Years ago I wanted to disappear and so I hitchhiked to Paris after saying goodbye to my dad in our front room. I was 18, he was 44. We were young. Now I'm 64, he's 90. Here we are in that same room. And we are old. A lot has happened. Time to write it down...
My Dad died in the early hours of Saturday morning. Alzheimer's and other health problems finally took him at the age of 92. He was a quiet, funny and gentle soul and if you've read Ghost Town you'll know some of his story. Cyril Young, 1931-2023. Rest easy Dad, xx
My Dad is 92 today. It hasn't been an easy year for him - months in hospital and dementia care home - but now he's back in his own home, still making us laugh. He's a big part of the next book too. Happy Birthday, Dad Xx
In other news, today is my birthday. Here's the house I was born in 64 years ago.
" It’s a house made of shadows, but the memories
are full of light." Ghost Town.
@LittleToller
My dad is 91 today, the most gentle man I've ever known. '...and so I used to look at his hands: dirty fingernails, factory-worker’s palms, sometimes holding a rescued sparrow. His hands, big as hawk’s wings, were the hands of a kind man...' Ghost Town.
'It’s beautiful and strange, it’s utterly present, so
real that I could take you there. And when we get there we will be living in a Terence Davies film...'
If you've read Ghost Town you'll know how much I love him. Terence Davies, RIP.
My Dad's funeral was yesterday. Thank you to everyone who's been in touch and responded so overwhelmingly to his passing. Love and thanks to you all for your kind thoughts. Cyril Young 1931-2023. X
It’s my 67th birthday today. Here’s me and my dad, probably 60 years ago having a laugh on Formby Beach. Last year on my birthday I had carcinoma surgery… this year’s hospital treat is an appointment with a hand surgeon. Happy Days! Xx
I'm writing about Amsterdam and my dad at the moment for the next book. Here he is with my mum, 1983, north side A'dam. Mum cooked for squatter mates, they walked for miles and cycled A'dam style. Mum is long gone and now my dad has dementia and can't remember days like these...
WILD TWIN IS COMING!
September 18th. And here's the cover.
‘To become invisible is what I want most, the dream of disappearing.’
Details and Preorders here:
@LittleToller
@Sarahshugs
Happy Birthday to Ghost Town, 3 years old today. Thanks to everyone who read it, reviewed it, published extracts, wrote to me about it. Wild Twin, the follow up is coming next year from
@LittleToller
.
Sad news today of the death of June Furlong, my next door neighbour in the Falkner Street years. Artist's model, Liverpool character, lovely woman. (Stanley Reed's portrait on right, Photographer unknown)
@johnjmontgomery
Nearly fifty years ago I used to sit on this bench in the Luxembourg Gardens reading a book and eating bread and oranges, running out of money, lonely and thinking it was time to go home. Wild Twin. (Photo by Pearl Buscombe Young)
It's five years today since my sister Val died. If you've read Ghost Town you'll know something about how wonderful she was. I post this today more in celebration than grief. Here she is in the early 60's, dancing as always. Love x
" My mother liked to trespass – she didn’t call it trespassing, she called it having a nose...' Twenty years today since this extraordinary woman died. Ghost Town's guiding light...x
When I was a kid we moved from Walton to Maghull. To my amazement Ian St John was one of our neighbours, lived in a semi just like us on a housing estate where several footballers lived. Most dads worked in factories, some dads like Ian played football instead...
I wrote about Revolutionary Spirit by
@MrPaulSimpson1
, about our friendship, the Liverpool underground and the importance of the magical peripheral.
@liverpoolpost
'No one knows where I am and that’s the way I like it. I am lost. I’ve even lost my map so I could be anywhere on this cold morning in March in God knows where...' NEW BOOK. WILD TWIN. 2023
@LittleToller
Everton Library's 125th birthday celebrations, me and Jimmy McGovern chatting local stories and Ghost Town - possibly the point in the Q&A where a wonderful woman called Margaret told me, 'I've asked lots of people and no one's ever heard of you...'! (Photo, Polly Moseley).
Had a visit from the mighty Horatio Clare yesterday. Pizza and cake on the doorstep, planning future journeys. Original Photo by Demelza Kooij. Thanks for the hipstamatic to
@Bertrom
@HoratioClare
@LittleToller
" My mother liked to trespass – she didn’t call it trespassing, she called it having a nose..."
19 years today since she died - guiding spirit of 'Ghost Town'. Here she is, looking like a Habañero in front of someone else's car! x
Happy Birthday to Ghost Town, four years since it was published by
@LittleToller
. And today I delivered the first draft of Wild Twin. Lots to do but finally I got to press SEND...Ghost Town available here:
RIP John Hodgkinson. The man was all heart and soul and he was also a walking encyclopaedia of music, film and book knowledge. Photo of John and I, back room of Post Office pub School Lane, circa 1990. Probably talking about Desperadoes Waiting for the Train. Lovely JDH ❤️ xx
Amsterdam 1983. My parents came to visit me. Mum cooked for squatters. I’ve just been writing about this photo for ‘Wild Twin’. I showed the photo to my Dad as I sit writing in his living room. Dementia has erased the memory. ‘Somewhere I’ve never been…’
I spent two years ‘mentoring’ Jackie Hagan for
@graeae
. Yesterday she died. I learned more from her than she ever learned from me. She was wild, hilarious, so talented, rebellious and joyously disobedient and she was beautiful. Go wildly Jackie xx
I'm giving the 2024 Gerard Manley Hopkins Lecture at Liverpool Hope University on Thursday 9 May, 5pm, hosted by Catherine Morris.
Haunted Spaces, dream places, memory places.
Details/ Booking:
Three years gone, my sister Val. Ghost Town was written for her but sadly she never got to read it. Here she is!
"Her left hand holds the apple, her fingers cupping the fruit, as if she is offering it to us, giving us a gift..." X
'Val taught me how to scrape chewing gum off paving stones and get the last of the mint or juice out...' My hilarious, wonderful sister, heart and soul of 'Ghost Town', two years today since she passed away.
@LittleToller
Four years today since our Val died. If you've read Ghost Town you'll know a bit about her. The book is dedicated to her but sadly she never got to read it. Here she is back in the 60's, what great times we had. x
‘My mother taught me Liverpool; she was the guide into its shadows, into the hidden and forgotten.’
@LittleToller
Maureen Young,heart and soul of Ghost Town, 1930-2002. Today she’d have been 91. X
‘My mother liked to trespass…’ It’s over 20 years today since Mum died but she’s still inspiring me. If you’ve read Ghost Town you’ll know all about her. Here she is - second right - on a day trip to London with her gang back in the day. What a star she was x
Quite apart from it being publication day for Wild Twin, our Pearl is moving to London today to study Photography at London College of Communication. Wish her luck! Love you Pearl! Xx
‘My mother taught me Liverpool; she was the guide into its shadows, into the hidden and forgotten.’ Ghost Town.
@LittleToller
. Maureen Young, 1930-2002, heart and soul of Ghost Town. Today she’d have been 90. X
‘She holds a red apple with two bites taken out of it, presenting it to the photographer – to us – as if to say, this is the proudest of apples, the reddest of fruits … and it’s
mine!’ Today my sister Val would have been 66. Heart and Soul of Ghost Town. Love x
NEWS! I'm thrilled to see 'Ghost Town, A Liverpool Shadowplay' is on the longlist for the Portico Prize in great company with lots of amazing books. Thank you!
@ThePortico
@LittleToller
Ghost Town - 'I was always drawn to the canal, to the undersides of its bridges where the wild boys lurked, and beyond that, as it cut through and into the landscape, a portal into a world beyond permission.' Went for a walk, been a while, felt like the old days...
@LittleToller
Nice stack of Paul Simpson’s Revolutionary Spirit in Liverpool’s brand new Rough Trade which opened today. What a book! And the shop is looking great too.
@MrPaulSimpson1
@RoughTrade
The audio book of Ghost Town, A Liverpool, Shadowplay is out this Thursday 25th November beautifully read by the brilliant
@davemorrissey64
. Thanks to
@canongatebooks
for helping us get this audio book out in the world.And thanks as always to
@LittleToller
and
@Sarahshugs
x
Unearthed photos, mid 90's, Falkner Street, Liverpool 8. 'Out on the streets I walk the stations of the cross, the compass points and sacred sites of the underground republic...' Ghost Town.
@LittleToller
Sorting out my office today I found a lost pamphlet about my childhood and Everton Water Tower published by Sean Halligan (of Liverpool School of Language, Dream & Pun) about 25 years ago in a limited edition. It's like a trial run for Ghost Town...
My sister Kathryn took Wild Twin home to my dad’s house and placed it next to the wedding present clock, in the room where the book begins, where I wrote the notes for Part 3 while my dad was sleeping, and where the whole thing ends…
@LittleToller
( photo K Young)
After a splendid afternoon in the Little Grapes with my dear friend Paul I went home and sat down to read his book. Out now! Absolutely beautiful.
@MrPaulSimpson1
@JawbonePress
Buy it here:
And Liverpool Waterstones have signed copies
@WaterstonesLPL
Just found these photos - Amsterdam squatting years, 1982/ 83 during my multiple sackings from night porter jobs phase, feeling the wild times book I’d never write forming in my head...Happy days. x
I finally collected my things - 'cleared my desk' - from John Moores University 3 years since I last taught there. Lots of books, DVD's, scripts...but these beauties too. Treasure.