the crew

When you live in the concrete heart of a major UK city and someone leaves a bag full of cash in the alley behind your house you had best leave it alone. It's got to be bad news - after all what kind of people leave fifteen grand lying around ?

The Crew (Ellie, Jas, Will, Della and Billy) know all this but they take it anyway. Cue the attentions of Busta - a local crack dealer and his gang of rude boys - and kidnapping and murder. The Crew is a thriller for teenagers set in the harsh reality of inner city life - played out against a backdrop of drugs, prostitution, gang violence and underprivileged communities.

It is a story where the underdogs are the heroes and the authorities are the villains. Will the Crew be able to save Ellie after she is kidnapped and make peace with Busta and his shadowy boss ? Life in the ghetto is hard enough but it just got tougher….

my comments...

The Crew is about negative stereotypes and the people these are associated with. Over the years I have read various scare stories about teenage gangs in the inner city, black males, prostitutes, single mums, Muslims, Rastafarians, Asylum Seekers etc…

Growing up where I did I had cause to associate with many of these people and I wanted to show that just because you come from a certain area or background and grow up with little or no money, that you are not automatically disposed towards crime and drugs and stuff.

I also wanted to point out that in many cases, when society labels you as a no-hoper you have little choice but to resort to anti-social means of making a living.

The story is a no-holds-barred account of inner city life from the point of view of a gang of teenagers and their families. The heroes are people such as Nanny, a Rastafarian who is also an impromptu community worker, and Rita, mother of Billy; an ex-prostitute who has become a counsellor. I explore the reasons why the characters choose the lives they lead, rather than just make stereotypical assumptions about them.

The story is a thriller, a kidnap and murder mystery where the protagonists have no trust in the police and the authorities and fend for themselves. The setting is a concrete estate, an inner city ghetto that could be anywhere - London, Manchester, Birmingham - and encompasses all the problems that such areas face on a day to day basis.

As with the other two I was trying to write about a hidden section of British society that the media is quick to judge and unable to understand. The language is very much that which the characters themselves would actually use and the style is similar to (Un)arranged Marriage.

It is a story based in reality and it is one which I enjoyed writing. I wanted to write it. And it has proved to be very popular. Not bad for a story I usually describe as 'like the Famous Five on crack'... 

'a jewel of a book' - The Independent

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