Ok. So I've done a whole bunch of radio interviews in support of the book release. More on offer this week.
But one question keeps bugging me: "So, if this 'adventure,' this 'quest' has been so dangerous (which it has, on and off), why did you keep going?"
Well, I've responded with all the cute, buy my book please, answers that I can. But none have sat very well.
So, the universe sent me a nudge. In the form of a seven year old girl, chanting 'chim, chimney, chim, chimney.'
My mind was suddenly a-flood with Mary Poppins. And then Peter Pan. Scenes of Old London Town. Mixing with the picture I paint in my book of a City now corrupted by worse pollution than the soot of old.
And through it all, I remember the scene of the Father walking his lonely walk to the authorities of his Bank. To face the music on his own.
For why? Well, after he did his dithering stupid man thing. Of trying to get his son to part with his money. When his son wanted only to give it to the lady feeding the pigeons. In one of the most powerful cinema moments I can recall. Basically, after Dad had been the Dick (sorry about the pun). He stood by his son. Because that is what Fathers do. They protect.
Not sure why this conflates with Peter Pan. But somehow, it does. I mean, c'mon, this is the same mind that gives you Pop Voxx. Give me a break. Anyway. Suddenly, I got it.
The day my friend Hugh died, I had to hold the hands of his eleven year old daughter, and tell her that everything would be alright, when all she wanted to know was why her Father was dead.
Why on earth would I ever stop? Time? Danger? A baseball game? What? A father protects. Her father was dead. The father of her sister and brother was dead. Who else was going to protect them? Find out the truth? No-one else stepped forward. They all ran away.
So. No more cute answers. Just a rather boring one. I didn't stop because we haven't yet reached the end. We don't yet have a full answer. So, why on earth would I stop?
The book isn't an end. It isn't closure. It is merely the next step in finding the truth.
As for future radio interviews, I'll keep the cute answers for the question: "Who do you want to have play you in the movie version ... ??"
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