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T H E W E N D Y P E R R I A M I N T E R V I E W |
| 06 | You also worked for a short while in Camden Market. How did that experience affect Second Skin? | "The chief thing that came across was the idea of
freedom. The stall-holders actually work extremely hard - the hours are long and there's
not always a lot of money to take home - but everyone I spoke to mentioned
‘freedom’. They wanted to be their own boss, and not to have to answer to
anybody else. If they felt like taking a day off, they took it. If they wanted to see the
world, they would work flat out for 6 months, then set off for India or Morocco or
wherever. And many of them were using their talents - making and selling rugs or jewellery
or ceramics - and expressing their own creativity, which people in more conventional jobs
often don’t have the chance to do. Actually, some of them had once been in those
sorts of jobs, but had been made redundant or lost everything in the recession. And
they’d gravitated to this new and rather offbeat way of life. "Much of Second Skin is about freedom and choice: the freedom to be yourself and to know what that self is. It may take you until middle-age to know who you really are and what you really want, because, as I said, all these pressures get in the way. When you're young it’s difficult to block out the siren voices tempting you to pursue money or success, rather than what’s important to you individually. It requires time and courage to stand up and say, no, that’s not for me. "In my own case, I needed courage to get out of advertising, because it was well-paid and seemed secure. And, again, when at last I was offered the chance to become a full-time writer, I almost passed it up. I thought, ‘Suppose it doesn’t work out? Will I ever get published? Or earn enough to live?’ That’s why I wrote my first novel in bed, with a pencil and a notebook and the covers up to my chin! I was so terrified, I needed a security blanket." |
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