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on a mono record player, Geoff's dad discovers it's a portal to endless expenditure and funding for records is abruptly withdrawn.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.
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. |
| Note | Unavailable |