PDL Creates

Playing Out: Swings and Roundabouts outlines the first ten years of Paul’s life. Abandoned by his mother at six weeks old, he lives alongside three brothers and a sister being raised by their lorry driver father. Struggling to cope, their father does his best to provide but living on state handouts means the children often go without. Being motherless has a huge impact on every aspect of his existence. In way of compensation, swings and roundabouts, Paul is afforded the freedom to roam. Hardships aplenty, lacking the nurture that often comes from a motherly embrace, Paul is being sculpted, his life is playing out.

Set in the 1970s, the older reader can enjoy a nostalgic trip down memory lane and the youngsters can view the offline existence of kids who wore flares and had bad hair. Products and television programmes, toys and confectionery, the sweetest of memories entwined with the roughness of a working-class environment. Street games, scrumping and sewage tunnels. A patchwork quilt of Paul’s memories stitched together using a rather coarse yarn makes this story a true account of British social history that is both poignant and humorous.

Empty Corridors: Learning to Fail Paul isn’t at school to learn, he’s there to be fed. Though they often have no voice, a problematic child will more than likely have a tale to tell. Not that Paul would ever let slip the shame he hides. Weighed down for so long with insecurities, the scruffy kid already feels isolated from his peers. These formative years of secondary school, where confidence can be shattered by a single taunt, do not encourage children to speak out. If Paul’s secrets were ever known, no good would come of it, only humiliation. So he disguises his anguish behind a facade of roughness.

Paul excels at naughtiness; takes pride in being the baddest. It’s his only talent, and it’s been sharpened by his wayward upbringing. And if anything is going to break the monotony of learning, it’s being sent out to the empty corridor.

Glimpse Paul’s life in the 1980s, follow him through school and the streets, witness his crimes. Understand his motives but don’t judge him too harshly. Real life is never straightforward and the choices we make are not always sound. Why should Paul’s be any different?

Paulyanna: International Rent-boy is an honest and frank portrayal of a working-class male prostitute’s life.

Many factors contribute in delivering the main character onto the streets. Some very typical, such as early abandonment, poverty, lack of education and sexual abuse. But Paul does not dwell too much on the past and refuses to allow these events to mar his ambition.

At eighteen a lost train ticket leaves him stranded in the city after a job interview. He uses his questionable wits to make a quick decision that steers him down a rather dodgy path. Without added glamour or grit, Paul shares the raw accounts of his life as a rent-boy in the 1990s, from London to Los Angeles. It may not have been pretty, and there was risk and danger as well as fun and thrills, but Paul had the audacity to succeed in his quest to obtain happiness, security and wealth.

This is not an erotic tale. It is an ordinary account of day-to-day life as viewed from a unique perspective. A peek into what really goes on behind the glassy-eyed smile of a male street worker. Read about his life in this optimistic and fascinating roadbook adventure.