Laurence Seidler
The bastard son of a casino boss and a courtesan, I grew up in Africa climbing trees and lolling in the paddling pool with Vanessa, my eight year old girlfriend. Unfortunately this idyllic life came to abrupt end when Ghana became independent and all ex-pats were imprisoned or deported. The shock of London followed before I was paroled to the fantasy world that is Cambridge University. There I studied History, drinking and the clumsy rudiments of seduction.
Not having the faintest idea of what I should do next, I put off making any decisions and went East to India and beyond with the invulnerability of youth and a change of underpants. When my money and intestinal fluid ran out I returned to London where I squatted a flat, wrote poetry, directed an Arts Council financed play which toured Europe and was shortlisted by Penguin books as one of ten young writers with talent. What a glorious time, unshackled by doubt or morality!
But somehow the tentacles of the grown-up world snagged my feet and ended my random adventures and without any encouragement from me, I found myself one of the others : those that “do”. Numerous professions followed including TV ad director, journalist, architect, robotics developer, scrap metal dealer and sex worker (with hindsight I realise I was just working in the family business.)
Time and time again I told myself I would return to my first love, writing, only for the phone to ring with an offer of work too tempting to refuse. I guess I was also addicted to the large sums of money people were willing to pay me. But then a miracle. I lost the lot. The fridge that once housed wild smoked salmon and rare cheeses, now held nothing more exotic than half a tomato. What to do? I had children who needed feeding and the roof was leaking. I had no seed capital and had done so many things in my life that I was too confusing for any potential employer to understand. Ah, but I had my mind, my memories, and time. I began writing one cold winter's night and have never stopped except to fix the roof. Busy Being Born is my first English novel and I now live as a recluse with my wife, son, and various reptiles in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Andalucía.
What next? Wait and see!
