Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa

Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa is a 2011 book by British author Pauline Butcher, which is an account of the four years (1967–1971) she was rock and roll musician Frank Zappa's secretary.^[1]

Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa

First edition
Author	Pauline Butcher
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Plexus Publishing
Publication date	2011

Butcher was a 21-year-old secretary whose firm sent her to type up the lyrics from Zappa’s second album, Absolutely Free, for the free London newspaper, International Times.^[2] After arriving in California, Butcher first helped Zappa work on a book on politics, helped manage a group of female musicians Zappa founded, and managed the correspondence with his fans.

Author Pauline Butcher with a copy of Freak Out! My Life with Frank Zappa

In 2008, Butcher began to write her memoir; she used as source material her mother's detailed letters. Her mother had kept them in a shoe-box for 40 years.^[3] They were letters Butcher wrote while living in California.

Reviewers asserted Butcher brought a different perspective to the study of Zappa's work than other members of Zappa's entourage. A review in Critics at large described Butcher as a "a cultured and fashionable secretary out of Swinging London," and characterized her book as "a reverse of Pygmalion".^[4] Jim Caligiuri, writing in the Austin Chronicle, concluded his review saying, "Offering deeply personal glimpses of Zappa, Butcher's coming-of-age story is so captivating and vividly told that many will be surprised to discover it's her first book."^[5]

According to Deborah Orr of The Guardian, the book "captures a particularly intense experience of a very brief, yet enormously influential, period in the evolution of western womanhood ... the interstitial time between 'sexual liberation' and 'women's liberation'".^[1]

The Telegraph published an excerpt from the book.^[6]

During an interview in 2012, Butcher spoke about taking the advice of a writing mentor who was at the BBC; she was told to "write something that no one else could write.".^[3] She worked to develop a script for a series based on her time with Zappa, only to learn that the BBC had approved a documentary about Zappa which would be hosted by Germaine Greer. When she was advised the BBC would not fund two Zappa projects, she decided to publish a book with her research.

In 2014 BBC Radio adapted the book into a radio drama.^[7]