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Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult 80s
'Higher education comes at exactly the right time: in the twilight of your teens, you're just starting to coagulate as a human being, to pull away from parental influence and find your own feet. What better than three years in which to explore the inner you, establish a feasible worldview, and maybe get on Blockbusters.'
After an idyllic provincial 1970s childhood, the 1980s took Andrew Collins to London, art school and the classic student experience. Crimping his hair, casting aside his socks and sporting fingerless gloves, he became Andy Kollins: purveyor of awful poetry; disciple of moany music, and wannabe political activist. What follows is a universal tale of trainee hedonism, girl trouble, wasted grants and begging letters to parents.
A synth-soundtracked rite of passage that's often painfully funny, it traces one teenager's metamorphosis from sheltered suburban innocent to semi-mature metropolitan male through the pretensions and confusions of trying to stand alone for the first time in your own kung fu pumps in a big bad city.
After an idyllic provincial 1970s childhood, the 1980s took Andrew Collins to London, art school and the classic student experience. Crimping his hair, casting aside his socks and sporting fingerless gloves, he became Andy Kollins: purveyor of awful poetry; disciple of moany music, and wannabe political activist. What follows is a universal tale of trainee hedonism, girl trouble, wasted grants and begging letters to parents.
A synth-soundtracked rite of passage that's often painfully funny, it traces one teenager's metamorphosis from sheltered suburban innocent to semi-mature metropolitan male through the pretensions and confusions of trying to stand alone for the first time in your own kung fu pumps in a big bad city.
301 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 5, 2020
Andrew Collins, scriptwriter, radio personality, biographer, artist etc. pens his second book of memoirs about growing up in the 1980s, from sixth form, through college and University, up to his first big break working for the NME. Entertaining and funny in parts, but also essentially pretty spot-on about what it is/was like for a provincial (Northampton) boy moving down to London as student in the 1980s. 6 out of 12
December 9, 2010
I'd really enjoyed the first book "Where Did It All Go Right?", so thought this would be more of the whimsical memories that accompanied my student years too.
However there is little to compare and contrast with Mr Collins this time around, aside from his (very) brief acquaintance with the proverbial student hovel.
The book focuses almost singlemindedly on his love life, which for me personally, isn't the most fascinating topic.
By the end of the book it's clear that he hasn't had the typical student experience: he has a car, lives mainly in Halls and doesn't even have a Students Union building to haunt.
I'm still slightly baffled as to how soemone so self centred managed to get a job writing for the NME.
There are soem good moments in the book, but it's certainly more of a search for them than in his first effort. I'll probably still read "That's Me In The Corner", the next book, but I won't be hunting it down immediately.
However there is little to compare and contrast with Mr Collins this time around, aside from his (very) brief acquaintance with the proverbial student hovel.
The book focuses almost singlemindedly on his love life, which for me personally, isn't the most fascinating topic.
By the end of the book it's clear that he hasn't had the typical student experience: he has a car, lives mainly in Halls and doesn't even have a Students Union building to haunt.
I'm still slightly baffled as to how soemone so self centred managed to get a job writing for the NME.
There are soem good moments in the book, but it's certainly more of a search for them than in his first effort. I'll probably still read "That's Me In The Corner", the next book, but I won't be hunting it down immediately.
April 24, 2024
Not as endearing and funny as Collins' previous (childhood) memoir, this was however pleasant and readable, musing upon some universal themes of student life and causing me to reminisce a little about my own university years. The author comes across in a likeable manner, agreeable and self-effacing, and though he's got a bit of a smug little face it all makes for an enjoyable read.
June 15, 2016
I enjoyed Where Did it all go Right, by the same author: we are similar ages and I could relate to his tale of growing up in a small town. So this seemed like a logical extension, his college days just mirror mine, right?
Wrong. This is SO far removed from my college days. There are no tales of concerts, parties or any kind of student interactions. It's all about his love life, and that makes it dull, dull, dull. In fairness, he puts the AIDS emergence into a very real, and stark context, but that's the only interesting aspect of his love life.
The book comes to life after he graduates, but this is right at the end of the book.
Wrong. This is SO far removed from my college days. There are no tales of concerts, parties or any kind of student interactions. It's all about his love life, and that makes it dull, dull, dull. In fairness, he puts the AIDS emergence into a very real, and stark context, but that's the only interesting aspect of his love life.
The book comes to life after he graduates, but this is right at the end of the book.
May 19, 2011
Got through this faster than his first book (Where did it all go right?) but I'm not sure if I enjoyed it more. It's an interesting account of being a student in the days before student loans and when you could still claim benefits. It surprised me just how much of a player the young Andrew Collins seemed to be & in fact, in parts this felt like a book about dating in the early 80's as oppose to student life.
Parts of it did make me laugh a lot and the pictures of Mr Collins on the back with his 80s garb on were very amusing - would have been great to have some of these inside too.
Parts of it did make me laugh a lot and the pictures of Mr Collins on the back with his 80s garb on were very amusing - would have been great to have some of these inside too.
January 20, 2012
Less universal than its marvelous predecessor, 'Where did it all go Right?' and with less of the revealing diary elements that took you back to those days. Some interesting insights into student life in the 80s but really not that many funny or dramatic incidents to report. Andrew Collins is a likeable enough narrator and it's nice to fill in some gaps in terms of his career if you are interested.
July 29, 2017
I know he likes the comparison but Andrew Collins is not Nick Hornby.
I bought this book as an easy holiday read, and I did enjoy it, but in the end I wondered why this book was written. His student 80s were not that difficult and contained neither enough angst or adventure. I was looking for something that spoke to my own experience of that time, and to an extent I got that, but I wouldn't try and sell you my Polytechnic years.
I bought this book as an easy holiday read, and I did enjoy it, but in the end I wondered why this book was written. His student 80s were not that difficult and contained neither enough angst or adventure. I was looking for something that spoke to my own experience of that time, and to an extent I got that, but I wouldn't try and sell you my Polytechnic years.
May 31, 2009
I read the previous book "Where did it all go right?" and enjoyed the affectionate look at the 70's...i was expecting more of the same, but got a self-indulgent trawl through the author's disappointing love life. Not much to laugh or feel nostalgic about - miserable summed up my feelings about it all.
October 3, 2010
While I enjoyed Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal In the 70s this book I just found annoying. The author is not so much miserable as dull,whiny and uninteresting.
June 20, 2020
An interesting account of the student years of one of the key music journos of the Madchester era. You can totally see how he came to be so through his student experiences.
What he's not is always likeable. This is brave and I think, the best way to write an autobiography. An open account tells us more than a sanitised version ever will.
What he's not is always likeable. This is brave and I think, the best way to write an autobiography. An open account tells us more than a sanitised version ever will.
June 27, 2022
Although the end dragged a bit (his relationship with Ingrid was not that interesting), this was an enjoyable memoir. Collins and I are the same age so we share many memories especially of the music and politics of the time even if our college adventures came on different sides of the Atlantic. His humorously-told recollections had me constantly thinking,"Oh, yeah. I remember!"
April 14, 2021
//ROCKERS ARE GETTING COOL FEET//
//If you want to look like a rock star this summer, fellas, throw your socks away. Most of Duran Duran seem to favour the sockless look. Even Echo and the Bunnymen’s moody Ian McCulloch has chucked away his socks.//
//If you want to look like a rock star this summer, fellas, throw your socks away. Most of Duran Duran seem to favour the sockless look. Even Echo and the Bunnymen’s moody Ian McCulloch has chucked away his socks.//
May 2, 2007
I could completely identify with Collins' depiction of the eighties scene although I am a little cross that he paints himself as a bit of a square yet seems to have misbehaved much more than I ever did. I thought I was having fun but was obviously well off the pace.
February 13, 2020
Bedshakingly funny - as my partner, frowningly trying to read her Jane Fallon alongside me, will testify. A must-read for anyone who has ever shagged a fellow student, or bought an Echo and the Bunnymen LP, or taken his crimpers to college in the Big City. Very well written and utterly hilarious.
November 15, 2012
Substitutes the enjoyably innocent wide-eyed charm of growing pains predecessor "Where did it all go right?" with 300 pages of pretty lacklustre tales of the sexual activities (or inactivities) of Mr Andy Kollins, student, protestor, and occasional writer/artist/illustrator.
October 15, 2007
has it's moments
September 12, 2011
not bad but not great.
April 15, 2013
A personal account of a teenager in the eighties. Sometimes insightful, sometimes a tad superficial in my opinion.
July 21, 2008
Not as rosily summer-warm as his first volume, Andrew enters a "difficult" phase in his life...
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April 11, 2010Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult Student 80s by Andrew Collins (2005)
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews