I am the author of two memoirs: A Physical Education: On Bullying, Discipline & Other Lessons (Goldsmiths, 2024), and Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta Books, 2007). See below for details on both.
A Physical Education: On Bullying, Discipline & Other Lessons
What does it mean to be a bully? What does it feel like to be bullied—to be a victim, a pariah, a scapegoat? What are the techniques, patterns, and languages of bullying? Intermingling memoir with literary criticism, philosophy, and sociology, A Physical Education attempts to answer these questions. A highly original examination of the uses and abuses of power in the education system, it explores how bullying and discipline function, how they differ from each other, and how they all too often overlap. Taylor interweaves his own experiences with reflections on well-known literary representations of bullying and school discipline, alongside sociological, psychological, and philosophical theories of power. He discusses the transition from corporal punishment to psychological forms of discipline that took place in the UK in the 1980s, and he also investigates the divergences and convergences of physical, psychological, and linguistic bullying.
Above all, A Physical Education sets out to understand bullying and discipline from an experiential perspective: what these things feel like from “within,” rather than “above,” for all those involved. There are horrors, tragedies, and cyclical traumas, certainly—but there are also absurdities, contradictions, grotesque comedies. Sometimes, beneath the Gradgrindian tyranny, there is trickery, laughter. And sometimes there are chinks in The Wall, through which other possible worlds might be glimpsed.
You can read excerpts from A Physical Education in The Times Higher here and on Creative Writing at Leicester here.
You can read more about the book on the publisher’s website here.
Some reviews of A Physical Education:
Blake Morrison: “A powerful book about bullying in all its forms (canes, fists, machismo, and scapegoating), especially at school. Drawing on personal experience in childhood and beyond, with violent episodes vividly recalled, it’s enriched by references to corporal punishment and power abuse in literature, from Dickens to Derrida. The tone is conversational and often comic, but Jonathan Taylor engages passionately with a subject that concerns us all.”
John Schad: “Jonathan Taylor knows about bullies. As he says, he always hopes they might ‘go and punch someone more interesting.’ The trouble is, that’s difficult; there being not many people more interesting than Jonathan Taylor. And there is certainly no one more interesting on bullies.”
Maureen Freely: “‘I was bullied. It almost destroyed me. But in the end I pulled through. Let me tell you how.’ This is the classic narrative arc for books on bullying. So bravo to Jonathan Taylor for breaking the mould. All of us who have survived bullying will recognise the personal stories he shares in each and every chapter. But what matters most is his refusal to remain in the personal. His analysis of the psychological and cultural underpinnings of bullying is acute and far-reaching. In mapping its social and political utility, he points not just to the roots of the problem but to its solution.”
Named by Ruth F. Hunt as one of her three top non-fiction reads of 2024: “This is a superb and intriguing memoir that delves into bullying at all levels in the education system using literary examples and other deeply personal examples to examine the impact of bullying.”
Julie Gardner on Five Leaves Bookshop and Nottingham Creative Writing Hub: “Taylor … achieves [his] … aims with clarity and grace … The book is obviously of particular interest and importance to anyone who works in schools or universities but it does not confine itself solely to educational institutions and is written in such an accessible and engaging way it would appeal to a much wider audience … A Physical Education is … an invitation for the reader to think about the nature of power … This is an important book. I hope it is read widely by teachers, academics, and politicians and by anyone who is still haunted by past bullying.”
Sally Shaw on Everybody’s Reviewing: “Taylor’s skill in his examination of this subject … enabled me to consider the many forms and complexities of bullying and bullies. Taylor’s bravery in sharing his at times harrowing experiences of being bullied will, I’m sure, enable others to identify bullying either of themselves or others and, in doing so, reduce it in educational and work settings, or deal with it … This book is worth reading by everybody as it is relatable to all areas of society and may lead to readers identifying bullying, so enabling greater awareness and understanding.”
Jonathan Wilkins on the Letter Press Project: “Insightful … Throughout this very readable book, there are insights into many aspects of life. Taylor investigates power in the schoolroom and in education as a whole … How do you affect the behaviour of the bully? If it is the system, how do we change it? Is discipline just another form of bullying? All these and more are interrogated in a fascinating book, which is readable and accessible.”
Louise Peterkin: “I loved this book by Jonathan Taylor. Part memoir, part academic study, the balance is perfectly judged. Poignant, humane, empathetic and honest, with flashes of warm, relatable humour.”
Paul Taylor-McCartney: “Like the best memoirs, Taylor masterfully draws on a wide range of sources – film, literature, criticism, philosophy and sociology – to underpin his study … Taylor’s own remembrances are imbued with as much humour as they are horror … A Physical Education is both manifesto for system change and a thoroughly engrossing read at the same time. Brilliant.”
Sapphira Olson: “One of those rare books that takes a subject that many of us have experienced in one form or other – bullying – and manages to balance a deep dive into the horror of it whilst also staying light and amusing … It’s this honesty together with his ability as a writer to make the reader feel they are right beside him as he tells his true life stories that makes the book really sing.”
Sophie Duffy: “This is such a comprehensive book about bullying in education and beyond, interspersed with memoir. It’s accessible and readable and yet academic too – a hard trick to pull off, … handled with great skill and sensitivity. The memoir is especially moving. Taylor really writes emotion well, bringing childhood experiences to life, and the repercussions years later … Its refreshing honesty and self-awareness means this book stays with you long after closing the final page. Thoroughly recommend.”
Maggie Brookes-Butt: “an extraordinary memoir … fascinating, moving and readable. School bullies and horrible teachers delivering draconian discipline leap off the page. But so too do the teachers who got it right …. In spite of all the cruelty, there isn’t a moment of bitterness or resentment in this book, only thoughtfulness, humanity, scholarship and good humour.”
Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself
“Very moving and beautifully done” (John Bayley).
“A brave and unsentimental book” (Diana Athill).
When Jonathan Taylor was eight, he began to find his father puzzling. The first thing that happened was that his father couldn’t remember Jonathan’s sister’s name. Then he began to shake, to drive badly, to forget who or where he was, and to mistake his son for someone else entirely. “Help help help,” his father would say, on and on, but there seemed to be no helping him. Doctors diagnosed Parkinson’s disease and an associated form of dementia, and Jonathan gradually became one of his father’s carers, taking it in turn with his family to look after him for the next thirteen years.
Take Me Home is the story of a son’s struggle for recognition from a father who is being transformed mentally and physically by a ruinous disease, and a writer’s struggle to discover a father’s strange and largely secret past – who he was before he became a disappointed headmaster in Stoke-on-Trent and, at the last, a trembling Parkinsonian who sometimes mistook his son for Humphrey Bogart or a giraffe.
You can read more about Take Me Home at Granta Books.
You can read excerpts published in The Guardian Family Supplement.
You can buy Take Me Home here.
Some reviews of Take Me Home:
Recently named by Prof. Andrew Lees as one of his five recommended books on neuroscience on “Five Books” here.
Michele Hanson in The Guardian: “Riveting, detailed, moving account of his father’s Parkinson’s, mysterious past, and his own response to it.”
Nick Rennison in The Sunday Times: “Taylor’s account … turns its back on the clichés of the genre to which it seems initially to belong …. Instead, there is black comedy to be extracted from the story …. Taylor’s willingness to acknowledge this makes all the more poignant his attempts to reconstruct the father lost beneath the disease.”
Brian Dillon in The Irish Times: “affecting and erudite memoir … startlingly acute.”
Carol Birch in The Times Literary Supplement: “Taylor acheives a heartfelt yet unsentimental memoir that is also a reconciliation.”
Olivia Laing in The Guardian: “It … stands as a fine testimonial to man whose life was a mystery.”
Andrew Lees, “Reads of the Year,” in Glasgow Review of Books: “There are many good pathographies about living with Parkinson’s disease but none are as informative as this beautifully written insight into the malady by a son forced into a role of carer.”
The Good Book Guide: “… dazzling memoir.”
Wayne Burrows in Staple: “Take Me Home is a beautifully constructed and often profound piece of work.”
Indian Book Reviews: ” … brilliantly crafted lines … humour-filled sentences … a book that’s engrossing, endearing and definitely engaging.”
David Morley: “A lovely and crafted account … very moving.”
Publishing News: “Taylor shows his own state of mind, the exasperation, anger and boredom – mixed with love – something any carer must experience, rarely acknowledged.”
The Parkinson: “Jonathan Taylor has crafted his harrowing tale with elegance and edgy humour.”
Danuta Lipinska in Living With Dementia: “The book is written in a style that is easy, conversational, sometimes humorous, irreverent and often poignant.”
Carol Ross Williamson in The Record, Canada: “The despairing world of Parkinson’s and dementia … is poignantly explored in this book.”
Kirkus Reviews: “unsentimental … frank.”
Paul Kent on Oneword Radio: “wonderful … heartbreaking.”
Michael W. Thomas in Raw Edge Magazine: “With delicacy and compassion, Taylor records how his father’s decline affected him and his family …. Taylor’s prose has a sureness about it …. This is life-writing in the most genuine sense.”
Madeline Armstrong, For Dementia: “beautifully written … sad … funny … intriguing … educational.”
Bridget McCall in E.P.D.A. Plus: “ … a deeply personal account …. Although parts of the book are disturbing, there’s a lot of humour and Taylor’s love for his father … is evident on every page.”
Cyprus Mail: “ … heartbreakingly honest.”
Editor’s Choice in The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon), 2007.
Editor’s Choice in Hot Type column, Ottawa Citizen, 2007.
Book recommendation by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Carers UK and the Princess Royal Carers Trust.