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 six BBC Radio 4 shows, A Normal Family, A Normal Life, A Normal Love, A Normal Imagination, A Normal Nature and A Normal Universe, combining comedy, poetry and stories about bringing up his autistic son.
Born in St. Ann's, Nottingham, Henry now lives in Brighton with his wife - screenwriter Angela Pell - and their son Johnny. He was recently given honorary degrees by both Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University. He has also had a beer and a bus named after him in his home city.

The Escape Plan adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9161479-3-5 | 266pp | 2020 rrp £16.95 Published 16 March 2020  Available to pre-order The Escape Plan, a hardback collection of the author's personally selected poems, will be published in March 2020. To pre-order your copy for delivery on the day of publication, please visit our Shop.

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Strikingly Invisible adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9161479-3-5 | 110pp | 2019 rrp £10.00 | ebook £6.49 New Title Out Now

An all-new poetry collection from the creator, writer and performer of the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, A Normal…

Written between October 2018 and July 2019, these poems are concerned with the nature of change, identity, worth, and other abstract notions that get in the way of lunch.

Strikingly Invisible
from Strikingly Invisible © Henry Normal, 2019

We reach out our arms to the unknown
to everyday adventures
to that ninety percent of self

to the other side of the atom
to a passing acquaintance with logic
and the lake of tears on the floor of the ocean

to experience and imagination glancing

to a seemingly irrational creator

We reach out our arms to the very next breath
to hold on tightly to each other
and to let go

of
everything
else

Read a review of Strikingly Invisible at Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.

Cover art by Johnny Carroll-Pell.

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Swallowing the Entire Ocean adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9996707-8-8 | 116pp | 2019 rrp £10.00 | ebook £6.49 New Title Out Now

Written between August 2017 and January 2019, these poems are concerned with the search for meaning, identity and truth, and other foolhardy adventures.

Cover art by Johnny Carroll-Pell.

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The Department of Lost Wishes adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9996707-1-9 | 114pp | 2018 rrp £10.00 | ebook £6.49

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 adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9996707-2-6 | 112pp | 2018 rrp £10.00 | ebook £6.49

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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Staring Directly at the Eclipse adult poetry ISBN 978-1-9996707-3-3 | 80pp | 2018 rrp £9.00 | ebook £5.99

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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Art By Johnny a collection of work from Johnny Carroll-Pell Collated & Edited by Henry Normal ISBN 978-0-9955012-9-4 | 2018 rrp £12.00

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 adult poetry ISBN 978-0-9955012-7-0 | 112pp | 2017 rrp £8.99 | ebook £5.99

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 adult poetry ISBN 978-0-9955012-6-3 | 90pp | 2017 rrp £8.99 | ebook £5.99

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

Cover photo courtesy of the author.

Flapjack Press: exploring the synergy between performance and the page.