My books No Joe Bloggs and Joe's Jolly Japes, Autism, Aspergers Syndrome

My books No Joe Bloggs and Joe's Jolly Japes, Autism and Aspergers Syndrome.

It's time to press the play button yet again. I know I've mentioned this on more than one occasion and you're probably wondering if this author will ever stop singing the praises of his books but here I go and this is, unashamedly. my chance to indulge in some shameless book promotion.

Firstly I'd like to highlight once again how deeply proud I am of both my memoir No Joe Bloggs and my latest book Joe's Jolly Japes. Both books were just a constant source of pleasure to write and if you like rapturously lyrical description, a festival of words and stories from my heart then No Joe Bloggs is definitely the book for you.

No Joe Bloggs is of course- or at least I think it is - funny, moving, nostalgic, very lyrical, heartwarming, uplifting, and, I think, a poetic journey around my life. It is full of rich language, vividly nostalgic tinted prose, an all singing, all dancing story about my life, the joyous childhood, the teenage angst, the triumphs and disasters, the difficulties that adolescence confronted me with and the arrival in the land of adults when it all came right for me and gloriously so.

I feel duty bound to put the record straight here. My teenage years were almost impossibly hellish and I'm quite to happy to clarify some important points here. I was embarrassingly shy and immature, nervous of my own shadow, terrified in fact. I had no social interaction with the kids of my age and feared on more on more than one occasion that I'd never be to mix with my peers at any time.

Before I go any further I feel I have to point out here that I'm not looking for the sympathy vote but what I would like to tell everybody in this blog is that my teenage years were wasted, lonely and terribly frightening at times. So here goes the confession. It was a difficult and traumatic adolescence. In fact I hadn't a clue what I was doing and it's only now that I can be perfectly frank and admit to shortcomings and deficiencies as a teenage lost soul.

So here we go. I was diagnosed several years ago with Autism and have Aspergers Syndrome. There you are. I've said it and I've admitted to chronic vulnerability. I'm flawed, very sensitive at times, human, at times very perplexed, almost certainly totally baffled by the everyday events around me at times and unreasonably petrified by the speed of change around me. I admit here and now that I have a very unconventional approach to decision making that may come naturally to those who find life much easier to cope with than me.

I admit it. I didn't do the kind of things that should have been simple and straightforward. I was afraid that 11 or 12 year old kids would laugh at me, hurl ridicule and derision at me almost incessantly and just make life almost unbearable. But this was never the case. When my late and wonderful dad pleaded with his very young son to join in with the fun at a Jewish youth club in Barkingside, Essex it represented, quite singularly, the most terrifying experience of my life.

I don't think anybody will ever be to appreciate the severity of my fear or terror, the tearful trepidation that racked every bone in my body. But that's how it felt and as much as I would like to admit that it was just a part of my teenage mindset I can't deny that one September evening in 1974 will not live on as one of my finest moments.

There I stood there with my lovely dad, shaking and trembling, trying desperately to escape from the youth club and not really knowing why. I can still see the rabbi in his immaculately white shawl(talit) smiling very sympathetically at this nervous as a kitten kid who just wanted to run for the hills and never ever be seen again by anybody. There was a very real confusion and bewilderment about that whole period that I now recognise and fully understand why it happened.

So there you have it folks I have Aspergers Syndrome and although the whole subject of mental health has never been more widely discussed than it is now, I still find myself caught up in a world of misunderstanding, where there still seems to be a stigma attached to people with autism. For whatever reason society, or so it would seem, simply can't get its head around this very modern day condition.

Of course I look away when I'm being spoken to and that complete lack of eye contact has now rendered any future employment a no go area. I can assure you it was never deliberate and intentional and I make no apologies at all because that's the way I am. Yes of course I'm  hard wired differently but I'm not ashamed at all about who I am and where I've come from.

Six years ago I had the most enormous of all breakdowns. It was a complete mental meltdown and I vowed there and then that it would never happen again. So it was that I reluctantly decided that retirement from the world of employment on obvious mental health grounds was the logical choice. It was with a heavy heart that I'd resolved that I had enough and wanted to follow an entirely new path in my life.

Now I turned my hand to something I'd always loved doing albeit in the pre digital, pre computer age when pen, pencil and A4 paper seemed to be my only means of expression, But once I'd got going again I knew that the appetite to write had never really deserted me, that my love of the English language and grammar was still there and hadn't left me.

Then it was that I slowly, but surely, but gradually and lovingly pieced together my life story to the present day. No Joe Bloggs is the realisation of that dormant ambition, illuminated into life on the written page and finally I knew I was onto something. The construction period was very deliberate but by the time I'd finished No Joe Bloggs, my mind had reached its peak of clarity.

No Joe Bloggs is my life story, growing up in Ilford, Essex, my parents and grandparents, a deeply heartfelt and affectionate homage to my wonderful and late dad, my favourite movies, my favourite radio stations, loads of pop culture from the 1960s and 70, the celebrities of the time, the movers and shakers, the brilliant TV programmes from Britain and the USA, a fictitious but I think amusing story about my dad's visit to Las Vegas, my dad schmoozing and fraternising with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Junior, my favourite football teams and funny pen portraits on Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton, Ipswich Town, Spurs, Liverpool, Leeds United, Chelsea, Wolves and Ipswich Town, Manchester United and Manchester City, very lyrical descriptions about the West End of London that my dad introduced to me at a young age.

Then I talk about my favourite pop stars, the thriving music scene, the bands and artists who entertained me, made me feel good about me, galvanised me to such an extent that I genuinely felt that the 1970s had been one of the greatest decades for popular music. There are those who will understandably disagree with me but that's what it felt like for this rather solitary nebbish, almost by way of compensation for those frightening times in that cold wilderness.

I'd completely alienated a generation that had no idea who I was and of course were determined to enjoy the kind of activities that I should have taken part in without any prompting: table tennis, badminton, football, going to the cinema and generally having the time of their lives. But this was a completely different world for me. Regrets? Not at all.

I have now the most loving, loveliest, brilliantly supportive and beautiful family, a beautiful wife, two wonderful kids who I adore and the most perfect family support network who have always been there for me and I can never thank them enough. I love you all deeply and always will.

So there you have it. No Joe Bloggs, my world, my words, my descriptions and my outlook on life. It which provided me with the happiest and creative outlet at a time when things could have spiralled out of control and gone disastrously haywire. No Joe Bloggs is available at Amazon, Waterstones online, Foyles online and Books-A-Million online. This is what I think is my brave admission. I have Aspergers Syndrome and I have Autism. I would like to think that one day I can try to explain and make people understand that I can still smile, laugh, crack silly jokes, still play sport, read, cry in soppy, sentimental movies, watch some of the most stunning West End musicals in town and glow with elation afterwards. I know that I have complete acceptance from my family but I'm not sure whether the rest of society can fully get their head around my Autism. Still, I'll always respect you, I didn't snub you and you're all the best.

As for my latest book Joe's Jolly Japes, that's still available at Amazon, Waterstones online, Foyles online and Books- A-Million online. This is my take on England, the Chelsea Flower Show, the Henley Regatta, Polo on the playing fields of England, the England football team at the World Cup, the players and managers, the victories and defeats, British seaside resorts and West End department stores in the heart of London.

If you're the reminiscing type and would find a very descriptive take on the past then No Joe Bloggs is definitely the book for you, Oh of course if you'd like to find out about my social commentary perspective then you'll also enjoy Joe's Jolly Japes.

Thanks everybody.