The author and artist Alison Wearing discusses her recent memoir, Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter: Growing Up with A Gay Dad (Knopf, 2013), with Joseph Planta.

Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter: Growing Up with A Gay Dad by Alison Wearing (Knopf, 2013). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

At the age of 12, my next guest now found out her father was gay. It was in the 1970s, and for a childhood spent in low-key Peterborough, Ontario, it was a bit of a shock. Alison Wearing is the author of Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter: Growing Up with A Gay Dad. It was published this past spring to great notices, and you may have seen Ms. Wearing in performance across this country in recent months, in a one-woman show that this book was crafted around. The book is at once the story of finding out her flamboyant father was gay, but also her own story of being the daughter of a gay dad, in that she hid that fact from her friends in Peterborough. I’ll get Ms. Wearing to tell us about this book, and the sort of introspection and understanding that comes about after writing a book like this, and what the reaction has been from readers and audiences. Alison Wearing is a performer of music, dance and theatre. Her stage adaptation of Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter has won several awards. Her first book was the bestselling and acclaimed travel memoir, Honeymoon in Purdah: An Iranian Journey. She joined me last week while in Vancouver for events at the Vancouver Writers Festival. The website for more is at www.alisonwearing.com. The book is published by Knopf. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Alison Wearing; Ms. Wearing, good morning.

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