The jury returned an open verdict: neither suicide nor accident, but unfathomable.
The homeless and the addicts came to Stuart’s funeral, even though it was held in Midston, which is ten miles out of Cambridge, and a number of the more befuddled ones got scattered about in villages elsewhere because they’d got into the wrong buses.
After the service, a crowd gathered by the grave. It is not a pauper’s grave. It is the sort of grave that ordinary people dream of: under the boughs of a horse chestnut, in the company of yews and flocks of rooks, in a Norman churchyard. Beyond the aged wall that borders this blissful cemetery the hills and copses rise like waves. Stuart had made himself a popular figure during the last three years of his life–and the homeless and the addicts paid their respects by throwing on to the coffin lid the things they said he’d need for the journey ahead: a packet of Rizlas and a pouch of tobacco containing some cannabis.
It is to these good friends of Stuart’s that the last scene of this book must go. They stayed behind long after the rest of us mourners had left the cemetery. From the nearby primary school they pinched a bench and dragged it to the graveside, then they opened up a full crate of beer and had a party. There was dancing and singing and speeches. One of them took off his T-shirt and passed it round; all the celebrants scrawled farewell messages on it then laid it across the mound. There was a ghetto blaster playing Stuart’s favourite punk music from the 1970s.
Over the road, Judith could hear this primordial fiesta from her bedroom until late in the night; it must have kept dozens of her neighbours in despair of ever getting to sleep. But they all knew Stuart and had followed him and his exploits from birth. So no one complained.
The next morning, before the vicar could spot her, she crept up to the grave and removed the cans and needles.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest and most important thanks are to Dido Davies. She has read the manuscript of this book a thousand times and agonized over every aspect, from the overall structure to the nuance of each word. Without her inventiveness, encouragement, and our endless boozy battles on my balcony in Cambridge–come rain, sun or snow–I would not have got past the first pages.
How many other people there are! To Stuart’s mother, Judith, I owe thanks for Stuart himself. To her daughter, Karen, Stuart’s half-sister: I understand Stuart’s pride in you. Both Karen and Judith allowed me to interview them extensively about often difficult subjects. Their information has been essential to the book. To Stuart’s grandparents, I am grateful for much of the material in Chapter 24. My mother, Joan Brady, has been marvellous with professional literary advice, delightful enthusiasm and a gift of a laptop computer.
Ruth Wyner’s defiance, relentlessness and refusal ever to be knocked down have been an inspiration. Gordon Bell, the kind, subtle manager of Willow Walk hostel for the homeless, has given me a great insight into homelessness (as also have, of course, the many residents–the friendly, the fascinating and the not so friendly–who live at Willow Walk, and the other staff I worked with during the time I was writing Stuart). John Brock was nearly destroyed by the judicial attack on both his reputation and his belief in fairness, and from him I got my greatest and most eloquent sense of impotence and fury that injustice inspires. Andrew Grove, the unstoppable lawyer who has done so much to get compensation for children who, like Stuart, were abused in ‘special’ schools around Cambridge–he deserves applause just for what he does. Austen Davies: I am forever in his debt for his legacy of £10,000 that enabled me to take time off work to run the Campaign to Free Ruth and John, and then to start work on this book, four years ago.
Havovi Ankelsaria, Linda Bendall, Judy Brady, Lorrie Bunn, Sarah Burbidge, James Cormick, Jane Denby, Maureen Earley, Denis Hayes, Cathy Hembry, Catherine Hurley, Jenny Mace, Stella Mansfield, Graeme Mitchison, Catrin Oliver, Rodney Palmer, Chris Ratcliffe, Molly Schlick–all read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. (Catrin read it twice.) Xanthe Dennis (aged 13), for picking up my spelling mistakes. I am also grateful to Wynn Turley, QEST, and Anabel and Andrew Turtle for their help with information and advice.
In 2003, The Arts Council awarded me a Writers Award for the first three chapters of Stuart. This startling recognition (and £7000) did more than almost anything else to boost my confidence in the last year of writing and helped me to secure my agent, Peter Straus, who is responsible both for the subtitle, a life backwards, and for capturing the attention of my calm, shrewd editor at Fourth Estate, Nicholas Pearson. I am also grateful for the support of Mitzi Angel. Julian Humphries arranged the cover and Vera Brice designed the elegant page layout.
Both the Society of Authors Contingency Fund and the Author’s Foundation have provided valuable encouragement, in the form of hardship grants of £500 and £1000. I am particularly indebted to the excellent Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Public Library for research material, and to Cambridge University Library for providing a pleasant place to work when my own study became too sickeningly familiar.
The people who were involved in the Campaign Committee to release John and Ruth enabled me in different ways to understand that a book about Stuart was important: Louise Brock, David Brandon, Jim and Angela Brown, Julie Crocker (the invaluable Campaign secretary), John Hipkin, Michelle Howard, Sarah Jones, Rodney Keen, Hilary Johnys, Sharon Khazna, Bob Lucas, Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt, David Mckay, Pat McCafferty, Nicky Padfield, Drew Park, Colin Shaw.
Diana Allan and Curtis Brown: it was while staying at their house in Cortona that I realised how to do Chapter 11, which had been causing me endless trouble. My landlord Dr Simon Norton was ceaselessly tolerant about my always-late rent and my messy habits; Robin Sarin has been a constant support. Clare Sproston did splendid work typing up many of my initial interviews with Stuart.
Finally, and with my love, Flora Dennis: from Milford-on-Sea to Florence to Springfield, Illinois (where we sorted out the chronological difficulties of Chapter 3) she has filled my time away from the manuscript with excitement and happiness.
Grateful acknowledgement is made for the use of the following:
‘Three questioned following robbery’ (29 June, 1993) and ‘Bubblegum king stuck behind bars’ (24 September, 1993), both from the Peterborough Evening Telegraph.
A short passage from From the Inside: Dispatches from a Women’s Prison, by Ruth Wyner, published by Aurum Press, 2003.
‘Liquor trouble at jail’, published in The Times, 23 December, 1993.
‘Jailed man told: Illness no excuse for crime’ (2 January, 1973) and the portion of the final edition headline ‘FREED’ (11 July, 2000), both from the Cambridge Evening News.
‘Charity pair are freed to appeal over heroin case’, published in The Daily Telegraph, 12 July, 2000.
‘Punk does a bunk to join Mullah’s army’, by Fiona Wyton, published in The People Magazine, 3 December, 1989.
Stuart and Alexander in a car, with a devil in the back.
Stuart lecturing, with Alexander behind.
About the Author
Alexander Masters was born in New York in 1965 and studied physics and mathematics in London and Cambridge. For the last five years he has worked in hostels for the homeless and run a street newspaper. He has also worked as an agony aunt, a travel writer, an illustrator, and a bedspread salesman.
FOOTNOTES
To return to the corresponding text, click on the reference number or "Return to text."
* Jeff Briggs, ‘A Profile of the Juvenile Joyrider, and a consideration of the efficacy of motor vehicle projects as a diversionary strategy’, extract of MA Thesis, University of Durham, 1991. Return to text.
* Statistics from Shelter. Return to text.
*The Evening Telegraph, Peterborough, Tuesday, June 29, 1993. Return to text.
*Duncan Milner, The Evening Telegraph, Peterborough, Friday, September 24, 1993. Return to text.
*Ruth Wyner, From the Inside: Dispatches from a Women’s Prison, Aurum Press, 2003. Return to
text.
* Denis O’Connor, Glue Sniffing and Volatile Substance Abuse: case studies of children and young adults. Aldershot: Gower, 1984. Return to text.
* Fiona Wyton, The People Magazine, 3 December 1989. Return to text.
* William Murray, Happy holiday, Ladybird Key Words Reading Scheme, Book 7a. Wills & Hepworth, Ltd, Loughborough, 1964. Return to text.
* www.borderlinedisorders.com Return to text.
* The council’s approach to homelessness has since improved. The housing department is now (2005) run effectively, energetically, and with considerably more coordination of the various ‘service providers’ involved. Return to text.
STUART: A LIFE BACKWARDS
A Delacorte Press Book / June 2006
Published by
Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2005 by Alexander Masters
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data on file with the publisher.
www.bantamdell.com
BVG
eISBN: 978-0-440-33612-9
v3.0
Stuart Page 27
