This book is about men because, in an annoying way, everything is. Funny men, tall men, charming men. Stepdads, actual dads and ripped ‘sports dads’. Raven Smith has been trying to distil what it is about men that has kept him intrigued his whole life.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Raven Smith's Trivial Pursuits, comes a pin sharp, hilarious and incisive exploration of what it means to be a man in the modern day. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits, comes a pin sharp, hilarious and incisive exploration of what it means to be a man in the modern day.Funny men, tall men, charming men. Stepdads, actual dads and ripped ‘sports dads’. Raven Smith has been trying to distil what it is about men that has kept him intrigued his whole life. Part memoir, part exploration of the peculiar dynamics and amorphous boundaries of masculinity, Raven looks unflinchingly at his own history, offering a cautious reverence of a life lived in parallel with other men.

I can’t truly shake the reality that I have lived a predominantly white life, with a white mother and stepdad and – in the past 20 years – a four-bedroom home in the countryside, a boat and a house in France. These shiny new things don’t tally with my mum getting chased down the street with me in a buggy as people screamed the N-word at her. I’m not steeped in the residue of my 1980s Brixton youth, nor is this quite the rags-to-riches My Fair Lady story. My dad’s comment still tinkles lightly on the piano of my mind Positive discrimination should be invisible to the naked eye, but racism in the UK has followed a similar path, evolving alongside endeavours for equality. People aren’t noticeably discriminatory; the least accepting people take the most umbrage to being called racist. But racism is thriving, invisible like carbon monoxide, inhaled through Brexit and exhaled in a constant hammering criticism that sees a duchess and her husband relinquish their titles. I wish there was a turning point, some clear moment I assimilated, but the whiteness and privilege were my climate and I just changed. Like any human, I adopted the values of the lives immediately adjacent to mine. This book is about men because, in an annoying way, everything is. Funny men, tall men, charming men. Stepdads, actual dads and ripped 'sports dads'. Raven Smith has been trying to distil what it is about men that has kept him intrigued his whole life. I’m Jamaican pigmentally, but too anxious about the island’s approach to homosexuality to get on a flight to Kingston. I’m sure I’d be safe as houses at a luxury resort, but that doesn’t scream finding yourself, does it? It’s hard to connect with your roots while sipping Mount Gay from a coconut by the pool. I’m Rastafarian in name (my initials deliberately spell RAS), but not versed in the religion at all. I love reggae, but is there anything whiter than reggae? My father and I are two circles that don’t know how to overlap

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