“I lived in Disraeli Avenue, in between Gladstone Street and Campbell-Bannerman Road.” The neighbors all pronounced it as “ Dizz- rah- el-lee” (four syllables) Avenue. My mother’s house was a semi-detached type on a street with 31 similar-lookin
Disraeli AvenueDizz–rah–el–lee AvenueCaroline Smailes First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Caroline Smailes in support of the charity One in Four (www.oneinfour.org.uk), an organisation run for and by people who have experienced sexual abuseText © 2008 Caroline SmailesAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without either prior permission in writing from the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the United Kingdom such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP.Cover design by Snowbooks DesignInternal design and typesetting by Wordsense Ltd, Edinburgh For those who are one in fourWith special thanks to:Clare Christian at The Friday Project(www.thefridayproject.co.uk) Joanna Chisholm at Wordsense Ltd(www.wordsense.co.uk)Emma Barnes(www.snowbooks.com/angels_design.html) I lived in Disraeli Avenue, in between Gladstone Street and Campbell-Bannerman Road. The neighbours all said it dizz–rah–el–lee (four chunks) Avenue. My mother’s house was a semi-detached on a street with 31 similar-looking houses. They looked identical but I knew that they weren’t. There were differences.In Search of Adam Disraeli AvenueNumber 9 In Search of Adam 1* * * * *Number 1 Martin North leaves home 9Number 2 The making of Paul Hodgson’s legend 13Number 3 A tarot reading 17Number 4 The banana and milk diet 25Number 5 Stamps for Crystal 29Number 6 Payments for work, not yet done 33Number 7 On me way to Bet’s at 39Number 8 James’ outbox 41Number 9 Being Crystal 45Number 10 I love Noel Ernest Edmonds very very much 49Number 11 A potbellied pig for Christmas 51Number 12 Details of a piano lesson 57Number 13 A Lady Di hair-do 65Number 14 The Queen of tittle tattle 67Number 15 Being naked has caused an angry mob to be on my driveway 75Number 16 I call her Elizabeth 79Number 17 The old man in the queue 83 Number 18 Dear Diary 87Number 19 Loose change 93Number 20 The Wheel of Fortune reversed 107Number 21 I am watching you 109Number 22 Me da and his bugle 113Number 23 Invoices for work not yet done 115Number 24 Probably a robbery 119Number 25 Reciting Metro stops, unable to sleep 123Number 26 Buy my stuff, buy me 131Number 27 A simple love story 133Number 28 For straight-talking advice, ask Jane 141Number 29 Being married to Jezebel 143Number 30 My brother Eddie 149Number 31 My creative writing exercises 155Number 32 Dear Father Christmas 157* * * * *Number 9 Thinking about wor Jude and wor Adam 163* * * * *Acknowledgements 169 . Disraeli AvenueDizz–rah–el–lee AvenueCaroline Smailes First published in Great Britain in 2008. lived in Disraeli Avenue, in between Gladstone Street and Campbell-Bannerman Road. The neighbours all said it dizz–rah–el–lee (four chunks) Avenue. My