Excerpt from my new novel 'Camden Afterlife'
My next novel, ‘Camden Afterlife’, follows the wild summer of a teenage boy coming to terms with the loss of his sister, Emma, a star of the nineties Riot Grrrl music scene. Part of the novel is told through Emma’s diary, which he finds, and which offers him a way to gradually face up to what really happened to her. The following is Emma’s first diary entry, in which she runs away from home to see PJ Harvey perform in London (and which describes a real gig)- Everything is coming to a head. So, in an attempt to prove his devotion to me Jay bought me a ticket to a PJ Harvey gig in London a few weeks ago. Setting me a collision course with Mum. The gig was on a school night. But of course, diary, I still went. Despite all the repercussions. Which even now, two weeks later, are still being felt. I still went, because going to it is the only thing in my future that feels remotely related to what I want to do with my ...