Hold on, I’m coming. Hold on.
I held onto my belly for if I lost myself. My hands were wet. My foot went in a piss puddle, the piss all went up my trousers. I could see the rain. All the raindrops were crashing into each other. They were going in slow motion. I don’t even have a favourite, I love all of them the same.
It was too cold and everything was itchy, all I could taste now was metal. It didn’t even feel sharp, it just felt like a surprise. I wasn’t suspecting it. I only saw the handle for one second, it could be green or brown. It could be a dream except when I opened my eyes there was a bigger puddle and it wasn’t piss, it was me. I looked up, you were perched there on the railing watching me, your pink eyes weren’t dead but full of love like a battery. I wanted to laugh but it hurt too much.
Me: ‘You came. I knew you would.’
Pigeon: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be going home soon. When it’s time to go I’ll show you the way.’
Me: ‘Can’t I stay here?’
Pigeon: ‘It’s not up to me. You’ve been called home.’
Me: ‘It hurts. Do you work for God?’
Pigeon: ‘I’m sorry if it hurts. It won’t be long now.’
Me: ‘I like your feet. They’re nice and scratchy. I like all your colours.’
Pigeon: ‘Thank you. I like you too, I always did. There’s nothing to be scared of.’
Me: ‘Tell Agnes my story, the one about the man on the plane with the fake leg. You’ll have to wait until she’s old enough to know the words.’
Pigeon: ‘We’ll tell her, don’t worry.’
Me: ‘She’ll love that one. I’m thirsty.’
Pigeon: ‘I know. Just relax. Everything’s going to be alright.’
You could see the blood. It was darker than you thought. It just felt too crazy, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I just wanted to remember, if I could remember it would be alright. Agnes’s tiny fat fingers and face. I couldn’t see it anymore. All babies look the same.
Acknowledgements
My foremost thanks to Maureen, Mark and Karina for listening and believing. Thanks to Julius, Ali, Jordan, Kevin, Joyce, Lily, Justin, and everyone who helped along the way, and to Mark Linkous for the inspirational music.
Thank you David Llewelyn for getting the ball rolling. Special thanks to Jo Unwin for your patience and support, and to all at Conville and Walsh. Thanks to Helen Garnons-Williams, Erica Jarnes and all at Bloomsbury for your wisdom and dedication. And to the children and their families, my deepest gratitude and sympathy.
www.damilolataylortrust.com
www.familiesutd.com
STEPHEN KELMAN
A Reading Guide
About the Book
Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers – the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen – blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him.
With equal fascination for the local gang – the Dell Farm Crew – and the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of his new life in England: watching, listening, and learning the tricks of inner-city survival.
But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try and keep them safe.
A story of innocence and experience, hope and harsh reality, Pigeon English is a spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.
For Discussion
1 Pigeon English is written from an eleven-year-old boy’s point of view but is not a children’s novel. How do ‘adult’ issues appear? Discuss particular scenes and characters.
2 What is the significance of the pigeon?
3 Harri’s father and sister Agnes still live in Ghana, and we hear their story through a phone line. Why do you think Stephen Kelman chooses to separate the family in this way?
4 Discuss the social forces at work on Lydia, Harri’s older sister. How does she compare to her friend Miquita?
5 Stephen Kelman was inspired by true events in writing this novel. Does this make a difference to the way you read it?
6 Harri is new to the UK. How do you think this informs his perspective on his neighbourhood? How are his attitudes and beliefs different from those of his peers? How are they the same?
7 Harri makes lists and diagrams to explain what he has learnt about his new life in the UK. What effect do his explanations have on you as a reader?
8 How old would you say the members of the Dell Farm Crew are? How do the way they are described and the names they go by affect the way you perceive them?
9 Discuss Harri and his friends’ attitude to violence. Is it surprising?
10 How present are male role models in this story?
11 How well do you think Harri and Lydia’s mother has protected them from the danger in their neighbourhood? Is there anything else she could do? What would you do in her situation?
12 Discuss the importance of the characters’ physical environment on their behaviour and attitudes.
13 Discuss the ending of the novel.
14 Has the novel in any way changed the way you think about youth gangs, knife crime or urban poverty?
Suggested Further Reading
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
A Q&A with the Author
1. When did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
I first realised I wanted to be a writer at a very young age, probably six or seven years old. I remember being a very keen reader at that age, and it’s something that, as far back as I know, I’ve always wanted to do. I just feel very lucky now that I have the chance to fulfil a lifelong dream.
2. What was the inspiration for Pigeon English?
I think a large part of the inspiration for Pigeon English was the recent press that the UK’s children, especially those that live in deprived areas, have gotten. There’s a lot of noise around about knife crime and violence among the nation’s children at the moment and, having grown up myself in a housing estate which is much like the one that features in the book, I wanted to show the positive aspects of these children’s lives and tell their stories in a way that I think hadn’t necessarily been told before.
3. Who is your favourite character in Pigeon English?
I love all the characters in Pigeon English – they all have their own unique voices, their own spirits – but I’d have to say Harrison, the main character. We see the world through his eyes, he’s the narrator of the story and I love him; he has so much exuberance, so much curiosity for the world, and I think writing him was an inspiration to me. He’s a character that I’ve taken with me and he’s a good kid, I’m very fond of him.
4. How do you research your characters and stories?
I think it depends on which story you’re telling. With Pigeon English I was lucky that a lot of the material came from my own experience, my own background, so I had that knowledge to draw on. Many of the characters in the book are based on people I knew growing up or have known in adult life. Also I think that having your ears and eyes open, watching the news and reading the press – just being aware of the stories that are around you and the people that around you – can often help you develop a story in an authentic and original way.
5. What was the first book you loved?
The first book I remember falling in love with was probably The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. I remember being given a copy by my grand
parents when I was six or seven. It’s the first book I remember reading over and over again, and also the first book that made me think, ‘I would like to do that.’
6. Can you give us a hint about your next novel?
I can tell you that it’s based on a real-life character I know, an Indian man who has a very unusual hobby: he’s a serial world record breaker in bizarre and wonderful feats of physical endurance and strength. The book is part biography of him and part novel, and I hope to have it finished in the near future.
A Note on the Author
Stephen Kelman was born in Luton in 1976. After finishing his degree he worked variously as a warehouse operative, a careworker, and in marketing and local government administration. He decided to pursue his writing seriously in 2005, and has completed several feature screenplays since then. Pigeon English is his first novel; he is currently working on his second.
First published in Great Britain 2011
Copyright © Stephen Kelman 2011
This electronic edition published 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The right of Stephen Kelman to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The excerpt from ‘you shall above all things be glad and young.’ is reproduced from
Complete Poems 1904–1962, by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage,
by permission of W. W. Norton & Company. Copyright © 1991 by the Trustees
for the E. E. Cummings Trust and George James Firmage
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise
make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
(including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying,
printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Bloomsbury Publishing London New York Berlin Sydney
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4088 0327 1
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Table of Contents
March
April
May
June
July
Acknowledgements
A Reading Guide
About the Book
For Discussion
Suggested Further Reading
A Q&A with the Author
A Note on the Author
Copyright Page
Pigeon English Page 22