The winner of the Guardian First Book Award that reinvented the biographic form. One of the ten books – novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography – that make up our Matchbook Classics’ series, a stunningly redesigned collection of some of the best loved titles on our backlist.

‘Unique and wonderful.’ Daily Mail ‘Possibly the best biography I have ever read.’ Mark Haddon ‘This is a very rare and haunting book … A great first book.’ Andrew O'Hagan 'Good books like this appear about once every five years. It's been years since I've been so delighted by a book and so surprised by it … When I'd finished I felt bereft, as if I'd lost an old friend.' Zadie Smith ‘Utterly compelling and very funny.’ Daily Telegraph ‘One of the most remarkable and touching biographies I’ve ever read.’ Minette Marin, Sunday Times 'I feel so strongly about this strange, funny, sad book that I hardly know where to begin … My enthusiasm feels almost limitless. A page-turner.' Observer 'Funny and original, a startling book … By the end I was doubled up in tears, but throughout I was often doubled up with laughter. It is dazzling.' Vogue 'A remarkable biography. Unforgettably moving. A gripping read.' Tim Lott, Sunday Times ‘A comedy of errors and horrors deftly handled and with a terrifically droll sense of humour.’ Melanie McGrath, Evening Standard 'With his first book, Alexander Masters … has achieved something remarkable. He has, without patronising, given a voice to the "underclass"; at the same time, without preaching, he shows us the value of even the most damaged of human lives … a powerful book, humane, instructive and entirely original. Sunday Telegraph

• Critically acclaimed as one of the most extraordinary and compelling biographies to appear in many years. Winner of The Guardian First Book Award 2005, STUART was also shortlisted for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction and the Whitbread Biography Award. • Part of the Matchbook Classics series: ten modern classics from the 4th Estate list – some of the greatest fiction and non-fiction of the last 30 years. • Stunningly packaged in an innovative and unusual format – with a back flap that folds around and tucks in under the front cover, rather like a matchbook.