Pauline Butcher

I wrote Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa after a producer at the BBC advised me to write something that no one else could write, and no one else could write about my experiences living and working with Frank Zappa in Hollywood in 1968. It is the only book that describes Frank's home life from the inside out. BBC Radio 4 adapted it into a play on May 6 2015 and it has since been translated into Italian and Spanish. I am the tenth child of eleven children, an experience that helped me to cope with the unusual 'commune-style' life in Laurel Canyon with the Zappa entourage. After I returned from America, I married Peter Bird whom I met at Cambridge University. We moved to Scotland where our son, Damian, was born. After Damian began school, I taught A-level psychology. We have lived in Norway, Australia, Singapore and now England. I am presently adapting the book into a stage play. I can be contacted at paulinebutcher@live.com