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Will Self (born September 26, 1961Will Self is an English novelist, reviewer and columnist who was educated first at University College School but later at Exeter College, Oxford. Will Self is known for his satirical, grotesque and fantastic novels and short stories set in seemingly parallel universes. These include

(1993) — a lonely boy grows up just outside Brighton in a caravan park with his over-sexual mother and Samual Northcliff who takes the boy on a disturbing and often violent journey. (2000) — an old lady dies, only to be moved to a London suburb where the dead have taken residence.

"All my work is highly personal; it's more personal than me. You know, reading my books is having a far more intimate relationship with me than having a relationship with me."

His shorter fiction includes:

Like Salman Rushdie, Will Self loads his fiction with references and allusions to modern culture (both high and low) and like Rushdie he is probably the only person able to recognise them all. The influences on his fiction mentioned most frequently include J.G. Ballard, William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson often not for purely literary reasons. Alonside these he has cited such diverse writers as Jonathan Swift, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, Joseph Heller and Louis-Ferdinand Celine as formative influences on his writing . Martin Amis is often mentioned alongside Self; Self went to interview him but they ended up having more of a discussion about each other's work and lives - it is known that they have tremendous respect for each other.

Self has also compiled several books of work from his newspaper and magazine columns - (2001) - which mix interviews with counter-culture figures, restaurant reviews and literary criticism. He has made several appearances on British television, notably as a contestant on to cover the electoral campaign of John Major, and was subsequently fired from the newspaper after taking heroin on the Prime Minister's jet.

He says "I want to be misunderstood. And the other thing that amuses me is: I don't particularly want to be liked. No goes into the business of writing satire to be liked. Whether I am or am not a nice bloke is neither here nor there. It's not part of the task I've set myself in my art."