Back in 1969, when i was a 15 year old teenager struggling to fit in because i just didn’t enjoy any of the music, gossip or  trends of most of my peers (there were 3 of us misfits in my class.),  a random young man (long hair, shoulder bag, embroidered afghan coat) pressed a copy of Desolation Angels in to my hands in a library as i was browsing the laughable ‘teen section’, looked into my eyes and said “read it, it will open your mind” …

well fuck me he was right, i started reading in the car home, stayed up most of the night and it totally changed

a) my appreciation of  literature – it took my breath away and gave me an appetite for words and imagination i didn’t know i had

and

b) my outlook on life… much to my parents’ horror!

whoever he was, i am eternally grateful to him…. and the wonderful poetic, wild and charismatic Jack Kerouac

The world you opened up for me saved me from a life of beige tedium in the suburbs living with a grey suited husband, 2 .4 kids in ‘retail’ or ‘finance’  and the latest car on the driveway like my contemporaries