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The Uncorrected
The Uncorrected Billy Childish was first published in 2009 as a 'Penguin Art Edition' by L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, in tandem with handbound, limited editions by Tangerine Press. Penguin's lawyers insisted that all paperbacks were destroyed, resulting in an infamous Book Burning event in London. Unusually for Childish, The Uncorrected... has been broken down into themed sections (Love & Sex; Abuse & Forgiveness, etc). Includes black & white woodcut illustrations by Bill Hamper. Fully updated, revised with new poems not included in the original edition.
- GenresPoetry
187 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2018
14 people want to read
About the author
Billy Childish
72 books60 followersBorn Steven John Hamper, he is a cult figure in America, Europe and Japan. Billy Childish is by far the most prolific painter, poet, and song-writer of his generation. In a twenty year period he has published over 40 collections of his poetry, recorded over 100 full-length independent LP’s and produced over 2000 paintings.
Billy Childish left Secondary education at 16, an undiagnosed dyslexic. Refused an interview at the local art school he entered the Naval Dockyard at Chatham as an apprentice stonemason. During the following six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of employment), he produced some six hundred drawings in ‘the tea huts of hell'. On the basis of this work he was accepted into St Martin’s School of Art to study painting. However, his acceptance was short-lived and before completing the course he was expelled for his outspokenness and unorthodox working methods. With no qualifications and no job prospects Childish then spent some 12 years ‘painting on the dole’, developing his own highly personal writing style and producing his art independently.
Billy Childish left Secondary education at 16, an undiagnosed dyslexic. Refused an interview at the local art school he entered the Naval Dockyard at Chatham as an apprentice stonemason. During the following six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of employment), he produced some six hundred drawings in ‘the tea huts of hell'. On the basis of this work he was accepted into St Martin’s School of Art to study painting. However, his acceptance was short-lived and before completing the course he was expelled for his outspokenness and unorthodox working methods. With no qualifications and no job prospects Childish then spent some 12 years ‘painting on the dole’, developing his own highly personal writing style and producing his art independently.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 17, 2022
Billy Childish is an artist of immense self-belief and restlessness, prolific in music, painting, woodcutting, and literature. He is also the epitome of the bish-bash-bosh school of creativity, where the explosive act of creation is unsullied by the finicky ick of revision. Those familiar with the copious canon of garage rock albums recorded under various names (The Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, CTMF, etc) will have encountered a slew of patchy filler-filled records that Childish likes to record in inspired bursts, and the same applies to these poems, written in his dyslexic English with no spelling or grammar corrections. The poems explore Childish’s violent childhood and strained relationship with his father, his sexual gaucheries and encounters, more poet-ish ramblings on nature and time, and his moving conversion to fatherhood. The myth-making narcissism of Childish and this inflated sense of greatness feeds into the slapdash approach of these poems, and in that sense their potency is undone by their very own defiant (non-)aesthetic. But it is impossible not to warm to Childish’s energy, compassion, and commitment to an unpretentious, DIY-4-Life approach to making art, and these poems illuminate that impish spirit.
March 2, 2020
The British Bukowski, but an excellent artist, poet and musician in his own right.
I’ve collected a lot of his signed first editions and art work throughout the years because I’ve got a feeling he is an artist that will find true respect much later on.
If you haven’t read any Childish make sure you do!
I’ve collected a lot of his signed first editions and art work throughout the years because I’ve got a feeling he is an artist that will find true respect much later on.
If you haven’t read any Childish make sure you do!
November 27, 2018
the uncorrected, by Billy Childish, is an extensive collection of the author’s poetry. Confessional in style it is divided into themed sections, each opening with a black and white woodcut illustration. Childish is dyslexic and the poems appear as written. In the introduction the reader is told:
“He disliked “not naming things by their proper names”, and had no time for elegant embellishments of expression”
“Childish did not hold with the patient modelling and fashioning of a verse which so many poets declare to be indispensable to their art. He thought that a poem, and indeed all art, was emotionally secreted, and that the poet’s job was to refrain from intellectualising it.”
While Childish may be seeking a grounded authenticity, the subject matter – “poetry out of everyday sordidness” – can be challenging to read. He writes of: bestiality; being sexually abused by a family member as a child; being an alcoholic and a sexaholic; being “the bad ending to every fairy tale”.
Although he suggests that he doesn’t wish to be regarded as an artist, this comes across as disingenuous. He produces writing that “disgusts the senses” and appears proud to do so. He expresses contempt for qualifications and execrates the arts establishment.
“emotional truth is the lie of all art and all poetry”
Within this work is much railing against what he cannot be and the suggestion that he behaves badly in protest – in anger at how he has been treated, especially when a child. He also treats others badly, particularly the women he has sex with. He is “hungering for the moment”. Describing himself as a “serial masturbater”, he often mentions his “cock” and its secretions. I found such imagery base and unpleasant to read.
There are also poems about his son and these offer a softer side to his views and actions. In huddie 8.12.99 he writes:
“you came into this world
to teach me to love
and
i welcome you”
He promises the child many things, mostly that huddie will not be treated as Childish has been. Poems revolving around the boy reflect an abiding love. In where the tiger prowls stripped and unseen he writes of his wish that huddie retain hope and wonder rather than be taught at a young age of the many problems facing the world.
Certain poems offer wider perspectives amidst the personal outpourings. a sad donkey and a fat man smiling portrays the difficulties the author has faced, the weight of past experience he struggles under. In animated stone he compares the drunks, murderers or simply unhappy to daemons, gargoyles.
“the painters of old nailed their look bang-on”
The graphic descriptions can be shocking – detail provided of a botched abortion (waterloo station) is particularly horrific. Use of porn and paid for sex is normalised. Casual cruelty to animals is mentioned without apparent regret. Whether it be beauty or ugliness, Childish writes: you “see that which you deserve”.
nite ash offers a moment of reflection yet even this is shadowed by the opening:
“whilst
stood naked
taking a nite piss
i would often look from my bog window
into your strange arms”
It is as if Childish is capable of deeper thinking yet cannot rise above his preoccupation with bodily functions.
He claims to be “a poet who hates poetry” yet writes prolifically, often effectively, in the form. He describes his work as a gift and believes it should be appreciated.
Later in the collection there is mention of aging. From the un ready
“i feel myself younger than everybody
i meet
im not ready for this
i am not ready”
In waiting to become he returns to the theme of artists seeking validation – something he unconvincingly claims to eschew, although his refusal to conform in order to achieve is clear:
“poets
artists
musicians
all
craving to win
to
feel others eyes
crawl over them
and
so be uplifted
and
completed
in others envy”
Due to the language and subject matter I baulked at many of the poems, yet still there is a raw honesty that drew me in. I look to books to enhance and enlarge my understanding of experiences beyond my comprehension. These works may challenge my half century of white, middle class, protestant conditioning but in opening up a different way of thinking they demand and deserve attention.
I cannot say that I fully enjoyed reading this collection but the emotional dynamism has its moments, not least in acknowledging the differences in how each of us defines pleasure. It certainly made me ponder my prejudices.
“He disliked “not naming things by their proper names”, and had no time for elegant embellishments of expression”
“Childish did not hold with the patient modelling and fashioning of a verse which so many poets declare to be indispensable to their art. He thought that a poem, and indeed all art, was emotionally secreted, and that the poet’s job was to refrain from intellectualising it.”
While Childish may be seeking a grounded authenticity, the subject matter – “poetry out of everyday sordidness” – can be challenging to read. He writes of: bestiality; being sexually abused by a family member as a child; being an alcoholic and a sexaholic; being “the bad ending to every fairy tale”.
Although he suggests that he doesn’t wish to be regarded as an artist, this comes across as disingenuous. He produces writing that “disgusts the senses” and appears proud to do so. He expresses contempt for qualifications and execrates the arts establishment.
“emotional truth is the lie of all art and all poetry”
Within this work is much railing against what he cannot be and the suggestion that he behaves badly in protest – in anger at how he has been treated, especially when a child. He also treats others badly, particularly the women he has sex with. He is “hungering for the moment”. Describing himself as a “serial masturbater”, he often mentions his “cock” and its secretions. I found such imagery base and unpleasant to read.
There are also poems about his son and these offer a softer side to his views and actions. In huddie 8.12.99 he writes:
“you came into this world
to teach me to love
and
i welcome you”
He promises the child many things, mostly that huddie will not be treated as Childish has been. Poems revolving around the boy reflect an abiding love. In where the tiger prowls stripped and unseen he writes of his wish that huddie retain hope and wonder rather than be taught at a young age of the many problems facing the world.
Certain poems offer wider perspectives amidst the personal outpourings. a sad donkey and a fat man smiling portrays the difficulties the author has faced, the weight of past experience he struggles under. In animated stone he compares the drunks, murderers or simply unhappy to daemons, gargoyles.
“the painters of old nailed their look bang-on”
The graphic descriptions can be shocking – detail provided of a botched abortion (waterloo station) is particularly horrific. Use of porn and paid for sex is normalised. Casual cruelty to animals is mentioned without apparent regret. Whether it be beauty or ugliness, Childish writes: you “see that which you deserve”.
nite ash offers a moment of reflection yet even this is shadowed by the opening:
“whilst
stood naked
taking a nite piss
i would often look from my bog window
into your strange arms”
It is as if Childish is capable of deeper thinking yet cannot rise above his preoccupation with bodily functions.
He claims to be “a poet who hates poetry” yet writes prolifically, often effectively, in the form. He describes his work as a gift and believes it should be appreciated.
Later in the collection there is mention of aging. From the un ready
“i feel myself younger than everybody
i meet
im not ready for this
i am not ready”
In waiting to become he returns to the theme of artists seeking validation – something he unconvincingly claims to eschew, although his refusal to conform in order to achieve is clear:
“poets
artists
musicians
all
craving to win
to
feel others eyes
crawl over them
and
so be uplifted
and
completed
in others envy”
Due to the language and subject matter I baulked at many of the poems, yet still there is a raw honesty that drew me in. I look to books to enhance and enlarge my understanding of experiences beyond my comprehension. These works may challenge my half century of white, middle class, protestant conditioning but in opening up a different way of thinking they demand and deserve attention.
I cannot say that I fully enjoyed reading this collection but the emotional dynamism has its moments, not least in acknowledging the differences in how each of us defines pleasure. It certainly made me ponder my prejudices.
November 17, 2022
"Base and unpleasant... [The poems] demand and deserve attention."
— Never Imitate
"The book has the feel and heft of the old Black Sparrow Bukowski books. Billy doesn’t pull punches and doesn’t write for the genteel, nor should he. Anger runs through his writing, but insight does too and Billy has rightly become a treasured outsider voice."
— Morning Star
"This is book as well-dressed friend. And, in addition to the sense you have of the man, almost in his entirety, there is the edition, which is beautiful – beautiful paper between your fingers, beautiful design, like an ornament in paperback form. You want an introduction to the poetry of Billy Childish? It doesn’t get better than this.”
— Bookmunch
SOME OTHER COMMENTS ON MR CHILDISH'S POETRY:
"A seething, dyslexic, better looking Bukowski."
— Guardian
— Never Imitate
"The book has the feel and heft of the old Black Sparrow Bukowski books. Billy doesn’t pull punches and doesn’t write for the genteel, nor should he. Anger runs through his writing, but insight does too and Billy has rightly become a treasured outsider voice."
— Morning Star
"This is book as well-dressed friend. And, in addition to the sense you have of the man, almost in his entirety, there is the edition, which is beautiful – beautiful paper between your fingers, beautiful design, like an ornament in paperback form. You want an introduction to the poetry of Billy Childish? It doesn’t get better than this.”
— Bookmunch
SOME OTHER COMMENTS ON MR CHILDISH'S POETRY:
"A seething, dyslexic, better looking Bukowski."
— Guardian
February 25, 2020
Bill. The British Bukowski. Or at least that’s how he reads to me.
February 14, 2023
Yra poezija kurios daug smagiau klausytis, nei ją skaityti. Būtent taip yra su Childsho poezija. Klausant 5, o skaitant 3.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews