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

This is the tale of life lived large, a collection of uproarious and often moving stories spanning 60 years, from Geoff's youth as a clothes obsessed Jewish suedehead, hanging out in Tottenham dancehalls, via straight Bowie Boy frequenting London's gay clubs, gender confusion in Manhattan's Studio 54, and on to huge career success as a screenwriter. I have been a fly-pitcher working out of a suitcase, a kitchen porter at Jewish functions, and flogged suits to Nigerians down Brick Lane market. I 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. I 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. I then 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 extraordinary use of language which combines Cockney rhyming slang with Yiddish and a smattering of Polari