IT'S OFFICIAL : I AM ILLEGAL

THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 20, 2008

British Memoirist Is Denied U.S. Entry

By MOTOKO RICH

Sebastian Horsley, a British author who has written an eyebrow-raising memoir detailing a life of rampant drug use and voluminous encounters with prostitutes, was turned back at Newark Liberty International Airport on Tuesday as he tried to enter the United States for a book party and New York news media tour.

Mr. Horsley, whose memoir, “Dandy in the Underworld,” was published last week in paperback by Harper Perennial, a unit of HarperCollins, said he was detained by United States customs authorities for eight hours and questioned about his former drug addiction, use of prostitutes and activity as a male escort.

“I’m absolutely shattered and upset and gutted about not being able to come to America,” Mr. Horsley said in a telephone interview from London, where he had returned on Wednesday. “I was very much looking forward to meeting everybody.”

Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for the New York office of United States Customs and Border Protection, said she could not comment on specific cases. But in an e-mail message, she said that under a waiver program that allows British citizens to enter the United States without a visa, “travelers who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (which includes controlled-substance violations) or admit to previously having a drug addiction are not admissible.”

In “Dandy of the Underworld” Mr. Horsley, who is notorious in Britain, writes of being raised by alcoholic, sexually promiscuous parents and bouncing through several schools. He details a debauched life of cocaine, heroin, opium and amphetamine use, writing that he spent more than £100,000 (nearly $200,000) on crack cocaine and £100,000 to consort with more than 1,000 prostitutes. He also chronicles his trip to the Philippines to be hung from a cross, an event that was recorded by a photographer and videographer and formed part of an art exhibition that was extensively covered by the news media in his home country.

Carrie Kania, publisher of Harper Perennial, said Mr. Horsley’s party, which was scheduled for Wednesday in Manhattan, would go on without him. “I believe this book is very important,” Ms. Kania said. “It certainly moved me, and we’re going to continue to back it 100 percent.”

British public records are not available in the United States, and it was not possible to verify independently many of the details in Mr. Horsley’s memoir.

In interviews, though, he has been repeatedly coy about what is real and what is contrived. “It’s better to be quotable than honest,” he told Time Out London in February. In an interview with The Independent last September, he said: “I don’t speak, I quote. I am a fraud. I have cobbled together my personality from hundreds of little bits. I am simultaneously the most genuine and the most artificial person you will ever meet.”

In his interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr. Horsley insisted the memoir was true. “I’m a dandy, so I like to play with words,” he said. “I am real, but in an artificial way, because I like to play with language. But my story is completely true.”

Ms. Kania said that the book, published in Britain in September by an imprint of Hodder Headline, had been through a “lengthy legal review” by the British publisher. But Harper did not independently fact-check it.

Mr. Horsley said he was surprised he was deported, since he had previously traveled to the United States six times, twice to visit relatives in Boston and four times to New York.

“God bless America, land of the free, but sadly not the land of the depraved,” he said. He referred to the recent resignation of Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York, in the wake of revelations that he had frequented prostitutes. “I’m not a politician, I’m an artist,” Mr. Horsley said. “Depravity is part of the job description.”

He added that he regarded his memoir as “a very moral book in the same way that Bret Easton Ellis’s ‘American Psycho’ was a moral book.” He added, “I’m not a bad person.”

Jack Begg contributed reporting.

Comments

[Ana]

How dare they deprive your eager american subjects of your wit and venom?! The swine!
We await your return to this foul backwater colony with bated breath.

[Ana]

How dare they deprive your eager american subjects of your wit and venom?! The swine!
We await your return to this foul backwater colony with bated breath.

[Letitcia]

Oscar Wilde said it best...

'America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between'
My dear boy, brilliance does not travel very well
L

[Anon Y Mous(e)]

Hello Dandy. I saw a blurb on another site of your name and thought "who?". Curiosity led me here. Of course, I thought you were an artist.
While I was here, I skimmed a few of your blogs. Hmmm.
Any further comment would just contribute to your ennui.

[Bitte Halloran]

Okay fess up fine fellow! You planned for this to happen? You must have. Your going to sell SOOOOO many books now! Yippee!

You don't have to admit it to us I know I know it would defeat the whole purpose of your giant brilliant headline making stunt. But *wink wink* we all know your a friggin genius!!!

Hats off to the man with the plan who got himself deported so he could be the lifelong celebrity he deserves to be. We all bow down.

[heids]

Had you not pre-empted your own debut by being denied entrance here, I wouldn't have heard of you for another week or so (I'm a daily listener of National Public Radio). I'll consider our national loss as a bonus week to read your blog and await your book - and your likely phone interview on All Things. Next time, try entering through Philadelphia: America's "Back Door".

[Super Amanda]

Hi Sebastian,

Sorry to here about your refusal of entry but how nice to have discovered you. It may not be much consolation but the UK is more fun anyway and Dandys can run free.

Best wishes,
Amanda

[Proud American]

I am glad they refused entry to this man. Just because he's some Brit writer doesn't mean he's above the laws. He thinks he's better than everyone. Well it looks like they just got the best of him! Good!

[BitterSweet]

Are you sure it wasn't for plagiarism and looking increasingly like Gary Glitter ?

[Reginald Parsons]

What about all the other self confessed Rolling Stones who breeze in and out of the land of the free, and the pur-suit-your-selves.
BITTER SWEET, what - in the world - are you on-about. Back to LAW SCHOOL for you Darlin'.

[Reginald Parsons]

Sorry BITTER SWEET, you can join the gang.
LAW SCHOOL for you American, and please comment on what you might be PROUD of?
I bet you'll surprise all ...

[piqued]

This is the same country that cheerfully licenses murder in the Middle East after lying about some non-existent arms cache, the same country that detains innocent people without trial because they pray to a different god, the same place that allows its own people to drown in the streets because of the colour of their skin…

Seems a little hypocritical not to let a fellow who has admitted to doing a bit of brown into their home, I fear they may be more to this than meets the eye. I suspect the real reason they didn’t let you in was because you admitted that your favourite album was Appetite for Destruction by Guns and Roses.

Either way, I’m sorry to hear you weren’t given the chance to speak over there, perhaps the English aren't that bad after all...

[Batbitch]

Amazing.

They let me live here in the States. Ha.

[MickThePom]

You should be quite proud of being deported from America, I'm sure I would be. You would be more than welcome in Australia - our country is founded on moral turpitude.

[James Colburn]

Obviously Whorsley has resorted to yet another publicity stunt since that is the only way he can sell any of his crap work. He knows it and so do his publishers who are obviously aware that if they hadn't set him up to be deported, they wouldn't be able to give the book away as firewood.

[Krys]

Their poor little minds cannot handle you. Too bad, so sad...

[Alexandra]

What's your beauty secret???? You look pretty youthful considering the abuse you have heaped on yourself. Impressive.

[tara randall]

The narcissist masochistically frustrates his deepest desires and drives, obstructs his own efforts, alienates his friends and sponsors, provokes figures of authority to punish, demote, or ignore him, actively seeks and solicits disappointment, failure, or mistreatment and relishes them, incites anger or rejection, bypasses or rejects opportunities, or engages in excessive self-sacrifice.

[tara randall]

The narcissist masochistically frustrates his deepest desires and drives, obstructs his own efforts, alienates his friends and sponsors, provokes figures of authority to punish, demote, or ignore him, actively seeks and solicits disappointment, failure, or mistreatment and relishes them, incites anger or rejection, bypasses or rejects opportunities, or engages in excessive self-sacrifice.

[Gerard Kobe]

I heard you've barely sold any books in America. Not surprising, but this sad little publicity stunt is. Was it your idea, or your publisher's? I bet it wasn't yours. You don't have any ideas of your own. You are a pathetic old man with no redeeming qualities, and worse than that, you're a total bore.

[Alma Mather]

It's difficult to be on your side about this American visa situation when there are people in this world that are suffering REAL consequences for how they are dressed, like Sophie Lancaster, the 20 year old goth girl who was kicked to death in Lancashire.

[Mark]

Man, tough fucking crowd. I am sorry you didn't make your destination, maybe you could hit up Montreal or Toronto and drive down next time. The US/Canada border is pretty much a joke.

Or you could fight it in court, they let Blair into this country any fucking time he wants.

[Simon Hughes]

This book is horrendous. I borrowed it from a mate and the writing bored me so thoroughly that I had to give it back unfinished. Highly disappointing.

[M. Black]

If there's one thing I can't stand it's my own fucking country. Moral turpitude? That's a laugh. We can have a former drug user for President but we can't let a former drug user in the country? CUNTry is more like it. Well, when you do make it over don't forget to come through Austin, Texas. You'll absolutely hate it. Enjoying the book... it's fantastically atrocious.

[Comic Strip Blogger]

I have just heard you, Sebastian, on Jay Thomas Show on Sirius. Thank you very much for talking to Jay. Jay is my favorite presenter on Sirius.