One of the characters in A Song from Dead Lips is Sam Ezeoke, a passionate supporter of Biafran independence. The Biafran War has receded into history, but at the time it was a hugely important moment for the post-colonial world. For my own family too. My family left Enugu, Nigeria, in the year before the [...]
A Song from Dead Lips features the groupies known as The Apple Scruffs. In this article originally written for Rolling Stone, I add a bit of background to the story of the legendary 60s pop fans. She came in through the bathroom window. No. Really. She did. Emma Eldredge, a 63-year-old retired nurse from Gloucester, [...]
The plot of A Song from Dead Lips revolves around the murder of a young woman who turns out to be one of the “Apple Scruffs”, a group of hardcore fans who were hanging around the group that year. 1968 was a troubling year for The Beatles. At the same time as London’s students were [...]
A House of Knives features real-life art dealer Robert Fraser. Few figures have had a bigger influence on the 20th century British art scene than Robert Fraser (1937-1986). He was the man who linked the world of Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake to The Beatles, and the man who gave The Rolling Stones their bohemian [...]
In 1968 the corruption scandals that were about to envelop the Metropolitan Police were still a year away. Between 1969 and 1972, initially following an exposé in The Sunday Times, scores of detectives would go to jail; hundreds more policemen would be forced to resign. The Drug Squad detective "Nobby"' Pilcher, featured in A Song [...]
