Brought up in Hulme, Manchester, in the fifties, I'm still a Teddy boy at heart. Major inluences are John Steinbeck - all his books are good, but Grapes of Wrath is my favourite; Thorne Smith - for his sense of the absurd. (probably forgotten now) He wrote some amazing stuff without ever swearing. Henry Miller who swore as if it were going out of fashion. George MacDonald Fraser, for his Flashman series. Spike Milliigan and the other Goons, for proving that I'm not mad. A lad in our class at St Margaret's Central school in Manchester, called Jim Smith, who, with me, invented more...
