Last week, Kamaljit Singh, the
driving force behind Thames River Press, told me that he had entered it into
the Costa Book Awards as a first novel and that he intends to do the same for
the Man Booker Prize. Heady days indeed!
I was never particularly good at
English at school. The fact that I was placed firmly in Set 4 at my comprehensive
school perhaps illustrates this, as does my achievement of a grade B in English
Language at ‘O’-Level and the scraping of a ‘C’ in English Literature. So I wonder what the reaction of my old
English teachers will be if they find out about all of this. The fact that I’ve
written anything without a gun to my temple will astound them; that it’s been taken
up and published by a traditional publisher will send them reaching for a cold
compress.
Very much, Good Grief!
What has changed for me is that
my family has been through some real dark days over the past five years or so.
Death, illness and mental disorder have a way of really squeezing the creative
juices from the most dry and shrivelled fruit. And looking back at the time
before then, I am a much better human being for it. I am far less judgemental and a lot kinder. In a way, and for me, (I certainly
would not have wished it on any of the other family members) it was good grief.
