Shouting Down The Darkness

by Nigel Hare, Wingerworth Writers' Association

James Hardy comes from a single parent family. He is bullied by his peers and hates school, so he escapes over the fence. Close to his sixteenth birthday he is seen and chased by a policeman. He escapes into the clutches of a dominatrix by the name of Miss Campbell. And his adventure into adulthood begins.Shouting down the Darkness is a coming-of-age drama. Set in the early eighties at a time of high unemployment and economic downturn which the town of Stone Meadows is suffering like every other town in Middle England. Jimmy Hardy struggles with social isolation and a lack of prospects from a lack of qualifications. He is drawn through the people he meets into a darker world of crime and violence. Full of enemies including his peers, police and other criminals, can he survive or even prosper?James Hardy is a working class angry young man. He is a reader of the kitchen sink dramas of the post-war era. These are the characters he feels an affinity to. That speak to him. Yet the world they had inhabited was changing rapidly around him.With the factories going, retail closing, and without the athletism to escape his circumstances he can take the only option presented to him. The new working class angry young man, no longer fights against the system. His war is against a society that could not keep his mother in his life.

404 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2021

About the author

I grew up on a council estate, a middle child with four siblings. My mother did not go to work until I was at senior school, I remember many arguements between them on the subject. But that was the world I grew up in. That England of the seventies has changed beyond recognition.
I left school with limited qualifications, very limited. It was the eighties and I experienced a few years of unemployment. Following this came a lot of jobs. I bounced from one to another only keeping them for two years at the most. Once I joined Royal Mail I found something I could enjoy. Half of my work time is spent delivering. This gives me time to think as well as listen to music on my ipod. Twenty years and I have no wish to do anything else until I retire.
That is why I self-publish. I have never sort a publisher because I expect they would insist I leave my job to promote the work.
I have always been creative. First with music, writing songs on various instruments - on the whole self taught - and playing to an audience. There comes a time in life when you have to accept that music is just for listening and, unless you are already a rock star you should retire.
I told my daughter stories when she was young, usually making them up. I neve felt the need to write them down, then. But as she matured, got married and started her own family, I found more time on my hands. I started to write, not children's stories yet, but stories that I felt I would enjoy reading.
Stories about working-class people. People struggling, with life, love and everyday. They were once called 'kitchen sink dramas' or angry young men. I'm not saying that is what I will always write. I enjoy reading many different genres, like the music I listen to. Variety makes an interesting life.
I never thought about publishing until a friend asked me to help her publish.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nigel-Hare/e...

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Reviews

[wingerworth writers association Writers · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent tale of a young man emerging from the shell of childhood into adulthood. Through the people he meets he changes from a scared, but defiant boy into a confident young man. His journey sends him to the darker aspects of society with crime and women.