Barbara Adair on The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones

Stewart Home headstand

“So what is the text about? There is a story; the story is of the life of Ray the Cat Jones. It progresses in a linear fashion, Ray Jones is born to a working family in Wales, and then later, after many adventures, he dies of cancer. Ray Jones is a cat burglar, he is also a victim of the vicious exploiter of the working class, the British bourgeoisie, (and he is Welsh and we all know how the English hate the Welsh -‘sheep shaggers’, so he is a victim of racist bigoted loathing), but he is a righteous man. And so he takes a stand, he is, (becomes) a person of agency, he knows he does not want to die in the coal mines of boredom and pain, so he steals from the rich, why should a ‘toff’ have a full belly and the poor man one groaning in hunger. Furthermore his dreams of one day being a professional boxer are thwarted as, just as he is making it on the boxing circuit, he is set up by some lackeys of the bourgeoisie, (those who are employed to protect wealth and property, uphold unjust laws, those who have ‘sold out’, grassed their spirit to slothful owners), a ‘plod’ (‘rozzer’ ‘old bill’ ‘fuzz’) and so spends time in jai…” Read the full text here: http://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/the-9-lives-of-ray-the-cat-jones-a-novel-by-stewart-home/

Above: Stewart Home doing a headstand in front of one of the 13 pieces by him in the group show In Praise Of Laziness at Trade Gallery in Nottingham on 1 November 2014 at the exhibition opening. Photo by Bruce Asbestos.

 

Loving Dalston on The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones

“WHO KNOWS the truth about Ray “The Cat” Jones: the world’s most notorious burglar or a small-time jailbird loved by journalists grateful for his exciting yarns about robbing the fabulously rich?

So writer Stewart Home has chosen to tell the master thief’s story as a novel rather than a documentary book.

The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones tells of a Ray Jones, who nearly became world middleweight boxing champion but instead turned into the greatest-ever cat burglar, stealing jewellery from megastars Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren, the private papers of the Duke of Windsor, paintings by Rembrandt and the furs of the London upper-class women, often approached via the rooftops of the Mayfair district.

Ray’s carefully targeted burglaries are perfectly planned and thrillingly executed, as is his jail breakout, one of the most stunning in recent English penal history.

All of the extraordinary incidents figure in the real life of the now-dead (natural causes) Dalstoner…”

Read the full story at Loving Dalston.

Above Stewart Home holds up the special edition (sold out) and ordinary edition of his novel The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones. You can order it online from the publisher Test Centre.