Lucky Lupin

by Charlie Mortimer

Lucky Lupin is a poignant yet light-hearted story of survival against the odds, based on Charlie Mortimer's life with HIV/Aids during the early years (1984-1996), when there was neither treatment nor cure. Using a combination of good luck, gallows humour, Fray Bentos pies and copious quantities of Solpadeine, Charlie survived not only the illness but the hysteria that accompanied the so-called 'gay plague'. Anyone infected became a social pariah; had the local launderette got word of his illness they wouldn't have washed his sheets but burnt them. Whilst taking full responsibility for the consequences of his behaviour - 'The fact is you don't get AIDS from watching telly' - Charlie initially took to the sofa and prepared for death, but, in time, he found the inner strength required to confront his fatal diagnosis, becoming, among other things, an antiques dealer and contemporary art collector. With blistering and often hilarious candour Charlie also recounts his childhood where he developed a passion for cars, cultivated by his adventurous mother 'Nidnod', his dizzying array of careers and somewhat curious domestic arrangements including the 'adoption' of a bank robber for twelve years. He also confronts head on his experiences of coming to terms with confused sexuality, addiction, epilepsy and clinical depression before finding lasting contentment.

Praise for Dear Lupin : 'As well as being the funniest book I've read in ages, it's also extremely touching. A delight then, on every front.' The Spectator 'Very, very funny.' Sunday Times 'Wry, trenchant, often extremely funny, but also charmingly forbearing and forgiving.' Country Life

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2016

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lent 'Lucky Lupin' because my Dad knew the author from school. Although he isn't actually mentioned, Dad is familiar with the boarding school shenanigans recounted: apparently Caspar Fleming got the machine gun from him. "Where did you get it??" I asked. "My father," he said. "Where did he get it??" I asked. An expressive shrug. Anyway, this family connection added appeal but the whole memoir is hilarious regardless. Mortimer writes in an entirely non-linear, erratic style of his life's ups and downs. The ups include meeting the love of his life in a bathhouse, driving a lot of fast cars, and dealing in antiques, books, and art. The lows include intense depression, AIDS, and drug addiction. He recounts all of it in the same amusingly deadpan style, with a raconteur's ear for entertaining anecdote. Yet the accounts of his mental and physical health problems are also moving, using humour to draw the reader in rather than keeping them at arm's length. I find this sort of tone very funny indeed:

In the early 1980s, my general conduct left a certain amount to be desired. [...] I think my behaviour at the time can be no better summed up than by my no-nonsense rehab councillor, Mike Musson: "You may like to think you were the life and soul of the party," he shouted in his highly distinctive nasal tones, his heavily perspiring face about one inch from my equally heavily perspiring face, "but to everyone else you were just a fucking pain in the arse!"

This is the kind of book that you laugh aloud at and feel compelled to read out the paragraph that just amused you. So I would caution against reading it on the train. It's ideal for the Christmas holidays with family, though, if you enjoy rather dark humour.

[Kath · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have been better edited. The structure is all over the place and it really needs a good proofread. Sad because Chas’s voice is good and opiniated, it is just so repetitive with a weak narrative structure, it could have worked so much better. Shame really, wonder whether the publisher dying was something to do with it, nonetheless the publishing team should have done their jobs better. Not a patch on delivering to expectations after Dear Lupin. There is lots of scope for this to be improved! Subject matter really interesting and personality great!