My Old Man

by Ted Kessler

  Keith Cameron, Anna Wood, Niall Doherty, Victoria Segal, Andy Capper, Eamonn Forde, John Aizlewood, Mathew Horne, Nick Duerden, Michael Hann, John Mulvey, Roy Kelly, Kieran Yates, Mic Wright, Yasmin Lajoie, Emma Anderson, Fiona Sturges, Anna Parkin, Paul Connolly, Harry Borden, Terri White, Kate Murray, Ellen Storey, Brian Ellis, Jim Butler, Andy Fyfe, Juanita Stein, Michael Tierney, Amanda Freeman, A.W. Wilde, Lisa Edwards, Jim Owen, Jez Kay, Leah Wilson, Jude Rogers, Jacqueline Downs, Dominic Utton, Karen Bevan, James Firkins, Sophie Van Kelst, Catherine Anne Davies and Mark Townsend.

  I started the blog as a hobby, inspired by the nature website Caught by the River, which is run by my friend Jeff Barrett. I hoped that as with CBTR, My Old Man would simply be a place where people could step out of the everyday grind and write about something personally fundamental. I’d like to thank my agent Kerry Glencorse at Susanna Lea Associates for suggesting there could be a book in it and for making that happen, as well as for her wisdom thereafter. And to my brother Mark for offering good counsel when Kerry was on leave.

  I offer particular gratitude to Kerry for introducing me to Jenny Lord, my editor at Canongate. Jenny’s know-how, encouragement and insight have been invaluable, and I envy the next person to be edited by her. Thanks, too, to Jamie Byng and his amazing address book, to everyone else at Canongate for their work and to my eagle-eyed copy-editor, Hazel Orme.

  Rolling this ball up the hill took a lot of hands, so not only do I have to thank heartily the book’s contributors for delving so fearlessly into the personal, but also all those who convinced people to contribute, made introductions or, in the case of my Q colleagues, Niall Doherty, Chris Catchpole and Paul Stokes, interviewed Chris Martin, Rod Stewart and Shaun Ryder respectively. I’m very grateful to those who facilitated contributions, including Ben Ayres, Moira Bellas, Ted Cummings, Ruth Drake, Baxter Dury, Susie Ember, Laura Martin, Arlene Moon, Mairead Nash, Jamie Oborne, Marguerite Peck, Scott Steele, Sophie Williams and Jamie Woolgar.

  I’d like to thank all those who’ve appeared at live My Old Man interviews and events with me, particularly John Cryer MP, Peregrine Eliot, Travis Endeacott, Martin and Paul Kelly, and Ben Watt. I tried to make the transcripts work for the book but couldn’t capture their in-the-flesh magic.

  Finally, I offer thanks and love to my family for generously allowing me to share my version of our story: my partner Jean Coffey for putting up with the long-haul My Old Man distraction so stoically, my children Jagger and Joey, my brothers Mark and Daniel, my sister Gaby, my step-parents Jair Kessler and Jim Meyer, and, above all, my dear dad Felix for being such a good sport about it all. God forbid my children pull the same stunt on me.

  LIST OF PICTURES

  Ted and Felix Kessler, Greece, 1971

  Nick and Johnny Ball, dinner 1981.

  Tim and Matthew Healy, early 1990s.

  Mike and Amy Raphael, London, 1967.

  John Niven with his parents, in a caravan, in Scotland, 1967.

  Jemima and Ian, The Vicarage, Wingrave, 1973.

  John Hamper, 1967.

  Bob and Rod Stewart, having a kick-about a long time ago.

  Tam Doyle, Filey Beach, Yorkshire, 1974.

  Adam and Leonard Cohen, 1977, taken in the kitchen of the Cohen family home in Hydra, Greece, by Adam’s mother Suzanne Elrod.

  Charlie and Charlie Catchpole, Heathersett, Norfolk, 1949.

  Anna and Barry Wood, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, 1975.

  Adrian and John Deevoy, Park Prewett Psychiatric Hospital, Hampshire, 1972.

  Nick and Florence Welch, 1987.

  Harry Doherty and Eleanor Doherty, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, early 1970s.

  Adam Ross, front, with his brother, Eban, and father Howard, Vermont, 1983.

  Derek and Shaun Ryder, 1990.

  Alfred Downs, 1977.

  Terri White, outside her home in Inkersall, nr Chesterfield, 1989.

  Anthony Martin and Chris Martin.

  Dave and Dorian Lynskey, Malvern Hills, 1982.

  Paul and John Weller, “smashed in an airport”, 1996.

  A dead magpie, held in the hand of Rose Bretécher’s father.

  Yasmin Lajoie with her father and brother, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, 1993.

  Ben and Roy Castle, outside their house in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, 1977.

  Wally Downes Jr and Wally Downes, 2000.

  Tjinder Singh and his junior school chess team.

  David Michael Griffiths and Joanna Kavenna, in their garden, Leicestershire, 1970s.

  Anthony Monaghan and Thelma Pickles’ wedding day, November 28, 1959 at 56 Prestwood Crescent, Knotty Ash, Liverpool.

  Allan and Tim Burgess, Borth y Gest, Wales, 1973.

  Michael Segal, West Norwood, London, 1945.

  Richard and Dave Hawley, 1989, Sheffield.

  Lubi Barre and her father, Somalia, late 1980s.

  Derek Mulvey’s RAF dog-tags, worn during post-war national service in Malta.

  Tilda Swinton’s father, 2015

  Felix and Joseph Kessler, Vienna, Austria, late 1930s.