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Paul Shepheard
Autobiography

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November 2024

Autobiography

Paul Shepheard

Softcover Book

224pp

£15 (forthcoming November 2024)

"There is no past, and no future. Everything exists in the present. All our speculations of the future are hosted by the present moment, and what we know of the past is sustained by memories and what physical evidence survives. How long is the present? Is it a twentieth of a second, the time it takes to blink? Or three minutes, the duration of a pop song, the time it takes to recognise something new? Or is it longer still? The present moment could encompass your whole life, from the time you were conceived till your last breath. Only you know what’s in it. And an autobiography is a portrait of that lifelong present moment."

Paul Shepheard

"I am John Paul Shepheard. Although the first name on my birth certificate and all my official documents is John, I was called Paul by my family and friends and all through my life I have been Paul Shepheard, not John Shepheard. My mother said that John was the most popular name for a boy born in 1947, and that's why I'm John, but they thought I'd need another name to put beside it and that's why I'm Paul. My Dad's explanation, more fanciful, was that he was a fan of Peter Paul Rubens and he was the Peter, so I could be the Paul. But whatever the reason, I am John Paul, and I like it. Double names carry a tension. They have about them hints of camouflage and inheritance; they imply that life is more than a single strand. This book, my autobiography, could also be called The Autobiography of john Paul Shepheard by Paul Shepheard.

There is a chapter for each year of my life starting with 1947: my own year zero. "

Paul Shepheard

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