In the event, they shook our hands and said, “Well done boys, we’re glad you had the courage to come back.” (It all came back to me very vividly last year when I had an unscheduled overnight in Glasgow and wandered around the city at first light on the Sunday morning, ending up in Central Station, which seemed still haunted by the memory.) Our fathers must have been wondering how to deal with the situation. The uncle put us on a train to Glasgow where we were met by our respective fathers at Central Station. He came and picked us up and we were able to have a bath and put on clean clothes and get a decent meal. In the end, filthy and starving, we made a reverse charge call to Stephen’s uncle in London. I have a memory of people giving us a wide berth.

We were wearing the same clothes we had run away in. Of course, we ended up arguing and Stephen and I split from the other two and found ourselves sleeping on the floor of Euston Station. We spent a week sleeping in the van in parks and backstreets, trying during the day to get an agency to take us on. One early spring morning I couldn’t stand it any more and walked out.

I had been expelled from school and taken an awful job at the DNS calculating interest in bank books. Here is the “story behind the story” and how the inspiration for RUNAWAY came from his own experiences…įorty-five years ago my best friend, Stephen, and I ran away to London. This extraordinary work by Peter May explores how aspirations and expectations shape us, and the pivotal yet changeable role that friendships play in our lives. Runaway is a gripping crime novel spanning two cities and half a century.

However, the boys find the reality to be devastatingly different from their dreams, and within less than eight weeks of their departure, just three of them return home, their lives irrevocably damaged.įifty years later, in 2015, a brutal murder takes place in London and the three men, who are now in their sixties, are forced to return to the city to confront the demons which have haunted them and blighted their lives for five decades.

His friends need little incentive to run away from abusive families and dead end jobs to pursue fame and fortune as a band. The decision of five teenage boys to leave their homes in Glasgow in 1965 and head for London is led by Jack Mackay when he is expelled from school. “The book is beautifully written, funny and poignant, and very different from any I have previously read by the versatile Peter May” FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING from The Book Depository

Runaway Clothes by Mrs. D.