'If I’d had to sum it up in a word – the motive force behind my writing – I might have said ‘freedom’. That was the feeling.'

I left home the day I left school, began a new life in a bedsit. I lived on glucose tablets, Saveloy sausages and chips. I wrote stories and poems. I was very happy. If I’d had to sum it up – the motive behind my writing – I might have said ‘freedom’.