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Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia
In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn’s teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving.
Before she became an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
Returning more than three decades later to Brookmans Park, scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters and pub car parks, the utopian cul-de-sacs, the train to Potters Bar and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children, the children who wanted none of it. With endearing wit and great insight, Thorn reconsiders the Green Belt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and yet so many artists have come from.
Before she became an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
Returning more than three decades later to Brookmans Park, scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters and pub car parks, the utopian cul-de-sacs, the train to Potters Bar and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children, the children who wanted none of it. With endearing wit and great insight, Thorn reconsiders the Green Belt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and yet so many artists have come from.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 7, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
June 30, 2021
The extent to which you might enjoy Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia (2019) will probably be determined by how much you can relate to it. Tracey Thorn grew up in Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire and this book explores her feelings and experiences during her childhood in the 1970s and extensively refers to her teenage diaries. I had a friend who lived in Brookmans Park who I used to go and stay with quite regularly. I am just a few months older than Tracey, share virtually all the same reference points and grew up feeling much the same as she did about my parents and my life. Similarly I was also energised and enthused by punk rock. Needless to say I loved this book which reminded me of my own childhood and actually made me appreciate growing up in north London suburbia rather than a small commuter village in the green belt. At least I was a bit closer to the action in central London.
It's more than just a memoir too. Tracey has some quite profound and instructive thoughts on the 1970s, her parents generation, becoming a parent herself and generation gaps. If any of that sounds like the sort of thing you would enjoy, then read it because I am confident that will be the case.
4/5
In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn’s teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving.
Before she became an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
Returning more than three decades later to Brookmans Park, scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters and pub car parks, the utopian cul-de-sacs, the train to Potters Bar and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children, the children who wanted none of it. With endearing wit and great insight, Thorn reconsiders the Green Belt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and yet so many artists have come from.
It's more than just a memoir too. Tracey has some quite profound and instructive thoughts on the 1970s, her parents generation, becoming a parent herself and generation gaps. If any of that sounds like the sort of thing you would enjoy, then read it because I am confident that will be the case.
4/5
In a 1970s commuter town, Tracey Thorn’s teenage life was forged from what failed to happen. Her diaries were packed with entries about not buying things, not going to the disco, the school coach not arriving.
Before she became an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties, Meaningful Conversations and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living.
Returning more than three decades later to Brookmans Park, scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters and pub car parks, the utopian cul-de-sacs, the train to Potters Bar and the weekly discos, to the parents who wanted so much for their children, the children who wanted none of it. With endearing wit and great insight, Thorn reconsiders the Green Belt post-war dream so many artists have mocked, and yet so many artists have come from.
June 15, 2019
Sigo dándole vueltas a este libro. Me encantó. No tenía idea de que Tracey Thorn ha escrito ya tres libros de sus memorias. Tengo debilidad por los libros de memorias, y más si son mujeres, y más si son cantantes y compositoras. Pero no es solo por esto, sino porque en este libro, Tracey está hablando sobre el hecho de vivir en las afueras de una gran ciudad. Me identifiqué con muchas cosas de su historia, porque habla sobre esto de vivir fuera de los grandes lugares de donde tienes la idea que salen artistas enormes y lo que sea. Para mi, el haber crecido en una ciudad chica, y en una familia conservadora, siempre me hizo ver a la gente que se dedicaba a la música como si fueran de otro planeta. No los relacionaba con lo que era mi vida, o mi realidad. Y en eso me identifico mucho con este libro. Tracey era una mujer fuera de la idea de lo que es ser una "estrella" o como le llamemos. Y eso me hace sentir que la conozco, y que puedo entender muchas cosas de su historia. Y eso es lo que me encanta de leer memorias de gente. Su vida es bastante excepcional, pero en este libro no se centra en eso precisamente, sino en el haber crecido en un lugar que justamente no es nada excepcional. Sin duda me leeré sus otros libros, porque ya es como si fuéramos amigas.
February 10, 2019
Essentially a psychogeography field trip to the places we leave behind, Tracey Thorn's 'Another Planet' will resonate with anyone who grew up in a place where "very little happened... over and over again".
January 15, 2020
The author's notes at the back of the book mention that parts of this book were actually published previously in articles for newspapers and magazines. Finding this at the end helped make sense of why the book didn't feel cohesive to me. It seemed to jump from place to place, theme to theme with Tracey being the only thing binding them together. She relies greatly on her teenage diaries, but as she admits, they speak more of the things she didin't do rather than things she did. Went to the shops, didn't buy a top, didn't buy a skirt. It also becomes a long list of dates where she goes to local discos and snogs boys. In all honesty, none of this is interesting. She describes the stifling suburb she grew up in, a commuter suburb created as a green belt close enough to still work in London. Thorn's exploration of the suburb's history and her own recollection of it (both as a teenager and visiting again as an adult) still doesn't render the subject matter engaging. There are pockets of this book which connectedw with me. Speaking of her Dad, in the weeks and days before he died. Her complex relationship with parents who just didn't understand her. Her love of music which acted as a life raft in the midst of the suburban hellscape. I wanted to like this book, but every time there was a section that began to resonate with me it stopped. It could have gone deeper, explored in more depth. It felt like there was a wall around Tracey and this stopped me from really knowing or understanding her through this book. Maybe I should have started with one of ther other titles instead. Maybe writing about a topic (the suburbs) you don't like and find dull actually hindered the book - becoming equally as uninteresting and isolating as her teenage years. I'm actually really bummed I didn't like it. But I guess you can't like every writing style.
March 10, 2019
I got the best possible intro to Another Planet when I heard the author read excerpts as part of her book tour. Reading the rest myself didn’t disappoint.
This is a warm and witty account following Tracey, as she returns to the landscape of her formative years, Hertfordshire commuter-ville, Brookmans Park. In the words of her own Everything But The Girl track Missing, she quite literally steps off the train, and walks down her street again.
Told through extracts from her teenage diaries penned in the 70s/80s, and wry retrospective observations from modern times, Another Planet will have anyone who grew up in the ‘burbs nodding along at each page turn. The trials and trivialities faced by a teenager growing up in a place where nothing ever really happens are captured perfectly.
I’m a big fan of Tracey’s talent both musically and as an author, and thought this was both a wise and funny read. Even if you don’t know much about her, there’s a strong chance you’ll find common ground in this book.
This is a warm and witty account following Tracey, as she returns to the landscape of her formative years, Hertfordshire commuter-ville, Brookmans Park. In the words of her own Everything But The Girl track Missing, she quite literally steps off the train, and walks down her street again.
Told through extracts from her teenage diaries penned in the 70s/80s, and wry retrospective observations from modern times, Another Planet will have anyone who grew up in the ‘burbs nodding along at each page turn. The trials and trivialities faced by a teenager growing up in a place where nothing ever really happens are captured perfectly.
I’m a big fan of Tracey’s talent both musically and as an author, and thought this was both a wise and funny read. Even if you don’t know much about her, there’s a strong chance you’ll find common ground in this book.
March 19, 2019
If you are of a certain age and had a similar upbringing to Tracey you will love this book. I did and thought it was brilliant.
October 11, 2023
Not to be dramatic, but this is revolutionary.
What Just Kids did in 2010 to the music memoir genre, Tracey Thorn has taken the next step in 2019. This book is aware of its place in the music memoir canon, specifically the canon of female musicians, and engages with the dialogue the genre has brought to the table in the last decade. I'm blown away by what I've just read and this is definitely going to be a primary text for my thesis.
The subtitle of this memoir is 'A Teenager in Suburbia' and that's exactly what this book is about. It's an excellent commentary on the suburbs and ponders why the suburbs is rejected by the teenager and by alternative culture. Thorn writes about her own experience growing up in Brookmans Park and also provides research into the history of the village. Growing up in a town, a commuter village is alien to me. Thorn's hometown's purpose is to be a home for London commuters. It lacks the art, culture and history a city like London provides. It is a liminal space - not urban but not rural - which describes what it is like to be a teenager.
Thorn tells the story of her teenage years through diary entries but she also tackles the limitations of that format. Messages are coded and feelings over-rule the narrative which Thorn acknowledges and highlights in her memoir. Our memory is an unreliable storyteller and it is refreshing to see this addressed.
Even if you know nothing about Tracey Thorn, I would recommend this book for its commentary on suburbia and for the nostalgia of being a teenager.
What Just Kids did in 2010 to the music memoir genre, Tracey Thorn has taken the next step in 2019. This book is aware of its place in the music memoir canon, specifically the canon of female musicians, and engages with the dialogue the genre has brought to the table in the last decade. I'm blown away by what I've just read and this is definitely going to be a primary text for my thesis.
The subtitle of this memoir is 'A Teenager in Suburbia' and that's exactly what this book is about. It's an excellent commentary on the suburbs and ponders why the suburbs is rejected by the teenager and by alternative culture. Thorn writes about her own experience growing up in Brookmans Park and also provides research into the history of the village. Growing up in a town, a commuter village is alien to me. Thorn's hometown's purpose is to be a home for London commuters. It lacks the art, culture and history a city like London provides. It is a liminal space - not urban but not rural - which describes what it is like to be a teenager.
Thorn tells the story of her teenage years through diary entries but she also tackles the limitations of that format. Messages are coded and feelings over-rule the narrative which Thorn acknowledges and highlights in her memoir. Our memory is an unreliable storyteller and it is refreshing to see this addressed.
Even if you know nothing about Tracey Thorn, I would recommend this book for its commentary on suburbia and for the nostalgia of being a teenager.
September 6, 2023
2,5 leider super enttäuscht von dem Buch. Hatte mich auf eine inspirierende Biografie einer Künstlerin die ich nicht kenne gefreut.(Vielleicht war das schon der erste Fehler, sie nicht zu kennen)
Stattdessen waren es teilweise wirklich langweilige Beschreibungen einer durchschnittlichen Jugend. Es ist halt leider wirklich spannender über Dinge zu lesen, die passieren als über welche, die nicht passieren (was hier der Haupt “haha” Faktor sein soll). Es gab hier und da ganz schöne Sätze, aber insgesamt war der Schreibstil sehr durchschnittlich. Ich war an keinem Punkt gespannt auf das was kommt oder emotional in irgendeiner Form berührt.
Mein Fazit ist, dass ich dankbar bin an einem Ort groß geworden zu sein, den ich nicht abstoßend oder langweilig fand.
Stattdessen waren es teilweise wirklich langweilige Beschreibungen einer durchschnittlichen Jugend. Es ist halt leider wirklich spannender über Dinge zu lesen, die passieren als über welche, die nicht passieren (was hier der Haupt “haha” Faktor sein soll). Es gab hier und da ganz schöne Sätze, aber insgesamt war der Schreibstil sehr durchschnittlich. Ich war an keinem Punkt gespannt auf das was kommt oder emotional in irgendeiner Form berührt.
Mein Fazit ist, dass ich dankbar bin an einem Ort groß geworden zu sein, den ich nicht abstoßend oder langweilig fand.
April 19, 2019
Home thoughts from a broad: Tracey Thorn’s writing mirrors her singing: studied, understated, poised. Another Planet uses extracts from her childhood and adolescent diaries (“every triumph, every fight, under disco light”) to meditate on something very specific and finished: suburbia in England from roughly the late 1950s to the late 1990s. The claustrophobia, paranoia and competitiveness embodied in three television channels, the Ford Escort parked on the drive, a three-bed semi that’s nearly but not quite big enough for a growing family, Findus pancakes and halcyon prescriptions from Timothy Whites. It’s all gone now because the internet - a kid like Thorn today would simply use snapchat, insta and chat rooms to connect with others who feel the same mix of boredom and frustration at the limitations of being a girl and parental expectation in a place where excitement comprised her parents’ attendance at a ‘Caribbean night’ at the local golf club (“I don’t want to think about what that might have involved,” she observes tartly). Rather than lengthy saving up for day-long expeditions to Camden Lock and the King’s Road, or more prosaically, frequently disappointing trips to Hatfield, she’d simply go online and buy fast-fashion pseudo-punk gear from Boohoo.
If this sounds like an elongated sneer at lower middle class mores and the desires of people like Thorn’s parents to escape the grime and dangers of London in the immediate aftermath of 1945, it’s more loving, observational and understanding than that. The early passages are a little generic (others, such as Lindsey Hanley have written more comprehensively about suburban habits), but Another Planet takes flight in the second half which describes Audrey and Dennis and their reasons for coming to Brookmans Park, and how it trapped them. At the same time, as Thorn acknowledges, the suburbs played a huge part in the cultural explosions of the 60s, 70s and 80s, bringing forth talent such as Bowie, Siouxie and Boy George. Talent, it seems, needing conformity and safety to kick against.
I’m listening to Second Sight by the Marine Girls as I type and it encapsulates well what this is all about - small concerns, a fair amount of cosiness, but just enough of a dash of astringent to stop any danger of the saccharine or twee. I
If this sounds like an elongated sneer at lower middle class mores and the desires of people like Thorn’s parents to escape the grime and dangers of London in the immediate aftermath of 1945, it’s more loving, observational and understanding than that. The early passages are a little generic (others, such as Lindsey Hanley have written more comprehensively about suburban habits), but Another Planet takes flight in the second half which describes Audrey and Dennis and their reasons for coming to Brookmans Park, and how it trapped them. At the same time, as Thorn acknowledges, the suburbs played a huge part in the cultural explosions of the 60s, 70s and 80s, bringing forth talent such as Bowie, Siouxie and Boy George. Talent, it seems, needing conformity and safety to kick against.
I’m listening to Second Sight by the Marine Girls as I type and it encapsulates well what this is all about - small concerns, a fair amount of cosiness, but just enough of a dash of astringent to stop any danger of the saccharine or twee. I
June 13, 2020
Tracey Thorn pieces together a meditation on suburbia. It began life like an essay and feels like it. It's an amusing read and memoir. You could do worse for a time waster, but I'd only recommend it for fans.
March 18, 2019
Loved it but it was a quick read and very short. I wanted more!
July 30, 2020
Really enjoyed this. Extremely moving in parts.
June 9, 2019
Definitely seemed bitty from 80% onwards. When Tracey Thorn states at the end that it’s partly made up of articles written for other publications, which have been chopped up and redistributed, it made sense. A few times I wondered at the lack of editing as something was mentioned again, but with more of an explanation; as if the former inclusion had been added in later. (It was another quote from the same book.)
Can someone please tell the author that boredom and loneliness was also a feature of teenage years in a village. It was an old established community but how much fun is there leaning over walls to stare at fields of dairy cows and crops?! There were two buses; one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday. (One in the morning and a return in the afternoon, no choice of times. God help you if you missed it back. I never did, but I bet it was headache for others. Plus it occurs to me now that you had to be able to afford to pay for it. Perhaps other teens, part of other village social groups, who had no income could not travel even half an hour away. Luckily I could because of my weekend job, but others might have felt thoroughly trapped.) So, living in a suburb with a choice of trains, only a hop away from LONDON and much talk of clubbing in the capital? Little to feel sympathy for in my opinion!
It’s not a bad book but I found I kept thinking how I couldn’t understand her apathy about living in a suburb. It’s beyond my comprehension I guess, being so opposite to my growing up in a small rural village.
Still, she writes engagingly, albeit rather depressingly for the first section. It’s not hard to feel a bit defeated by the teenage diary entries. Is that a typical example of most teen diaries? Nothing really does happen; you’re so busy with school and growing up. I had hobbies I was keen on and maybe that made the difference? I wasn’t overly miserable, because I was busy and kept myself occupied with friends and work. I know there came a point, like for Tracey, when I knew I had to leave. And soon.
Can someone please tell the author that boredom and loneliness was also a feature of teenage years in a village. It was an old established community but how much fun is there leaning over walls to stare at fields of dairy cows and crops?! There were two buses; one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday. (One in the morning and a return in the afternoon, no choice of times. God help you if you missed it back. I never did, but I bet it was headache for others. Plus it occurs to me now that you had to be able to afford to pay for it. Perhaps other teens, part of other village social groups, who had no income could not travel even half an hour away. Luckily I could because of my weekend job, but others might have felt thoroughly trapped.) So, living in a suburb with a choice of trains, only a hop away from LONDON and much talk of clubbing in the capital? Little to feel sympathy for in my opinion!
It’s not a bad book but I found I kept thinking how I couldn’t understand her apathy about living in a suburb. It’s beyond my comprehension I guess, being so opposite to my growing up in a small rural village.
Still, she writes engagingly, albeit rather depressingly for the first section. It’s not hard to feel a bit defeated by the teenage diary entries. Is that a typical example of most teen diaries? Nothing really does happen; you’re so busy with school and growing up. I had hobbies I was keen on and maybe that made the difference? I wasn’t overly miserable, because I was busy and kept myself occupied with friends and work. I know there came a point, like for Tracey, when I knew I had to leave. And soon.
February 27, 2019
Didn’t find this as interesting as Tracey’s previous books I’m afraid. The diary entries are pretty slim, but I did enjoy her revisiting her old haunts, and her sociological analysis. I found it annoying that she managed to pass her Os and As with precious little effort, but I suspect that says more about me than her!
July 20, 2019
I love u Tracey Thorn . Your music means so much to me.
April 20, 2021
Reflections and lessons learned:
“My emotional range was restricted to my feelings about David Essex...”
Although a second autobiography this took a step back to fully expand on a seventies childhood and how it made her the person going forward. A love letter to suburbia detailing its beauty and flaws - a suburbia as portrayed on the BBC sitcoms that I enjoyed and wished for in a parallel universe, but by the time I was growing up was counterbalanced by satire reflecting the blandness and downsides.
Familiar feels for - vertigo on open tread train steps being an adventure - families and neighbourhoods bonded over everyone having to watch the same programmes as they were the only ones available - film night - the importance of comedy - the worry of parental health - holidays - gift received lists - the impact of Jaws as a formative experience (dark unknown sea metaphor) - don’t talk about things and they won’t happen - the start of the musical influences. The reflection on the simplicity of the diary entries is really what makes this though. An awareness that they would be the ongoing memoir that anyone could read so keeping it level, but then changing as an individual - literally looking back on a different planet with much family fondness
“Diary is mundane yet cheerful...Just endless meals, lessons, bedtime and shopping trips”
“My emotional range was restricted to my feelings about David Essex...”
Although a second autobiography this took a step back to fully expand on a seventies childhood and how it made her the person going forward. A love letter to suburbia detailing its beauty and flaws - a suburbia as portrayed on the BBC sitcoms that I enjoyed and wished for in a parallel universe, but by the time I was growing up was counterbalanced by satire reflecting the blandness and downsides.
Familiar feels for - vertigo on open tread train steps being an adventure - families and neighbourhoods bonded over everyone having to watch the same programmes as they were the only ones available - film night - the importance of comedy - the worry of parental health - holidays - gift received lists - the impact of Jaws as a formative experience (dark unknown sea metaphor) - don’t talk about things and they won’t happen - the start of the musical influences. The reflection on the simplicity of the diary entries is really what makes this though. An awareness that they would be the ongoing memoir that anyone could read so keeping it level, but then changing as an individual - literally looking back on a different planet with much family fondness
“Diary is mundane yet cheerful...Just endless meals, lessons, bedtime and shopping trips”
March 1, 2021
I grew up in the suburbs - although it was a suburb of Doncaster, not of London - and so I could (over) relate to a lot of what TT covers (not just writing an embarrassing teenage diary). The feeling that you're spending your youth in the wrong place, wanting to live a life different from your parents', who don't understand why you want to be in London and not somewhere cheaper, the idea of a double life (in Tracey's case, punk and venture scouts, in mine, indie gigs and townie meat-market niteclubs), the problems of getting anywhere when the train/bus service finishes early, the sheer boredom, not drawing attention to oneself or showing off, reading books to impress an older boy (in my case it was Saul Bellow rather than Camus), the DIY clothes, the underage drinking ("tut-tut") and the problems of class - not being one thing or the other, which is also what the suburbs are, neither town nor country.
.
.
April 22, 2021
“A question keeps returning to me though, and it’s this-if the suburbs are meant to be a refuge, why aren’t they more relaxed? If they’re meant to represent safety why do they teem with anxiety?”
Thorn, like fellow English musician Viv Albertine, seems to have done rather well in carving out a second creative career for herself as a serial memoirist of sorts. In some ways this book is really about nothing at all, and I can see why it could puzzle or bore some people, but that is also the beauty of it, like she says when quoting John Updike at one point, “giving the mundane its beautiful due”.
The one consistent thing I have found throughout all her books is that she is just so likeable and relatable. I would liken this book to going on a whimsical walk with the author, it has an intimate, confessional and introspective mood to it. I also came away with a nice list of films, music and books to chase up too.
April 13, 2021
Tracey Thorn ❤ Ihanimpia lauluääniä maailmankaikkeudessa. Mutta asiaan. Teini-ikä on rankka ja erityisen rankka se on Traceyn päiväkirjan mukaan 1970-luvun Brookmans Parkissa, Lontoon ulkopuolella sijaitsevassa hyvätuloisessa lähiössä. Tässä teoksessa yhdistyvät maantieto, muistot, luokkatietoisuus, sukupolvien väliset erot ja discopussailut. Koskettava, kiinnostava ja teiniangstin osalta hyvin samaistuttava (The Cure = best).
Toisaalta jäin miettimään sitä, miten kyseistä lähiötä pidetään ankeana, rumana ja historiattomana, vaikka talot on rakennettu 1920-1950 -luvuilla? Suomessa sen ajan rakennuksia pidetään kai yleisesti vanhoina ja kauniina. Toisaalta Lontooseen verrattuna koko Suomi on yhtä nuorta tulokasta.
Toisaalta jäin miettimään sitä, miten kyseistä lähiötä pidetään ankeana, rumana ja historiattomana, vaikka talot on rakennettu 1920-1950 -luvuilla? Suomessa sen ajan rakennuksia pidetään kai yleisesti vanhoina ja kauniina. Toisaalta Lontooseen verrattuna koko Suomi on yhtä nuorta tulokasta.
June 5, 2025
“I know you worry sometimes about being cool. But don’t. Who really cares? Cools overrated. Warm is better.
And I wish someone had said that to me at eighteen, and that I might have believed them”
Same!!
I love Tracey Thorn!!
And I wish someone had said that to me at eighteen, and that I might have believed them”
Same!!
I love Tracey Thorn!!
April 3, 2020
Tracey Thorn is a great writer and this is an excellent quick read about suburbia, the 70s, and growing up. It’s also very perceptive about class, motherhood and being a daughter. Top stuff.
July 27, 2020
Captures 1970s growing up beautifully. More than just a remembrance of that era; an understanding of parenthood, especially during teenage/young adulthood
February 21, 2025
Comença sent una mena d'assaig sobre com l'urbanisme (en aquest cas el fenomen de l'sprawl, tan ben explicat en l'expo Suburbia del CCCB) conforma una comunitat... i acaba sent una reflexió emotiva (i també lúcida) sobre la nostra relació amb pares i fills en els diferents moments de la nostra vida. I entremig, els anys formatius d'una de les veus més intel·ligents i consistents del pop britànic dels darrers anys, Tracey Thorn, el 50% dels Everything but the Girl.
February 23, 2024
After previously really enjoying Thorn’s ‘my rock and roll friend’ I think I loved another planet even more! The essence of teenage rebellion and complicated relationships with parents were portrayed effortlessly, with several both moving and witty moments.
June 26, 2021
Great way to spend a few hours on a sunny campsite.
Triggered questions in me as to how things have improved and how they have regressed for girls and young women.
Tracey has great insight into a time and place that is in some ways alien and in others familiar.
Triggered questions in me as to how things have improved and how they have regressed for girls and young women.
Tracey has great insight into a time and place that is in some ways alien and in others familiar.
May 29, 2019
Por todo ello, da igual si conocíamos a Tracey Thorn y escuchábamos sus canciones o si vivimos o no en el extrarradio, porque estas memorias reflejan cierto sentir social de un momento y dan cuenta de la evolución de la generación de los 70 que comenzaba a explosionar artísticamente. Esta obra supone un relato ameno y enternecedor, a medio camino entre el documental (novela social) y la autobiografía, que reafirma la arriesgada pero exitosa apuesta de Alpha Decay. En medio de la convulsión emocional, que tanto Thorn como nosotros, los de entonces, vivimos, lo que queda es lo que resulta el germen de este libro: que la música nos salva y nos define y, de fondo, una reivindicación: más protagonismo para la mujer en la escena musical.
https://alibreria.com/2019/05/29/otro...
https://alibreria.com/2019/05/29/otro...
March 2, 2020
Tracey Thorn is one half of pop duo, Everything But The Girl, the other half being her husband, Ben Watt. The couple met at Hull University in 1981 and have been together since – writing, making music, raising their three children.
I had not heard of the author prior to picking up this book. I noticed the publicity when it (Thorn’s third memoir) was released in hardback but, put off by the photo on the cover, had ignored whatever was being said. What drew me to pay more attention was the premise, when I finally read it – a teenager growing up in middle class suburbia in the 1970s; my era. Aspirational parents were mentioned along with an ordinary, largely happy childhood. This is not a misery memoir yet the author rebelled.
What is offered is an exploration of the stories we tell of ourselves – how and why we edit them – when family life appears felicitous to anyone else looking in, yet is the catalyst that drives a desire to escape, to break away from parental expectation.
Thorn kept diaries throughout her teenage years and these form the basis of her recollections. Always though she is looking back at the girl she was through the lens of her present day self – mid-fifties, successful in her field, a mother to adult children.
The memoir is bookended by a day trip she makes to the suburban estate north of London where she was born and raised. Details have changed but much remains the same. She notices aspects previously missed despite the years she spent there.
Interspersed with chapters that discuss her diary entries – what is written and, perhaps more importantly, what is not – are chapters giving background to: the place, life in the seventies, the pervading attitudes of middle class English parents who had lived through the war years. These offer a fascinating snapshot of a culture ingrained with stiff upper lipped snobbery and assumption that offspring will conform and provide a continuation of ideology. All this is presented with grace and candour. Thorn was bored and frustrated by her home life but recognises the influence it has had on her personal development.
“Always in the back of my head was a voice telling me to stop showing off. Don’t make a spectacle. Put that drink down. Shhhh.”
“If you didn’t talk about things, they weren’t happening. I was only thirteen, but I’d already learned the code.”
Thorn found her comfortable, conventional family life stultifying. Life in a commuter village surrounded by greenbelt left her feeling isolated from the excitement she craved.
“I was yearning for significance, looking everywhere for it.”
“It strikes me that I’m talking about an imaginary place as much as a real one. If memory skews our perception, then the village I recall is semi-fictional, and I have to accept that my account isn’t neutral, or wholly truthful; it’s one-sided and irrational, constructed out of experiences and my reaction, sometimes over-reaction, to them.”
Thorn’s parents grew up in London but moved to the suburbs for what they believed would be a better life. Their social circle revolved around the groups to hand, their views aligning with those they mixed with. Thorn couldn’t bring herself to fit in with their values.
“But what if […] you’re being told you don’t have to believe in anything very much to join the church group, and no one seems interested in the arts, and everyone votes Tory and the golf club is racist, what then?”
Jan Carson wrote in The Stinging Fly of how seemingly endless boredom during hours spent listening to Presbyterian sermons led to vivid daydreams that inspired her early stories. Thorn also muses on the creative possibilities when formative years are spent bored and longing for escape from stifling prejudice.
“I’m thinking again about that idea that art flourishes in an unconducive environment, that suburbia is inspiring, surrounding you with ideas and people to reject.”
For most of her teenage years, Thorn‘s concerns centred on boys, music, television and her social life.
“Current events rarely intruded into my little world, as I was a typically solipsistic teenager, and even when they did, my reaction was only to note the personal effect on me and my boring life.”
As she approaches adulthood, Thorn comes to realise that her parents and their peers were not as content with their lot as they liked others to think.
“The suburban dream suddenly seems creepy, as if its relentless NICEness is only pretend, and can’t survive without repressive conformity and wilful blindness.”
Although well written, candid and interesting, the format of this book sometimes lacks a smooth continuity. The reason becomes clear in the author’s end note. The book started as an essay and, over time, grew – “swallowing up some recent pieces of writing – reviews, articles and columns.” Thorn wrote these for other publications although points out they have been “chopped up, rearranged, in some cases rewritten” for inclusion here. Each chapter fits within her narrative but the story does not always flow as might be expected.
In many ways this is a typical story of life in middle class, middle of the road, family oriented England and, as such, offers a slice of life that garners little attention. Outwardly it appears so lacking in drama – teenage anger and frustration being routinely dismissed. As Thorn points out, many significant artists came from such backgrounds. As did many readers with whom this memoir will likely resonate.
Another Planet offers a softly spoken yet piercing history lesson – perhaps of value to the currently vocal looking back on the era with blinkered nostalgia. For those of us who grew up during the 1970s, it is also a trip down memory lane.
I had not heard of the author prior to picking up this book. I noticed the publicity when it (Thorn’s third memoir) was released in hardback but, put off by the photo on the cover, had ignored whatever was being said. What drew me to pay more attention was the premise, when I finally read it – a teenager growing up in middle class suburbia in the 1970s; my era. Aspirational parents were mentioned along with an ordinary, largely happy childhood. This is not a misery memoir yet the author rebelled.
What is offered is an exploration of the stories we tell of ourselves – how and why we edit them – when family life appears felicitous to anyone else looking in, yet is the catalyst that drives a desire to escape, to break away from parental expectation.
Thorn kept diaries throughout her teenage years and these form the basis of her recollections. Always though she is looking back at the girl she was through the lens of her present day self – mid-fifties, successful in her field, a mother to adult children.
The memoir is bookended by a day trip she makes to the suburban estate north of London where she was born and raised. Details have changed but much remains the same. She notices aspects previously missed despite the years she spent there.
Interspersed with chapters that discuss her diary entries – what is written and, perhaps more importantly, what is not – are chapters giving background to: the place, life in the seventies, the pervading attitudes of middle class English parents who had lived through the war years. These offer a fascinating snapshot of a culture ingrained with stiff upper lipped snobbery and assumption that offspring will conform and provide a continuation of ideology. All this is presented with grace and candour. Thorn was bored and frustrated by her home life but recognises the influence it has had on her personal development.
“Always in the back of my head was a voice telling me to stop showing off. Don’t make a spectacle. Put that drink down. Shhhh.”
“If you didn’t talk about things, they weren’t happening. I was only thirteen, but I’d already learned the code.”
Thorn found her comfortable, conventional family life stultifying. Life in a commuter village surrounded by greenbelt left her feeling isolated from the excitement she craved.
“I was yearning for significance, looking everywhere for it.”
“It strikes me that I’m talking about an imaginary place as much as a real one. If memory skews our perception, then the village I recall is semi-fictional, and I have to accept that my account isn’t neutral, or wholly truthful; it’s one-sided and irrational, constructed out of experiences and my reaction, sometimes over-reaction, to them.”
Thorn’s parents grew up in London but moved to the suburbs for what they believed would be a better life. Their social circle revolved around the groups to hand, their views aligning with those they mixed with. Thorn couldn’t bring herself to fit in with their values.
“But what if […] you’re being told you don’t have to believe in anything very much to join the church group, and no one seems interested in the arts, and everyone votes Tory and the golf club is racist, what then?”
Jan Carson wrote in The Stinging Fly of how seemingly endless boredom during hours spent listening to Presbyterian sermons led to vivid daydreams that inspired her early stories. Thorn also muses on the creative possibilities when formative years are spent bored and longing for escape from stifling prejudice.
“I’m thinking again about that idea that art flourishes in an unconducive environment, that suburbia is inspiring, surrounding you with ideas and people to reject.”
For most of her teenage years, Thorn‘s concerns centred on boys, music, television and her social life.
“Current events rarely intruded into my little world, as I was a typically solipsistic teenager, and even when they did, my reaction was only to note the personal effect on me and my boring life.”
As she approaches adulthood, Thorn comes to realise that her parents and their peers were not as content with their lot as they liked others to think.
“The suburban dream suddenly seems creepy, as if its relentless NICEness is only pretend, and can’t survive without repressive conformity and wilful blindness.”
Although well written, candid and interesting, the format of this book sometimes lacks a smooth continuity. The reason becomes clear in the author’s end note. The book started as an essay and, over time, grew – “swallowing up some recent pieces of writing – reviews, articles and columns.” Thorn wrote these for other publications although points out they have been “chopped up, rearranged, in some cases rewritten” for inclusion here. Each chapter fits within her narrative but the story does not always flow as might be expected.
In many ways this is a typical story of life in middle class, middle of the road, family oriented England and, as such, offers a slice of life that garners little attention. Outwardly it appears so lacking in drama – teenage anger and frustration being routinely dismissed. As Thorn points out, many significant artists came from such backgrounds. As did many readers with whom this memoir will likely resonate.
Another Planet offers a softly spoken yet piercing history lesson – perhaps of value to the currently vocal looking back on the era with blinkered nostalgia. For those of us who grew up during the 1970s, it is also a trip down memory lane.
July 8, 2020
Autobiographical musings on suburban adolescence, music, parents, music, waiting for life to happen, and music. Plus some insightful commentary on the social history of post-war England, class and social mobility, housing, and Green Belt planning policy, along with some really poignant reflections on place, ageing, the passing of time etc. ‘Another planet’ is a slim volume and a memoir of just a few uneventful years, but Tracey Thorn packs in an incredible amount to ponder, thanks to her pithy economical style (I guess writing lyrics trains you to choose words carefully). I saw her do a reading-chat-Q&A event just after I read this, and she’s lovely; wise, funny, thoughtful, self-deprecating, and she writes just as she speaks. Which is nice.
July 2, 2019
Very interesting how her teenage diary seems to document the absences, non-events, and failures... things that didn't happen, boots she didn't buy, discos she didn't go to.
The diary also omits some very significant, painful things that she later discussed in therapy:
"Years later, a therapist would have to do all the detective work of uncovering the words I hadn't said, which I had hoped I had forgotten, but which instead wrote themselves on my brain instead of the page." p.82
Love her advice to her teenage/ grownup children- "Cool's overrated. Warm is better.Love her confused affection for the suburbs.
The diary also omits some very significant, painful things that she later discussed in therapy:
"Years later, a therapist would have to do all the detective work of uncovering the words I hadn't said, which I had hoped I had forgotten, but which instead wrote themselves on my brain instead of the page." p.82
Love her advice to her teenage/ grownup children- "Cool's overrated. Warm is better.Love her confused affection for the suburbs.
November 22, 2020
A stunner
Thorn's conceit is to fill in the blanks in teenage diaries that were remarkable, for her, in what they concealed. A visit to her home town is the occasion to delve into both personal psychology and psychogeography, expanding to engage the question of what did it mean to grow up female, with all the dispossessions attendant upon that.
Thorn is a quietly a savagely brilliant essayist. This is easily the best memoir I've read in the past 20 years. Just incredible.
Thorn's conceit is to fill in the blanks in teenage diaries that were remarkable, for her, in what they concealed. A visit to her home town is the occasion to delve into both personal psychology and psychogeography, expanding to engage the question of what did it mean to grow up female, with all the dispossessions attendant upon that.
Thorn is a quietly a savagely brilliant essayist. This is easily the best memoir I've read in the past 20 years. Just incredible.
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