No Shame

by Tom Allen

(Muggers always want to get away quickly, especially from me because I looked like a very purposeful, slightly aggressive Isambard Kingdom Brunel.)

The misery of the past and the suffering and oppression of generations of powerless people is so important to understand if we are ever to value how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.

I was no Hemingway, but I was already showing signs of being a judgey little bitch.

You can’t just walk up to someone and say, ‘Hello, would you like to be my friend?’ because even as children the first thing we are taught is that this is exactly how perverts greet you.

I was like Dorothy stepping out of that windswept house to find the world in glorious Technicolor – but rather than a house, I was stepping out of Holloway Road Tube station and in place of upbeat munchkins and representatives of the Lollipop Guild, I encountered a man with no trousers and an old lady shouting at a bin.

For example, he will often end telephone conversations by saying, ‘I’m bored of you now!’ which, while efficient, can sometimes seem a little abrupt.

The water sprayed over the car, and cast jets of soapy water high above us, making us feel like we were in a Bromley version of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas.

The initial look of pride quickly fading from their faces as it dawned on them that I would now be allowed on the road on my own.