He is known for his explicit and prolific work – he has detailed his love life and childhood sexual abuse, notably in his early poetry and the novels "My Fault" (1996), "Notebooks of a Naked Youth" (1997), "Sex Crimes of the Futcher" (2004) – "The Idiocy of Idears" (2007), and in several of his songs, notably in the instrumental "Paedophile" (1992) (featuring a photograph of the man who sexually abused him on the front cover) and "Every Bit of Me" (1993). From 1981 until 1985 Childish had a relationship with artist Tracey Emin.