Andrew Kaufman

I was on holiday a few years ago. We'd decided to go camping and had gone to one of those places that had yurts. There were no yurts free, so we stayed in a tipi (tepee?). 

My daughter Freya was one at the time. Anyway, we couldn't get the stove to work initially, and when we did, despite following all the instructions, smoke filled out tipi. We made a hasty escape, eyes streaming. .

It then started raining followed by a howling gale. As darkness fell, raindrops battered the tipi and despite our best efforts Freya did not want to go to sleep. 

When she finally nodded off (after what felt like hours), we lit candles and snuggled under as many blankets as we had to try and keep warm.

I got a copy of All My Friends Are Superheroes out of my bag and in the dim candle light started reading it. I was mesmerised.

For those of you who don’t know about the book, it follows Tom, a regular guy, whose circle of friends are all superheroes, including his fiancée, The Perfectionist.

At a party following their wedding, one of The Perfectionist’s exes, (The Hypnotist) uses his powers to make Tom invisible to her.

Six months later and The Perfectionist still unable to see or hear Tom, decides to move away from the pain this is causing to start a new life. As she sits on the plane Tom (who is right next to her) senses that he has until the plane touches down to make her see him or all will be lost.

At little over 100 pages, Andrew Kaufman has written a little masterpiece. It is heart warming, funny, sad, odd and magnificent.

Despite our tipi holiday being less than ideal, I am very grateful to Mr Kaufman for allowing me to escape the gloom for a few hours.

Since then, he’s had a few other books published, including The Tiny Wife and Born Weird. Andrew was over in the UK last week (he lives in Canada) to promote these.

He very kindly agreed to visit the bookshop to sign copies of his books.

Here he is.

Andrew Kaufman

If you get a chance, please read his stuff. It’s a real delight.