I have to admit I was a little nervous walking into a room to meet people I haven’t seen in 37 years, but the truth is I needn’t have been, it wasn’t after all an episode of ‘Catfish’ and everyone was exactly who they claimed to be on their Facebook profile in fact I’d go so far to say that they looked even better in the flesh. The next five hours flew by as we swapped stories, shared memories and beers and generally had a good time. We may have even got around to discussing plans for a reunion at some point. It says a lot about the fantastic people I shared my school years with that after 37 years we could meet up and pick off where we left off as if we’d walked out the school gates yesterday.
From our humble beginnings in an inner city school we’ve spread out across at least three continents and each and every one of us has in our own way gone on to do some pretty amazing things. Sadly we’ve lost a few good friends along the way and I’m sure we’ll be raising a glass to absent friends at the full reunion. But I think the fact that the class of 72 have all made something of their lives is a tribute to both our generation and our teachers.
The world has changed so much in so many ways since we left school, email, internet, mobiles, Smartphone’s, Facebook, the list goes on, but one the one thing that hasn’t are the friendships we forged back then, because in the final analyst technology is just a means to an end.
Back on the writing front I’ve taken a short break before setting about revising and editing Exiles ready for publication and spent the week revisiting Rebels to correct a few minor typo’s that slipped through the edit when it was published back in November. So look out for the revised edition in the next few weeks which will also include the prologue and first chapter of Exiles.
Finally with the two books now spanning a 150,000 words I’ve decided to create a series bible to keep track of all the locations, characters and plot lines (There’s only so much I can keep in my head) before embarking on the next instalment Reunions.