Buddy has a hopeless father who is an ageing rocker, interested only in Elvis and bikes, and living on the fringes of the underworld. When Buddy’s mum walks out, the two manage to strike up some kind of relationship – until Buddy realises that his dad is involved in something more serious than he suspected. A moving, totally convincing account of a boy’s faltering relationship with his father.
Now a part of the Penguin Originals collection.
What Nigel says:
Buddy is the best selling of all my books for teenagers. When I started writing the story it was about a nine-year-old boy called Stuart who thinks his cousin is a spy!
I realised the story wasn’t working but there were some things about it I liked – the boy following someone around town, black twins whose parents run a taxi firm, a strange boarded up old house…
I took those elements and worked them into a new story about a boy who blames himself when his mum leaves home. Then, when I got the idea that his dad was a teddy-boy who loved rock and roll, I changed Stuart’s name to Buddy, after the 50s rock singer, Buddy Holly.
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