It's 1977, and punk rock has just hit Liverpool. The legendary Eric's club is home to the city's rebels, posers and misfits. It's a place of attitude, adventure and new possibilities, and it changes lives. Some become pop stars; Penny Kiley becomes a music journalist. The story traces Penny's relationship with the music scene from the turbulent political 1980s into the changing culture of the 21st century. Throughout these years, she never stops being a misfit, and the question remains: how do you navigate normal life when punk is dead and you don't know you're autistic? Atypical Girl begins as a coming-of-age story and ends as a midlife reinvention. What unites them is a search for identity and the role that music plays in all our lives. * Featuring encounters with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, Paul McCartney, The Cramps, Jonathan Richman, Tracey Thorn and more.
"'A fabulously refreshing, candid and compelling read'"
Sunday Post
"'One of the city's best chroniclers of the music scene in the late 70's and 80's, the book follows Penny's relationship with the music scene from the turbulent Thatcher years into the mercurial culture of today'"
Liverpool Post
"'You can feel a life - constrained and then realised - in its pages. That's quite an achievement'"
Herald, '12 best music books of the year so far'
"'The one that lingered longest with me . . . You can feel a life - constrained and then realised - in its pages. That's quite an achievement'"
