M is for Macbeth,

My original concept for the book – Roy of the Rovers meets House of Cards – carried an element of Macbeth imagery already, due to parallels between Shakespeare’s tragedy and the political power-grabbing drama. There were always a lot of literary references in my t...

Bob Dylan’s relationship with the truth has always been a complex one. The recent biopic of his early career, A Complete Unknown, which I managed to see last weekend (and it’s brilliant, by the way, with Timothee Chalamet a perfect fit for the magnetic, contradictory central figure) does...

L is for Lock

I’ve already mentioned how numerous incidental characters in Foul and Fair are named after Fulham players of days gone by. Mr Lock’s café, as frequented by Hayley and PC Martin Pike (coincidentally, another ex-Fulham namesake) is partially named after Kevin Lock, par...

K is for Kieran

Kieran is a character who, from an inspirational point of view, has many fathers (which is ironic, as I think most people would agree that he’s a bit of a bastard). I’d like to categorically state that Kieran is not modelled on any one particular person; he’s an ama...