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From the latest theatre events and live music performances to local activities and fantastic attractions, we keep you up to date daily! The thing that's stayed with us through the development process is Maggie Thatcher being an unlikely imaginary friend and Thatcherism being an unlikely tool for Damian to get through this childhood.
The invisible walls put up blocking the young non-binary, the gay, the lesbian, and those feeling like they’re constantly outsiders.Director Suba Das is one of the most exciting theatre makers in the UK so I am thrilled he’s lending us his unique and uniquely engaging vision. There was something about the joy and magic of it and Damian’s imagination that struck me as being a bit like a Roald Dahl book. This memoir takes us through his life growing up in a Scottish housing scheme in the midst of Thatcherism, in a broken home and trying to be everything but himself.
He discovers that stories can save your life, and--in spite of violence, strikes, and AIDS--manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgow's only gay club. Funny and poignant with some hold your breath violence (wasn’t expecting that, but wasn’t surprised), I read it in a day. Worried he's not turning out right, his ma and her boyfriend send him to New Dawn Safari Training Camp. Then his face dropped just as fast as he shyly wiped away the tears he hadn’t expected, his chin quivering as he whispered, “I wished I had a mum like yours”. By turns funny, tender, and heartbreaking, it is also a useful primer for anyone too young to remember what life was like in the industrial areas of Britain enduring the changes wrought by Thatcherism.
Well, I can thank my mother, Mary Knight, massively for shaping our family view on sexuality and gender norms. Not til I turned the final page in this book with a smile of satisfaction I realize that I've seen this author in real life. This amazing book tells the story of an appalling childhood with truth and clarity unsmudged by self-pity.
The present tense first person narration puts you right into the scene, helped along massively by the decision to have scenes unclouded by the perspective of age; you really feel like you are watching the child experience all of these horrible moments, without the full language to explain it. You Will Be Safe Here was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and Book of the Year in thr Guardian, Observer and Times. The NTS team really care about stories and storytelling and I'm grateful to them for all their inspiration and care. My Mum had an old Golden Virginia Tobacco tin filled with words written in block capitals on tiny squares of paper. I've also co-written two plays for Radio 4 and written a short after play for their Fact to Fiction slot.It left him isolated from, and misunderstood by, teachers at a time when he so desperately needed their love and kindness. This doesn't last, with experience in life comes a rougher hand, one crafted by hard knocks, rejection and abuse.
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