Lawrie Clapton

Excerpt

There are plenty of great ways to introduce a story; you can start with a death, like Albert Camus, or you can start with rainfall, like Edgar Allen Poe, or a wedding, or an introduction, or an elaborate pratfall, drunk, down a set of stairs. Being original and being clever were never my strong suits – besides it should probably be with what you remember best that you start off a story. I remember the songs the best. This song is My Generation, by The Who, and the year is nineteen-sixty- something – probably sixty-five – and it’s December. I think it was, at least – it was cold. I remember sitting on the pavement in Piccadilly Circus watching Dez (Derrick to his mum) ride his scooter up and down the street, screeching to a halt in front of prams and bicycles and parents with their five-year-olds. There was a tape player down at my feet…