Atypical Girl: Liverpool, Punk Rock and Trying to be Normal
By (Author) Penny Kiley
Birlinn General
Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
15th May 2026
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Music industry
Music reviews and criticism
Memoirs
Publishing industry and journalism
History of music
Paperback
288
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 23mm
It's 1977, and punk rock has just hit Liverpool. The legendary Eric's club is home to the city's rebels, posers and misfits. It's a place of attitude, adventure and new possibilities, and it changes lives. Some become pop stars; Penny Kiley becomes a music journalist.
The story traces Penny's relationship with the music scene from the turbulent political 1980s into the changing culture of the 21st century. Throughout these years, she never stops being a misfit, and the question remains: how do you navigate normal life when punk is dead and you don't know you're autistic
Atypical Girl begins as a coming-of-age story and ends as a midlife reinvention. What unites them is a search for identity and the role that music plays in all our lives.
'Fabulous . . . it really captures a moment that resonates strongly with me'
-- Andy McCluskey, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark'Penny Kiley's adventures in punk and post punk and beyond create a love letter to the narrative that has affected all our lives'
-- John Robb * Louder Than War *Penny Kiley was Liverpool correspondent for Melody Maker during the post-punk years of the late 1970s and 1980s. She also wrote for Smash Hits and was pop columnist for the Liverpool Echo. She was diagnosed as autistic at the age of sixty.