John Harris: Maybe I'm Amazed
- Date
-
Thu 24 April 2025
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
- Venue
- Showroom Workstation, Creative Lounge
Long before he was a parent, John Harris obsessively went to gigs, started a band, and pursued a career in music writing. He had no idea he was actually preparing himself for the greatest challenge of his life. But so it transpired. When his son James was born, and three years later diagnosed with autism, music became their main form of communication, a hugely shared passion and – it is no exaggeration to say – the sound that saved them.
Maybe I’m Amazed describes how The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Funkadelic, The Velvet Underground, Amy Winehouse and more were soon woven into the fabric of James’s life, becoming an essential part of who he is. It takes us through the struggles of raising an autistic child in a prejudiced world, and uncovers a hidden history of neurodivergence and creativity that casts new light on why notes, chords and lyrics speak so powerfully to the human mind.
Anyone who has fallen in love with a band or heard their life reflected back at them by a song will recognise themselves in this book. Join John for an evening in conversation with Melissa Simmonds about Maybe I’m Amazed, which in combining the personal and the universal has lessons in listening and living for us all.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility for this event, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
John Harris is a multiple award-winning writer, journalist, podcaster and presenter. He has written professionally about music since he was 19, and is also known for his pioneering political and social writing, centred on his weekly column in The Guardian and his BAFTA-nominated Anywhere but Westminster films with John Domokos. He is the author of the acclaimed pop-cultural history of the 1990s The Last Party (which is currently being developed for television) and the definitive work on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon. In 2021, he turned 60 hours of recorded conversations into the authorised book that accompanied Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary series Get Back. He writes regularly for Mojo and has been awarded the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism (2021) and the UK Award for Political Commentator of the year (2018).
MisTÂûght founder Melissa Simmonds is Black and Autistic and has two Autistic children. Through MisTÂûght, Melissa aims to educate kids about Autism, educate schools about Black British History, lobby for culturally diverse diagnostic tools, and ensure everyone she and her children come into contact with has an acceptable level of understand of Autism.
