Billy Childish

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Billy Childish (real name Steven John Hamper) or William Charlie Hamper (born December 1, 1959) is an English artist, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. He is known for his explicit and prolific work: he has detailed his love life and childhood sexual abuse, notably in his early poetry and the novels My Fault and Sex Crimes of the Futcher.

He has published more than 40 collections of poetry, written four novels, recorded more than 100 full-length independent LPs of punk, rock'n'roll, and Medway-delta blues and produced more than 2,500 paintings. He is a consistent advocate for amateurism and free emotional expression and was a co-founder of the Stuckism art group in 1999. Since leaving the Stuckist group in 2001 a new evaluation of Childish's standing in the art world has been underway, culminating with the publication of a critical study of Childish's working practice by the artist and writer Neal Brown, with an introduction by Peter Doig, which describes Childish as "one of the most outstanding, and often misunderstood, figures on the British art scene."