwards and an interview with Henry, both at Write Out Loud.
"In amongst his work lie some of the most tender, compassionate and moving pieces I have read from a modern poet" - Artful Reporter
Cover art by Johnny Carroll-Pell.
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Travelling Second Class Through Hope contains seventy poems personally selected by the author from his early works.
Includes a Foreword by Lemn Sissay MBE.
Guardian Review 13 May 2017: The Saturday Poem
"Dovetails bittersweet poetry with a sublimely observant wit" - The Guardian
"The nerd triumphant"- Manchester Evening News
"A gentle giant of stand-up poetry" - List
"The enfant terrible of alternative poetry" - Leeds Other Paper
Sans pretension
from Travelling Second Class Through Hope © Henry Normal, 2017We say 'cul-de-sac'
to make 'dead end' sound sunny
We say 'nouveau riche'
instead of working class with money
We call art 'avant-garde'
when we don't understand it
Jumble sales sell 'bric-à-brac'
which must be French for shit
Let's call a spud a spud
no more lies or elaborate word contortions
Chips are chips
not pommes frites or french fries
Why say 'haute cuisine' when you mean 'smaller portions'
No more saying we had a 'tête-à-tête'
when you mean you've been nagging
bragging or just chin wagging
And no more calling it a 'ménage à trois'
when you mean three people shagging
Cover photo courtesy of the author.
Flapjack Press: exploring the synergy between performance and the page.