World Of The Wicked

In the late ’90s, whilst struggling to become the worst cab driver in Croydon (but that’s another story), I wrote a short story for my kids. When I’d finished reading it to them, they both said “what happens next?” I said “It’s finished”. They insisted it wasn’t.

So began a strange adventure. I’d never before written without knowing what came next. Would the plot work? Would there be a plot? But each Thursday evening, I would read them the next instalment and they’d ask “what happens next?”

In this way, World Of The Wicked got written. To my astonishment, the plot not only worked, but was far more surprising than I could have contrived. Here it is: World Of The Wicked

The Andy Parvin Story

While writing the World Of The Wicked instalments (and spending my days cab-driving innocent people to entirely the wrong address), I thought I could write a weekly chapter of another novel at the same time.

That was when the ‘weird thing’ happened.

23 years before, I’d been in South East Asia, on my honeymoon. Only, my wife had left me (not funny!). So I wrote a very bad, mad (distraught) novel about my life so far: The ‘Swinging Sixties’ in London and all my helplessly trendy friends.

Anyhow, upon my solitary return from Asia, I remember having a plastic bag with some salt tablets and the bad novel… But that’s the end of it. Somewhere between Leeds, Dumfries and London, the plastic bag disappeared. My life continued to seesaw between disaster and despair and decades passed.

So the ‘weird thing’ was, as I thought about another novel, I wandered across the room, opened a filing cabinet, picked up a folder that said ‘Bali Libretto’ and there it was, the bad novel!

You think I must’ve known, somehow? No way. It was a ‘weird thing’!

And so embarrassing to read. It was a jumble of passionate nonsense. But that younger version of myself wore his heart on his sleeve and he didn’t lie. So I got to work on The Andy Parvin Story. Here it is: The Andy Parvin Story

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