Robert Webb

- Danielle Woodward

Writing about gender, masculinity and feminism via my childhood and early experiences seemed like a good fit for my book.

It gave me an opportunity to be funny and entertaining, and it allows for a degree of self-mockery, but it’s important for the subject, as a lot of this stuff begins in childhood. The way we behave as grown-ups is all to do with the way life has been modelled for us as children, so it seemed like a sensible way to approach the subject.

I’m being as candid as my ego allows in the book, which was actually quite a bit.

There are points where I’m talking to my 15-year-old self as a 44-year-old, and the first thing the 15-year-old says is, ‘this is a bit self-indulgent’ – and it’s true. I’m showing off, but the tone of the book is largely self-critical. I wanted to have an intimate contact with the reader.

It was challenging writing the sad parts.