Stanley Thomas is a Very Bad Man

Ever since I was little I’ve been obsessed with reading, I devoured all kinds of books, from those that contained stories about children who were detectives solving crimes that were beyond the police, aided by a picnic and lashings of ginger beer.  Roald Dahl, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Judy Blume. (Hands up if you read “Forever” as a teenager?) The Adrian Mole books still make me laugh out loud and even now, if ever I’m feeling down or a bit jaded by life reading “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole” will always put a smile on my face. My other favourites include Charles Dicken’s “Great Expectations”, I just think it’s a masterclass in creating characters. Miss Havisham roaming Satis House in her decaying wedding dress with one shoe on and one shoe off because that was her state of dress when she found out she’d been jilted. Wemmick and Aged P, I love how they live in a replica of a small castle with a moat and a drawbridge. It’s not pivotal to the plot, yet it adds so much...

I’ve spent the last week writing a section of the book which is based in 1988, which has weirdly proved more difficult that the bits set in the 1950’s. How I imagine my desk would have looked if I were writing my book in 1988.   Since I started writing, I’ve always been conscious that writing something set in a decade that I wasn’t alive in would be challenging, but I’ve been fortunate, and I’ve had a lot of help from people. There’s been e-mails, phone calls, Facebook groups that have all helped me create a fairly accurate picture of life in Mansfield and Nottinghamshire in the 1950’s, albeit I’ve added a certain Stanley Thomas twist. My lovely sister even went out and bought me this book, which really helped bring some places to life. Writing about 1988 had always bothered me less, I mean I was alive then, I was 12 years old, I was hopelessly in love with Matt Goss (some things never change) I cried when Charlene and Scott got married (the opening bars ...