“A frank and fearless memoir" - Graeme Simsion, Books we loved in 2021: Top authors reveal the best reads of the year, SMH/The Age
“Months alone in lockdown meant I took great pleasure in walking Melbourne’s inner north with a voice in my ears – a new way to experience storytelling. Memoirs by women were my favourite for this – I loved Bella Green’s Happy Endings (Macmillan Australia), Amani Haydar’s The Mother Wound, and Clem Bastow’s Late Bloomer (Hardie Grants Books), all narrated by the authors. These books cover such different topics – sex work, domestic violence, and autism, respectively – but all three are astute and illuminating.” - Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, ABR’s Books Of The Year
“Late Bloomer is fiercely intelligent and fiercely wise. Bastow’s honesty and integrity as a writer, her compassion and humour, made me see the world anew. This memoir is both meticulously researched and a gripping narrative of becoming. Bastow never loses command of the big picture but she never forgets it is in the authenticity of the small moment that a writer’s voice begins to soar. and what a unique voice it is: this book does truly sing” - Christos Tsiolkas
“Clem Bastow’s writing is full of brilliant wit and astute observation. This story is one of agency, and self-possession. Generously told, it allows us to witness her experience of ‘stepping out of the shadows, and into the light’” - Clare Bowditch
“Late Bloomer is my new special interest. reverberating with intense detail, it is a deep dive into gender, pop culture, obsession and the roles we try on for size” - Jenny Valentish
“Vivid and compelling – the first book i’d recommend to anyone interested in learning about Autism” - Graeme Simsion
“In embracing echolalia, Bastow successfully defines Autism in her own terms, separate from the dry, ostracising language of scholarship. She challenges the stereotypes we consistently see in mainstream media portrayals. Instead, Late Bloomer is rich with experience, feeling, and the shared language of references - ★★★★” - ArtsHub
"Sharp, perceptive and alive to the many ways of being in the world, Late Bloomer sheds light on the wild and wonderful colours on the spectrum that are, all too often, invisible to or misread by the neurotypical eye” - The Age/Sydney Morning Herald
Late Bloomer is a heartfelt coming-of-age memoir that will change the way you think about autism. Clem Bastow grew up feeling like she’d missed a key memo on human behaviour. She found the unspoken rules of social engagement confusing, arbitrary and often stressful. Friendships were hard, relationships harder, and the office was a fluorescent-lit nightmare of anxiety. It wasn’t until Clem was diagnosed as autistic, at age 36, that things clicked into focus.
The obsession with sparkly things and dinosaurs. The encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music. The meltdowns that would come on like a hurricane. The ability to write eloquently while conquering basic maths was like trying to understand ancient Greek. These weren’t just ‘personality quirks’ but autistic traits that shaped Clem’s life in powerful ways.
With wit and warmth, Clem reflects as an autistic adult on her formative experiences as an undiagnosed young person, from the asphalt playground of St Joseph's Primary School in Melbourne to working as an entertainment journalist in Hollywood. Along the way she challenges the broader cultural implications and ideas around autism, especially for women and gender-diverse people. Deconstructing the misconceptions and celebrating the realities of autistic experience, Late Bloomer is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious, and will stay with you long after the reading.
Late Bloomer is out now through Hardie Grant Books.
For publicity, press, and other enquiries relating to Late Bloomer, please contact Kirstie Grant at Hardie Grant Books on kirstiegrant [at] hardiegrant.com +61 3 8520 6714.