I try a sip of wine. Will that silence me? But I just have to give in to it.
I can’t stop laughing. Cally looks thrilled. And she starts laughing too.
All She Wants
There are some things in life you can always rely on. Living in the shadow of your ‘perfect’ brother Joey, getting the flu over Christmas, and your Mother showing you up in the supermarket.
Then there are some things you really don’t count on happening: a good dose of fame, getting completely trashed at an awards ceremony, and catching your fella doing something unmentionable on your wedding day.
This is my story, it’s dead tragic.
You have been warned . . .
Jodie X x
‘Utterly original, sharply written and very funny’
JOJO MOYES
The Confusion of Karen Carpenter
Hello.
There are two things you should know about me:
1) My name is Karen Carpenter.
2) Just before Christmas my boyfriend left me.
I’m not THE Karen Carpenter. I just have the most embarrassing name in Christendom. Particularly as I’m no skinny minny and don’t play the drums.
I can’t even sing. I’m tone deaf. I work in a school in the East End. (Where I came third in a ‘Teacher we’d most like to sleep with’ competition amongst the Year 11 boys).
My Mum’s driving me mad. She’s come to stay and is obsessed with Scandi crime shows and Zumba.
Oh yeah. The boyfriend. After eleven ‘happy’ years he left me. No explanation, just a letter Sellotaped to the kettle when I got in from work. I think I’m handling it really well. I don’t think I’m confused at all.
What was my name again?
‘I enjoyed it HUGELY . . . a total page-turner,
very entertaining, then very moving’
MARIAN KEYES
The Girl Who Just Appeared
LONDON – THE PRESENT
Holly Smith has never fitted in. Adopted when just a few months old, she’s always felt she was someone with no history. All she has is the address of where she was born – 32B Gambier Terrace, Liverpool. When Holly discovers that the flat is available to rent, she travels north and moves in. And in the very same flat, under the floorboards, she finds a biscuit tin full of yellowing papers. Could these papers be the key to her past?
LIVERPOOL – 1981
Fifteen-year-old Darren is negotiating life with his errant mother and the younger brother he is raising. When the Toxteth Riots explode around him, Darren finds himself with a moral dilemma that will have consequences for the rest of his life.
Moving between the past and the present, Darren and Holly’s lives become intertwined. Will finding Darren give Holly the answers she craves? Or will she always feel like the girl who just appeared?
‘Absolutely delightful. Jonathan Harvey writes with all his heart and all his soul.’
LISA JEWELL
THE SECRETS WE KEEP
Jonathan Harvey comes from Liverpool and is a multi-awardwinning writer of plays, films, sitcoms and Britain’s longest-running drama serial.
Jonathan’s theatre work includes the award-winning Beautiful Thing (Bush Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Duke of York’s; winner: John Whiting Award; nominated: Olivier Award for Best Comedy), Babies (Royal Court Theatre; winner: Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright; winner: George Devine Award) and Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club (English Touring Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Criterion Theatre; winner: Manchester Evening News Award for Best New Play; winner: City Life Magazine Award for Best New Play). Other plays include Corrie! (Lowry Theatre and national tour; winner: Manchester Evening News Award for Best Special Entertainment), Canary (Liverpool Playhouse, Hampstead Theatre and English Touring Theatre), Hushabye Mountain (English Touring Theatre, Hampstead Theatre), Guiding Star (Everyman Theatre, Royal National Theatre), Boom Bang a Bang (Bush Theatre), Mohair (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs) and Wildfire (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs). Jonathan also co-wrote the musical Closer to Heaven with the Pet Shop Boys.
For television Jonathan has created and written three series of the BAFTA-nominated Gimme Gimme Gimme for the BBC, two series of Beautiful People (winner: Best Comedy, Banff TV Festival), the double-BAFTA-nominated Best Friends, Von Trapped! and Birthday Girl. He has also written for Rev (winner: BAFTA for Best Sitcom), Shameless, The Catherine Tate Show, At Home with the Braithwaites, Lilies and Murder Most Horrid. To date he has written over one hundred episodes of Coronation Street.
Jonathan’s film work includes Beautiful Thing for Film4 (Outstanding Film, GLAAD Awards, New York; Best Film, London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Best Screenplay, Fort Lauderdale Film Festival; Grand Prix, Paris Film Festival; Jury Award, São Paolo International Film Festival).
But perhaps most telling of all, he also won the Spacehopper Championships at Butlins Pwhelli in 1976.
His novels are All She Wants, The Confusion of Karen Carpenter, The Girl Who Just Appeared and The Secrets We Keep.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Continued thanks to Wayne Brookes, Camilla Elworthy, Jeremy Trevathan and all at Pan Macmillan who continue to believe in me and publish my books. I am incredibly grateful and slightly taken aback. Also to my agent Gordon Wise for his continued sage advice, and to Michael McCoy and Alec Drysdale for looking after all my other writing.
Thank you to my old schoolfriend Justin Bioletti for the loan of his surname.
For those who took the time to chat to me about various elements of the book, from what it’s like to run a club, to how a new model might go about landing the dream job, or what happens when you leave a suitcase in left luggage for years, or what the police procedure is when someone goes missing: my thanks go to Amma Amihyia, Conan Corrigan, Steven Doherty, Mark Foster and everyone who answered my random questions on Facebook and Twitter.
Many years ago I adapted Lorraine Gamman’s book Gone Shopping: The Story of Shirley Pitts – Queen of Thieves for the big screen. Although it was one of the best films never made – well, I would say that – the stories in it have never left me. They were my inspiration for the, albeit tiny, section of this book where Danny comes to London and works for a gang of shoplifters. If you’ve never read that book, do – it’s fantastic.
Thank you to Kathy Burke for always encouraging me to go a bit deeper and darker. Also to my friends who put up with me being antisocial as I ‘have a deadline to meet’.
To my family in Liverpool, thank you for not being as dysfunctional as the one within these pages, and for giving me a better start in life than Danny.
And finally to Paul Hunt. Officially the nicest bloke on the planet. And he didn’t even pay me to say that. Thank you.
Oh. And to you who picked up this book to read. Thank you. And I’m not being funny but . . . that colour really suits you.
First published 2015 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2015 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-230-77181-9
Copyright © Jonathan Harvey 2015
Cover by Madeline Meckiffe
The right of Jonathan Harvey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record f
or this book is available from the British Library.
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