Sleepless in Soho

Book excerpt: A true story set in the mid-sixties reflecting the turbulent daily lives of two teenage suburban girlfriends as they begin commuting to London office jobs they hate. After their local dance hall burns down, the girls venture into the West End nightclubs in search of their favourite groups. Their lives become transformed as they make new friends and enter a world of music, boys and drugs. They spend Easter at Brighton among the thousands of Mods and Rockers, enduring a freezing night on the seafront. The girls inevitably clash with their parents as they yearn for more freedom so they eventually rent a flat in a house in London, only to discover that their landlord and landlady are as restrictive as their parents, complaining about the unsuitable hours they keep, and the noise from their music. The complaints culminate in a showdown one afternoon when the girls invite some boys back to the flat including one who is Jamaican. They are confronted by an irate, racist landlord demanding that they tell their black friend to leave the house at once. The girls refuse point blank, so they find themselves evicted instead with immediate effect. Now homeless, the girls comb the advertisements in the local newsagent’s window. Suddenly they are accosted by a suspicious-looking stranger who offers to rent them a bedsit in his house which provides an opportune solution to their problem.