Henry Normal - Everyday Adventures with our Autistic Son.

TV and Film writer Henry Normal draws from his bestselling book  'A Normal Family', co-written with his wife Angela Pell, to tell the story of life with their severely autistic son, Johnny.

The book has inspired a number of BBC radio 4 shows and Henry believes it is his most important written work. 

Steve Amos,  author of 'Two Sides of an Indie Dad', will be opening for Henry. Steve regularly performs his work at events around Hastings.

More about Henry

Henry first started writing when he joined a writers’ group at his local library in Nottingham. Then, with the help of a £40 a week enterprise allowance scheme award, he started performing his work in front of audiences, anywhere he could – in factories, hospitals even the top deck of buses. And he started touring – opening for bands including Pulp. He also became their tour bus driver!

He was spotted by Channel 4 and moved into television. He co-wrote both the multi-award winning Mrs Merton show and the first series of The Royle Family. In 1990 he set up Baby Cow Productions and produced all, and script edited many, of their shows. His credits include the Oscar nominated film Philomena, I Believe in Miracles, Gavin and Stacey, Marion and Geoff, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf and Alan Partridge. In 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to Television.

He retired in April 2016, and since then has written and performed several shows combining comedy, poetry and stories about family life for BBC Radio 4.

Henry now lives in Fairlight, near Hastings with his wife, the screenwriter Angela Pell (Close to Me, Snow Cake) and their son Johnny.

Henry performs poetry at Literature Festivals around the UK and has written more than a dozen poetry books.

In 2023 he was invited to become patron of the Hastings Book Festival – a post we were delighted he accepted.