In 1972-74 I lived in a flat in Manor House London. It was the tail-end of the sixties. I’d previously lived in Ilford and Wood Green before heading off to hitch around the States as a prelude to going off around the world.
We came back from the States skint and moved up to London to earn some money to head off again to Africa. It didn’t quite go as planned. I ended up doing research and Liz became pregnant.
While living in the flat (no hippies, babies or pets) with Liz, we had out cat, rat and turtles living with us and then a baby.
It was a great place and a community of lots of people with stories. The garden was an amazing creation by this octogenarian bohemian genius – a psychedelic masterpiece. So much happened in the place and we found ourselves in the centre of it.
I felt there was a book in it but I did not know how to do it. Until, that is, I read Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck and it suddenly clicked.
My second problem was to write about real people. I got around that by heavily fictionalising them, altering them, playing with their back stories and creating different characters. It was a balancing act. Some came out similar and some, due to the plotting, came out very different. I would apologise to some, who I made very much more unpleasant than they were, all I can say is that the characters I created are not them. I used a lot of licence. But I did feel that I trapped a little of the feel of the house in that book and a glimpse of the reality of the madness of the place and times.
My main character is based on me but is not me. I extrapolated out, separated him off from his relationship, and played around with him. He too was a fiction.
The events were largely real, though I did play with them too.
What we have at the end is a story of a period of time that is true to its time. It is light and airy, largely made up of vignettes and stories that run together and tell the story of Danny’s stay in the house.
I could have equally called it Mr Rose’s story or even 301 Green Lanes.
I like it and I hope you will too. It will be out shortly.