Only once to any great degree (I think that we are all influenced occasionally by what has happened to us) and that was simply because of the unique experience that it was - something so unlike anything I had ever witnessed before (or since). I incorporated the event in the first of my Horace Wilt books, taking him to a Queen concert that day after John Lennon had been shot and killed - murdered - in New York. I really had attended that concert which had been a very muted affair even for such a flamboyant, upbeat band - until the lights went out for a while before a single spotlight picked out Freddie Mercury who then began to sing Imagine. It brought out goosebumps I think I still have to this day! I just felt that in such an emotional book, it fitted so well - and I really wanted to share the experience too...
A junior school teacher, Brian Malliard. He showed me a whole range of books that were far beyond Jennings and company, and it made me want to tell all the stories that were sitting somewhere in my young mind. It made me realise that there was space out there for all sorts of stories and that characters were not necessarily perfect or clever or cunning - and that there was room for all of the misfits and losers as well as the heroes and heroines. It made me want to write it all down - and he even showed me how that could be done. And that was almost 50 years ago now...
