Book Launch - Stars, Cars and Crystal Meth with Jack (and John) Sutherland,

It is our immense pleasure to announce the book launch party for Stars, Cars and Crystal Meth, the frank and fascinating new memoir by Jack Sutherland, former PA and bodyguard to Michael Stipe, Ru Paul and Mickey Rourke. The book charts one man's struggles with sex and substance addition, descent into meth-use hell and journey to recovery. It is a genuinely extraordinary and gripping story and one, that shared, has the potential to help others. Stars, Cars and Crystal Meth by Jack Sutherland (as told to John Sutherland, the adventures of a personal assistant who really could have used one himself! Jack Sutherland, the narrator and protagonist of this memoir has, you might say, led a charmed life in the face of seeming damnation. A confirmed alcoholic in his early teens, by his twenties he was PA and bodyguard to the Hollywood stars most notably Michael Stipe, Ru Paul and Mickey Rourke. His work took him to exotic destinations around the world and bizarre encounters and requests. It also led him back to a smorgasbord of lethal addictions: alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and perhaps most damaging of all crystal meth and the crazed chemsex that characterises its use. On the shores of death's coastline, a nine stone skeleton in a frame that once boasted the shape and tone of a bodybuilder, Jack is saved. By his father, one of the literary world's most esteemed personalities: John Sutherland. It is a son's memoir told through the prism and prose of a father, and all the more moving and powerful for it. Stars, Cars & Crystal Meth lifts the lid on the shadow world of the Hollywood PA with grim but ultimately inspiring honesty. John Sutherland is a Professor of English at UCL, a former Chair of the Man Booker Prize, and author of several books. Both Jack and John will be in attendance for the event, a relaxed social, standing book launch with short readings. This FREE event is hosted by Gay's the Word In partnership with Faber and Faber - please indicate your intention to attend here on Facebook so we have a sense of numbers.