01 —The first book
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs is a memoir about the things we inherit, the things we hide, and what happens when you finally start looking at where they came from.
It begins with a question:
“What happened to the happy little boy?”
The answer wanders through childhood, family, abuse, pubs, alcoholism, marriage, fatherhood, depression, work, friendship, grief and sobriety.
Which makes it sound relentlessly fucking miserable.
It isn't.
Mostly, it's about people. The ones who hurt us, the ones who love us, the ones who somehow manage to do both — and the things we carry from one version of ourselves into the next.
02 —Read an extract
A few bits, chosen carefully.
Four extracts from Breadcrumbs. Not necessarily the most important bits, but between them they should give you a reasonable idea what you've let yourself in for.
Excerpt 01
Read extract →What happened to the happy little boy?
A question, a phone call and the beginning of a trail leading rather further back than expected.
Excerpt 02
Read extract →I'm not pissed
Eighteen years old, working behind a bar and demonstrating an absolutely flawless ability to read people.
Excerpt 03
Read extract →A thimble of pineapple juice
Dad, eight days from the end. A pineapple, a toothbrush and something that couldn't be fixed.
Excerpt 04
Read extract →Pick the lock
A collapsing business, fifteen teenage footballers and somewhere I could still be useful.
Breadcrumbs deals with subjects including childhood sexual abuse, alcoholism, depression, suicide and bereavement.