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I feel the need to strongly recommend this book - and not just to fans of Joy Division/New Order. The book isn't just about Ian, but about the person I fleetingly knew as Debbie Curtis - you see I have a very strange link with them. At the end-May 1980 I turned 18yrs and left school; I got a job at Macclesfield County Court. On the 18th May 1980, Ian sadly committed suicide; my new job was Debbie's previous job. Bizarrely, as Debbie explains in the book, she had also worked at Sunley Tower, Manchester for the Dept of the Environment and when I left the Court Service that was my next job!
When I started work at the Courts in 1980 there was this major cloud of worry - all the Court staff who knew Debbie were so unbelievably worried about her. I don't know if she ever realised how intensely they cared about her. They were both only 23yrs old when Ian died, and Debbie had Natalie as a little 1yr old toddler. She used to come in to the Court *so* many times with Natalie in the buggy (somewhere I've got photos of races on office chairs at a Christmas party - innocent days!), and even then she struck me as an amazing young woman - she was always so cheerful and literally lit up the place. I was in awe how she was coping. I laughed in the book because she talks about the Chief Clerk and calls him 'Mr Pape' even at the time of writing the book as a mature woman - he was a wonderful old stick, bless him, and no-one called him by his first name; only my future husband ever got to call him 'Mike', when he started as the new Chief Clerk on Mr Pape's retirement! But even Mr Pape's face lit up when Debbie visited. She was like the daughter he never had.
It was literally weeks since her husband had died when I first met her and she'd been dealing with horrors before that event I knew nothing about. She documents in the book the struggles with Ian's epilepsy/depression and a medical culture that had no proper idea how to deal with either. On top of that was having a small toddler, no money, and the pressures of 'another woman' already beginning from the music business culture. I've read the comments about Annik with high amusement. When you walk into - or become caught up in - someone else's marriage there are only two options: (1) you bow out, even at hurt to yourself, when you realise a family life is being destroyed, or (2) if you really believe you are made for each other, you pick up the baton and stand in the shoes of 'The Other Woman' and accept/own the devastation you/the other party are about to cause - because that is what you both are doing. Annik knew Ian was married. What isn't an option is to continue down the route of Option 2, but try to convince everyone 'nothing is going on' and actually you 'are the wronged person because the wife is an emotional crazy, mad, person with an overactive imagination'. Thus blaming her for the devastation while portraying yourself in Doe-like innocence. The black and white photos of Ian/Annik, their own words, and the 'Yoko Ono' reference from the band make Annik's innocence claims unreal. To not have the courage to be what you are and so to walk through the pain caused, but try instead to blame 'an hysterical wife with an overactive imagination' is the cruelest, most vilest, and most cowardly option anyone can take. I dread to think what Debbie must have been going through at that time, but as a watcher-from-the-wings I saw the intense worry for her wellbeing on her friends at Macclesfield Court where she would likely have discussed the detail/been advised on the filing of the Divorce proceedings as well as later working through the emotional devastation of Ian's death.
As an 18yr old I admired Debbie *hugely* from afar, even with those events she was dealing with she just ploughed on in life with numb positivity. She was an incredibly strong young person. Natalie seems to have grown up into an amazing young woman, and in the words of this book I can still hear the Debbie who so impressed me at the Courts. It's very well written. This book isn't really about Joy Division, it's about Ian Curtis - part of that story is about how Joy Division came about; but if you want to understand Ian Curtis the real person and not the cardboard-cut-out on a pedestal it's an amazing book. But it's also about 'Mrs Curtis' - and if you want to read the book from the perspective of a young woman coping with the critical illness of her husband and what happens when the jaws of the music industry start to close around you/your family you won't be disappointed. From that perspective this is an incredibly brave and jaw-dropping book.
Although if she remembers me at all it would only be as 'that new girl' at the Courts, I still vibrantly remember her as being an incredible young lady ... she seems to have grown into an amazing woman. And Natalie is still her amazing daughter even though she wouldn't fit in the buggy any more! This is a brilliant book I can highly recommend.
And if Debbie or Natalie ever read this review I wish you *all the love in the world* and hope you know how much those people cared about you back then (*the Macc CC stories went on, with Les/John et al at our wedding years later when I married the new Chief Clerk! Doh, you'd need wine for that story!). The Girls have Done-Good, bless you both :o) ... xxx
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Reviews with images
Ian Curtis & Joy Division. Ironically
I've just finished reading Touching From A Distance. Ian Curtis & Joy Division.Ironically, despite the source material, it's quite an easy read.Penned by Curtis's wife Deborah, it gives the reader an insight into the tortured mind of Ian Curtis.I'd recommend to anyone that has any sort of interest in Ian Curtis or Joy Division.https://amzn.to/2zX2has
Top reviews from other countries
Robert Ranieri
Essential reading for casual and serious fans
Reviewed in Canada on 26 December 2021LemmyCaution66
Informative and interesting book about Ian Curtis. Singer of the band Joy Division.
Reviewed in Germany on 4 July 2021
Fitzgerald R.
El mejor libro para fanáticos de Joy Division
Reviewed in Mexico on 7 December 2020lyndon johnson rocha leite
TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE
Reviewed in Brazil on 26 January 2015