In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Mark Haddon's Leaving Home, an illustrated memoir.
Here's how the book came together:
Mark Haddon
“This is a book about many things—forests, balconies, the Bauhaus, cardboard, poetry, heart disease, taxidermy. But at its center sit me and my
sister and our relationship with our parents. Because this is the stuff of my life, I’d been playing with the material for a very long time, repeatedly shuffling and reshaping it and never quite getting it to work. When our parents died I was finally able to treat the subject with complete honesty.”
Clare Alexander
“When Mark told me he wanted to write a memoir that he would also illustrate, I knew it would be something unique—and so it is. I submitted it to Mark’s long-term publishers in the U.K. and the U.S., not at all sure what they would make of it at a time when publishing is so full of the generic and comps to similar books. Neither hesitated for a second.”
Bill Thomas
“Mark had been struggling mightily with brain fog related to long Covid, and as far as I knew was unable to write. So when in August of 2024 Clare sent me the full manuscript of Leaving Home, I was amazed; then when I read it, I was enthralled. It’s an extraordinary document.”
Emily Mahon
“It’s extremely rare for authors to design their own jackets. But as anyone who has seen the wildly creative books for children he’s written and illustrated or received his annual Christmas message can attest, Mark is a very gifted visual artist. The jacket he designed for Leaving Home catches and holds the eye as the best jackets do, and wonderfully reflects the tone and feel of the book itself.”
