The Big Issue

LOUIS THEROUX

Sixteen was a watershed year for me because it was the year I got admitted to Oxford. I was a weekly boarder at a London public school. I’d skipped a year due to being excessively studious, so when I got to sixth form I was a year younger than most of my peer group. And I hadn’t hit puberty. I had a high voice, what I call a piccolo voice. I had no pubic hair. I was sort of sexually ambiguous. Over-capable in the realm of books and academics and under-capable in every other area of life, particularly in relating to other humans and especially girls. I tried to be a hipster and buy my clothes from the King’s Road or Camden Market, but in a deep sense, I was a very square kid. I was very uptight, very worried about what people might think of me.

Among my

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Big Issue

The Big Issue9 min readCrime & Violence
The Dispatch
Civil servants tasked with delivering the government’s plans to criminalise homelessness have “low morale” and are tired of “crackpot Tory ideas”, a government insider working on the Criminal Justice Bill has told The Big Issue. The controversial bil
The Big Issue3 min read
Is Foraging A Way To Feel Fully Human?
To me, greens are found in the supermarket, prepackaged with a price tag. Foraging has never occurred to me. But reading foraging aficionado Andy Hamilton’s new book, The First-Time Forager, I wondered if I’ve been missing out on something spectacula
The Big Issue3 min read
Film
Would it work if it was Subbuteo? That was a question that bubbled up in my mind even as I was being happily swept along by the ravishing new film from Italian sensualist Luca Guadagnino, the acclaimed director who pierced both hearts and peaches wit

Related Books & Audiobooks