A Big Year in a Small Town

1979

The bittersweet tale of a big year in a small town, in the spirit of Anita and Me

A candid, open-hearted memoir...startling

Funny, painful, sad and true, this wistful teenage testimony isn't just a memoir of a particular time and place, it's also a universal elegy about how it really feels to be a young outsider of any and every sort.

One of the best stand up comedians in the UK, Rhona made an impact on the comedy scene in 1992, winning Channel 4's new comedy award. A decade of sell-out Edinburgh Fringe shows and tours in the UK, and A/NZ followed. TV includes Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and The Frank Skinner Show; hosting 4 series of BBC2's pioneering Gaytime TV and in 2000 her first BBC sitcom series, Rhona. In March 2002 she joined the West End cast of The Vagina Monologues, before heading off to the Australian jungle for the massive ITV hit, I'm A Celebrity-Get Me Out Of Here. Her much-repeated "Sometimes we're all like that" speech is now part of television folklore.

1979 takes place in a small fishing town called Musselburgh, situated on the east coast of Scotland. An evocative, moving and at times hilarious true-life story about growing up gay in a small town, finding out you're adopted, and losing your father at the age of fourteen. 
 
Always an outsider, the Rhona of 1979 was desperate to fit in at any cost, and here lies the bittersweet humour. At the heart of the book is the Clubhouse, a place that symbolises all that is normal, happy, and secure. And behind the club, outside, Rhona and her friends are smoking, fighting, kissing and drinking. 
 
In this darkly funny and deeply biographical first book, Rhona Cameron takes us back to a year when everything seemed to change. A new British government came to power, the Eighties were approaching and at times life felt so precarious that it really looked like she and her family might never make it through the next year, let alone the next decade.

Rhona Cameron

A beautiful depiction of addiction and hedonism

A sexy, booze-fuelled adventure. Instantly entertaining and absorbing

Splendidly realised ... bravely un-saccharine

Nihilistic, frank, brutal, embarrassing, depressing, funny and intensely gripping all at once

Cameron reveals a darker edge to her writing by capturing the frustration and pains of obsession with dense detail. Cameron's story of self-discovery shows just how lost you can get, and her perfect references to the 80s and Australian culture pull you in head-first

'It was dark when I came to. What woke me was the cold and the water on my legs. I was doing spoons with Scotty, me behind him. We were on a beach. We didn't speak for the first minute, we were so disorientated. I had to genuinely think very hard about where I was. Then I remembered I was in Australia.' 
 
It's the late eighties and 24-year-old Kerry has been drifting aimlessly through life in Edinburgh. Rarely having plans of any kind, she gets drunk and things happen: sex, drugs, parties, relationships, and, when she's really pushed, work. 
 
Setting off on a hastily arranged visit to Australia, Kerry packs only three items of clothing, a pair of flip-flops, two hundred pounds and her young persons' work visa. Soon broke, hungry and homeless, she joins ART, a likeable but mismatched band of travellers who sell dodgy oil paintings door-to-door in the suburbs. Young, beautiful and free, they drink wildly and live for the moment. 
 
Embarking on a riotous road trip together, their lives become deeply entangled, and the drinking spirals out of control. Eventually, Kerry is forced to admit that her journey to Australia isn't quite what it seems ...

Rhona Cameron

Praise for The Naked Drinking Club

A beautiful depiction of addiction and hedonism

A sexy, booze-fuelled adventure. Instantly entertaining and absorbing

Splendidly realised ... bravely un-saccharine

A beautiful depiction of addiction and hedonism

A sexy, booze-fuelled adventure. Instantly entertaining and absorbing

Splendidly realised ... bravely un-saccharine

A beautiful depiction of addiction and hedonism

A sexy, booze-fuelled adventure. Instantly entertaining and absorbing

Splendidly realised ... bravely un-saccharine

Books by Rhona Cameron

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