6A Blackstock Gardens

“Memories were people too, y’know!” Within the tenements of the notorious Scottie Road, amidst dockyards and back-kitchen sink dramas, the Butlers navigate Liverpool with stoic wit ‘n’ brio. For Gerrid, the seventh son of a seventh child, born in the seventh month, and youngest to the matriarchal May, childhood is fuelled by observation and imagination. But it too-soon becomes clear that resilience must prove the most life-formative skill required to comprehend communal and familial, repetitive, grief… The first autobiographical instalment from the author of Planet Young (as seen on BBC TV’s Between the Covers). “Deeply moving, evocative and magical. This inimitable Scouse voice has painted a picture of a bygone working-class era like no one else.” — Sophie Willan “The miasma of a prodigious childhood recall was rarely better caught. As origin myths go, this one rings so very true.” — Roger Hill “Epitomises the security and challenges of growing up a working-class effeminate boy in the safety of a tenement community. A memoir but so much more; it is the beautifully written story of a family, a community, and a class.” — Dr Maria Barrett “A remarkable, touching testimony to working-class childhood and a family so flourishing on the page you’ll swear you lived next door with the kettle on standby.” — Caleb Everett Gerry Potter is an author, poet, playwright, actor and director. He is also both creator and destroyer of Chloe Poems, the infamous gay, Scouse, Socialist, gingham-clad, drag queen diva. Gerry trained at Liverpool’s Everyman Youth Theatre and National Museums Liverpool lists him as one of the city’s leading LGBTQIA+ icons. His autobiographical poetry-theatre show, My Scouse Voice, was performed by Fenella Fielding at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre, and a portrait documentary film, My Name is Gerry Potter, premiered at Homotopia. Gerry’s published works have the distinction of featuring in the poetry and philosophy collections at Harvard University library.