In 1966 […] I was reading graffiti in the waiting room at Alderley Edge Station. One, done in chalk, was: “Janet Heathcoat = Alan Flask. It is true.” Somebody had added, in silver lipstick, without punctuation or a capital letter: “not really now not any more”. And the sky fell on me. The result was the novel Red Shift, six years’ work, finished in 1972.
from a great piece by Alan Garner on creativity, in the New Statesman here.
Memo to self: re-read Red Shift this summer.
A.D. Harper 