Homework by Geoff Dyer

Homework by Geoff Dyer

WINNER OF THE 2026 TLS ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Born in 1958, the only child of a dinner lady and a sheet-metal worker, Geoff Dyer grew up in a world shaped by the Second World War. It was a time of Airfix models and wargames, conkers and frugality: having splurged on a mono record player, Geoff's dad discovers it's a portal to endless expenditure and funding for records is abruptly withdrawn.

But far from being a story of hardship overcome, Homework is a celebration of opportunities afforded to Dyer's generation. A grammar-school education leads to books, prog rock (on a new stereo), girls, beer and, eventually, a place at Oxford.

In Homework, Dyer returns to his early life and asks what it means to live through an era of complex social transformation.

Dyer is wonderful on the strangeness of remembering itself * * New York Times * *
Droll, erudite, digressive, self-deprecating, laid-back rather than standup in his humour - the Geoff Dyer voice is unmistakable * * Guardian * *
Homework bursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state * * LA Times * *
If you've read Dyer before then you'll need no persuasion to read this bookIf you haven't, it's the perfect place to start -- JOHN SELF * * The Times * *
Geoff Dyer and I nearly share a name and a birth year. We were born in different countries, however, under different circumstances. No matter. Every page of this exquisite, witty memoir brought back a flood of memories and emotions that seemed to be my own, so lovingly and precisely does Dyer articulate them. A heartfelt book by a supremely intelligent writer -- JEFFREY EUGENIDES
While the subject of Homework is ostensibly Geoff Dyer, as ever his interest is really something tangential. Class is "the treacle that gets everywhere in England" . . . Dyer conjures up a Cheltenham of rusty allotment sheds and recycled school dinners -- JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR * * Sunday Times * *
A jacuzzi of a book: soothing and fizzing at the same time -- JOAN BAKEWELL
This acutely observed memoir of postwar England might be the highlight of [Dyer's] illustrious four-decade career . . . This Gloucestershire lad turned boomer Proust is his own man, and he has written a highly original memoir that will provoke, amuse, beguile -- and endure * * Financial Times * *
The Geoff Dyer voice is unmistakeable . . . [an] evocation of a lost era, a postwar culture eager to embrace new freedoms -- BLAKE MORRISON * * Guardian * *
Dyer's most personal book yet, this is a moving but characteristically droll account of family, as well as an astute retrospective on post-war Britain -- LUKE WARDE * * Irish Sunday Independent * *

Geoff Dyer's many award-winning books of fiction and non-fiction include Out of Sheer Rage, Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It and The Last Days of Roger Federer. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, he has recently returned to London after ten years as Writer in Residence at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. His books have been translated into twenty-six languages.

geoffdyer.com

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781837262014
ISBN 10	1837262012
Title	Homework
Author	Geoff Dyer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Canongate Books
Year published	2026-05-21
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.