He saw the disappointment on her face, though she covered it up quickly. “Good idea,” she said. She dried her tears, then they went down to the kitchen and had tea and chocolate biscuits until her mother came home.

When he got back to Great Peter Street there was no sign of anything unusual, so he deduced that the school had not telephoned his parents. No doubt None Above would prefer to write a letter. That gave Dave a day of grace.

He said nothing to his parents until the following morning. His father left at eight. Then Dave spoke to his mother. “I’m not going to school,” he said.

She did not fly off the handle. “Try to understand the journey that your father has made,” she said. “He was illegitimate, as you know. His mother worked in a sweatshop in the East End, before she went into politics. His grandfather was a coal miner. Yet your father went to one of the world’s great universities, and by the time he was thirty-one he was a minister in the British government.”

“But I’m different!”

“Of course you are, but to him it looks as if you just want to throw away everything he and his parents and grandparents have achieved.”

“I have to live my own life.”

“I know.”

“I’ve left school. I had a row with old None Above. You’ll probably get a letter from him today.”

“Oh, dear. Your father will find that hard to forgive.”

“I know. I’m leaving home, too.”

She began to cry. “Where will you go?”

Dave felt tearful, too, but he kept control. “I’ll stay at the YMCA for a few days, then get a flat with Walli.”

She put a hand on his arm. “Just don’t be angry with your father. He loves you so much.”

“I’m not angry,” said Dave, though he was, really. “I’m just not going to be held back by him, that’s all.”

“Oh, God,” she said. “You’re as wild as I was, and just as pigheaded.”

Dave was surprised. He knew she had made an unhappy first marriage, but all the same he could not imagine his mother being wild.

She added: “I hope your mistakes won’t be as bad as mine.”

As he was leaving, she gave him all the money in her purse.

Walli was waiting in the hall. They left the house carrying their guitars. As soon as they were outside in the street all feelings of regret vanished, and Dave began to feel both excited and apprehensive. He was going to be on television! But he had gambled everything. He felt a little dizzy every time he remembered that he had left home and school.

They got the Tube to Euston. Dave had to ensure the television appearance was a success. This was paramount. If the record did not sell, he thought fearfully, and Plum Nellie was a failure, what then? He might have to wash glasses at the Jump Club, like Walli.