Interwoven into this is Stuart's confession: the story of his life, told backwards. With humour, compassion (and exasperation) Alexander Masters slowly works back through post-office heists, prison riots and the exact day Stuart discovered violence, to unfold the reasons why he changed from a happy-go-lucky little boy into a polydrug-addicted-alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality, with a fondness for what he called 'little strips of silver' (knives, to you and me).