First off, This is not a Spoiler, it will not give away any more than you will find in the Changing the Subject blurb, specifically; the main character takes part in an Alzeimer’s Disease drugs trial and ends up looking 35 years younger.
This is what the How-to Guides say is a Teaser. So that is alright then, It is not some pages I got so carried away with that they interrupted the story so I cut them from a very early draft. Teaser.
The How to Guides tell me to offer Extra Pages from my website in exchange for a subscription, so that is what I have done. I have to get lots of subscribers for reasons that will become clear over the coming months I’m sure. But I am open to changing my mind on this; if you would care to comment on Facebook, Twitter or whatever else I set up over two frenzied days and got too confused to remember, feel free. That is called Engagement.
I have included a couple of snippets from the book in the Extra Pages on my website, which you can see if you subscribe, so it makes more sense. The actual book has retained a few lines of the speech, just enough for it to make sense.
When I was writing Changing the Subject I thought that I would put in perhaps a paragraph about HRH Prince Charles the Prince of Wales getting worried that his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, would rejuvenate and he would never become king. I thought it would be funny; a little parody that would emphasise how the main character has to change her mind about a lot of different things.
I am a third generation republican and have been studiously ignoring the royal family all my life. If I was going to create some words in his tone I needed to get a flavour of the Heir himself. I found his website, https://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/, and clicked on the tab labelled ‘Speeches’.
What I found there saved me a job. I did not need to make anything up. The text attributed to the fictional Charles Windsor is an amalgam of words that the real-life Heir to the actual British throne in fact said in speeches taken from his website.
There is also a real-life Mutton Renaissance Club and I would like to state clearly and categorically that I am all for mutton. The references made to stringiness in Changing the Subject are entirely for comic effect.
I like mutton for two reasons: Firstly, hill farmers get a rough deal economically. The sheep being referred to are bred for wool. It is of exceptional quality, and with slavery and really really unfair trade with large parts of the world it helped fund the industrial revolution. But it does not pay nowadays. Hill farmers get subsidies, and quite right too. They maintain a landscape that thousands of people get immense pleasure from and are worth every penny. The sheep, which, if you are out walking in rutting season you may want to ramble around, get pretty tough up on those hills.
Secondly, mutton makes a very fine Not-Exclusively-Lancashire Hotpot or stew and dumplings (trust me, put Mint in the dumplings) and is an acceptable substitute for goat in a curry ( but if you can only get lamb, use chicken).
There is no slaughterhouse in the actual village of Moorcock, but the Moorcock Inn is lovely and in staggering countryside if you are up that way. It’s just I have used author names in Changing the Subject so I thought I might as well put my dad in as well.
Royalty on the other hand, can go Fuck themselves.
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