The author on mixing semi-fact with fiction – and the school rule about swimming naked that inspired the novel’s big comedy set piece
From 1972-79, I was a pupil at King Edward’s school, Birmingham. It was at that time a direct grant school, which meant that although most of the places (including mine) were not fee-paying, it had all the trappings of a public school. It was single-sex, the teachers wore academic gowns, the assembly hall was called “Big School”, we played rugby rather than football, and there were two school songs, one of them in Latin. It was an elitist school, and many of my more clued-up, politically aware friends were aware of this.
I wasn’t. My head was in the clouds and all I was interested in was books, music, film and TV. At the age of 15 I started writing novels and the second one, called Half Asleep; Half Awake, was set in a thinly fictionalised version of the school.
