You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life: You Are Raoul Moat

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Hankinson has pulled off a singular journalistic feat, filtering the sequence of events following Moat’s release from prison through his own eyes. What Moat knows, we know. This is fact, with gelignite at its core. Being in Moat’s angry, paranoid head is an uncomfortable and gut-churning place to be, yet Andrew Hankinson never lets Moat off the hook, challenging his victim mentality and denials of wrong-doing with bald statements of fact. This is a powerful and disquieting book. Masculinity, media and life on the margins of modern Britain are all put under the microscope via the true and sorry story of outlaw Raoul Moat … His very public disintegration is captured perfectly by Andrew Hankinson. It doesn’t have a message. I don’t want a consensus; I want readers to feel all different kinds of things. But I hope it will add to the debate about determinism and free will. I think there were plenty of mechanisms available to Raoul Moat by which he could have got help [for his mental health issues, his problems with violence]. The system could have improved his life. Social services did engage with him, but he didn’t turn up for appointments. I don’t know what the solution is for someone like that.

It takes time, energy, courage and dedication. But you’re not alone. Everyone else has goals like these and fights a thousand small battles each day. But whether or not you become a winner depends on your consistency. It’s a grimly compelling book that successfully manages to take the reader into Moat’s head to catch a glimpse of what drove him to such extremes. The book’s greatest achievement is in humanising Moat – not making him sympathetic, because he’s not; besides the shootings, he beat his partner and kids and his brief stay in prison was due to assault of a minor – by showing the reader the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him. Evil is not unknowable, it’s all around us; its potential is in all of us but some are less equipped to deal with life’s trials and so we get people like Raoul Moat completely losing it.Each chapter of the book starts as, "You Will Die in 7 Days", "You Will Die in 6 Days" .... so you're really taken into the mind and journey of Moat has he begins his killing spree and it's mind blowing what that process is like. The negotiation dialogue at the end is heartbreaking. I can't fathom having to converse with someone who has nothing else to loose and convince them to not kill themselves. You are fierce, tender, capable, compassionate. You are amazing. You are my everything.” – Barrie Davenport If you do something it must have a purpose: it may help you improve and grow, help you or others live a better life, etc. 3. Get in the best shape possible

You can’t sleep. You’ve always had trouble sleeping. You used to spend sleepless nights playing Xbox or looking through the box of cards from the kids, watching the shopping channel, or the Mr Bean DVD, the one where he gets sent to an art gallery in America and they think he’s a boffin, but he hasn’t got a clue really. He ends up sneezing on Whistler’s Mother, and when he tries to rub it off with turps the painting blisters up, and they have a grand unveiling, but there’s just this terrible hand-drawn picture that he’s done instead of the masterpiece. It’s hilarious. You don’t always sit and laugh all the way through a film, but that’s one of the funniest things you’ve seen, definitely as good as Laurel and Hardy, which is the kind of humour you like, especially Them Thar Hills, which is their classic, where they get in a fight and double-team this guy by putting treacle down his pants. You like that sort of thing much more than modern humour, which you don’t get at all. Another letter arrives. It says they don’t normally reschedule appointments, but they know this is hard for you, so they’re offering you another appointment. It’s on 13 May 2008. You are the only version of you to ever exist in the universe. You are great, you are powerful, you are special”. – Unknown You will need total dedication, of course, but there are so many resources out there that are absolutely free, which can help you with that. Also, so many people that have done it before you share their tips, the steps they took and the problems they encountered. 7. Learn how to enjoy lifeIn July 2010, Raoul Moat, a 37-year-old bodybuilder and former bouncer from Newcastle who had recently been released from Durham prison, shot three people: his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, her new partner, Christopher Brown, and a police officer, David Rathband. Stobbart was seriously injured and Brown was killed; PC Rathband was left blind and, having struggled to come to terms with his disability, killed himself at his home in Blyth, Northumberland, in February 2012.

The book suggests that taunts at men’s masculinity prompt much violence in deprived inner city areas. “Respect” is behind the current spike of shootings in Salford as well as youth knife-crime in London and Glasgow. Moat had a history of violence and anger: a ripped cage-fighter who prayed to God to make him big so he wouldn’t be bullied for being skinny and ginger with grandpa glasses. In HMP Durham he was like a wounded tiger pacing its enclosure. Don’t allow other people’s opinions to dictate who you are supposed to be. Look within yourself and discover the amazingly unique, beautiful and strong person you actually are.” – Sandra Cooze You write five lines about him. It asks about your relationship with your mum. You write nine lines. Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] is an account of Moat’s last days that, written in the second person and drawing on diary entries and previously unheard tapes, reads like a novel.

It’s more than that. He can tell you’re depressed. Your voice is breaking. You’re 37 years old, too old to start again. If you’re struggling today, remember that life is worth living and believe that the best is yet to come. Remember that you are loved, you matter, and never forget that there is always hope.” – Germany Kent I had a lots of information to draw on. I attended the trial of Moat’s accomplices [Karl Ness and Qhurum Awan, both now serving life sentences] and the inquest for Moat. I couldn’t attend the inquest for Christopher Brown, but I had a written version of the coroner’s summary. I had transcripts of the hours and hours of tapes he recorded [on a Dictaphone] when he was on the run in Northumberland, and there were also some tapes he had made before he went to prison that I was able to listen to. There is something really amazing about you.. Your unique ideas and thoughts that you bring to this world. Your smile, your laugh.. It’s you and you are valuable, worthy and cherished.” – Rachel Hamilton This truly is one of the greatest nonfiction books I've read. I think about it a lot, despite not owning a copy of the book and having only read it once 2 years ago.