From Mohair Suits to Kinky Boots How Music, Clothes and Going Out Shaped My Life and Upset My Mother

As the lead singer of Modern Romance he toured the world, as the screenwriter of Kinky Boots he conquered Hollywood, now comes Geoff Deane’s latest act as a brilliant and witty raconteur in this hilarious memoir.

Geoff Deane has worked as a fly-pitcher selling out of a suitcase, and flogged suits on Brick Lane market in London’s East End. He was the singer in a much-loved culty punk band the Leyton Buzzards, a floppy-haired pop star in Modern Romance, a songwriter, and record producer.

He wrote a gay anthem for John Waters drag queen muse Divine, worked as journalist and restaurant critic for style magazines The Face and Arena, before becoming a successful writer and producer of TV comedy. And then he wrote a couple of films, one of which, Kinky Boots, became a Tony Award winning Broadway stage show.

With a cast ranging from local oddballs to international celebrities, Geoff Deane’s unique take on the world is only matched by his extraordinarily rich use of language, with a smattering of Cockney rhyming slang, Yiddish and Polari. A glossary is provided.

Geoff Deane grew up in London’s East End. He was a singer in the punk bank the Leyton Buzzards before going on to become lead singer in Modern Romance. He worked as a journalist on The Face and Arena and became a TV and film scriptwriter with credits including Kinky Boots and It’s a Boy Girl Thing.