She Always Wanted To Believe In Things.

I Still Have A Suspicion Of Charity And Think The State Has A Role To Play In Many Areas. And Although For Most Of The Years Since I Have Been A Rather Privileged Writer, I Identify More Closely Than Perhaps I Should With Those Social Workers. Had I Not Become A Writer That Would Have Been Me. Lots Of Our Friends Are Still In That World And I Do Feel Part Of That Generation Of People Who Were Rather Idealistic In The 70s And Became Disillusioned In The 80s. Not Just About Social Services Issues, But The World.

What I'm Not Sure About, Is If Our Lives Have Been So Different From The Lives Of The People We Save. We All Complete. Maybe None Of Us Really Understand What We've Lived Through, Or Feel We've Had Enough Time.

I Think I Had Actually Served My Apprenticeship As A Writer Of Fiction By Writing All Those Songs. I Had Already Been Through Phases Of Autobiographical Or Experimental Stuff.

And I'm A Hailsham Student - Which Is Enough By Itself Sometimes To Get People's Backs Up.

And If These Incidents Now Seem Full Of Significance And All Of A Piece, It's Probably Because I'm Looking At Them In The Light Of What Came Later.