So it’s Shelter and Sappho. Could be a series on the telly, couldn’t it? Shelter and Sappho, otherwise known as The Invincibles. All is ready. Recruiting can now commence.

So London it was and London it is.

I made loads of mistakes. Most people do, first time in London. Trouble is, once you’ve made them it’s practically impossible to put things right – you’re on the old downward spiral and that’s that. I know you’ve no idea what I’m on about, so listen.

I arrived in midwinter. Not a good idea. Okay, so things were bad at home. Really bad, and I had to get out. But if I’d know what I know now, I’d have hung in there a bit longer – toughed it out with Carole and Chris till March or even April. Spend one January night in a shop doorway and you’ll know why.

I had a hundred and fifty quid on me when I got off the train at King’s Cross. It was what was left of my savings, plus a twenty Carole slipped me when Chris wasn’t looking. A hundred and fifty. Doesn’t sound bad, does it? It sounded okay to me. My plan was, I’d get a room somewhere. Nothing posh. A bedsit, and then I’d look for work. Again, nothing posh. I’d take anything for a start, just till I established myself and could look round properly. I was dead green, see? A babe in arms. It isn’t like that, but I didn’t know.

I strode out of the station with my backpack and bed-roll, and it felt like a new beginning. This was London, wasn’t it? The centre, where it all happens. It’s big, it’s fast, and it’s full of opportunities. Nobody knows you. Where you’re from and what’s gone before – that’s your business. All that stuff with Vince – it never happened. It’s a clean sheet – you can invent your own past and call yourself anything you choose.