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Cleo Howard #4

The Y2K Diary Of Cleo Howard

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Wasn’t it Lemmy from Motörhead who said “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”?* The fourth and final volume of Cleo Howard’s teenage diaries sees our red haired heroine through the year 2000 in which she takes her A Level exams and has to decide whether to go to uni or not (and in the year 2000, a university education is still free for those smart enough to pass their A Levels). Tony Blair is Prime Minister, Britpop and Cool Britannia are on the wane, the Spice Girls have split up but are still ubiquitous individually, Britney Spears V Christina Aguilera is the big musical debate, the Millennium Dome and Millennium Bridge open and Giant Rolos are invented. What a time to be alive! Cleo moans about the musical taste of her class mates, she sees Slipknot (twice!), Kittie and Motörhead. She goes to Glastonbury and sees Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Bloodhound Gang and Methods Of Mayhem. At Reading Festival she sees Rage Against The Machine and watches Daphne and Celeste get bottled offstage. She considers asking for a job at Joe Bananas’ blanket shop. Cleo muses on what’s weird in life. She writes about the differences between the middle class and working class often through the prism of what they have for dinner at Jenni’s. She supports best mate Ian’s band WhyY2K. She writes some very bad teenage poetry, goes to Blockbuster video shop and Woolworths. She eats many a Spira and Cadburys Marble. If you like music, nostalgia and peeking at other people’s diaries then this book is for you. *No, it was L.P. Hartley in The Go-between, but Cleo Howard doesn’t know this.

223 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

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About the author

Sarah Tipper

18 books6 followers
Sarah Tipper was born in Oxford in 1974 and was very nearly called Robert. She enjoyed school, especially any classes that involved writing and that did not involve wearing shorts. She once sniggered her way through an entire assignment about the Cerne Abbas giant. At age thirteen Sarah started listening to metal. She was lightly teased for wearing tight jeans and an Anthrax or Slayer T shirt. This didn't bother her, she felt safe from the Bros dross culture other teenagers at the time were so keen on. Sarah's religion is heavy metal. Her favourite biscuit is the chocolate shortcake ring. The best gigs she's ever been to were Suicidal Tendencies, Manowar, Dedlok and Bolt-Thrower. She can't cope with the responsibility of having a pet but if she could she'd have a ginger rabbit called Ronnie (after Ronnie James Dio).

Sarah studied Psychology at the University of Reading. She missed her graduation ceremony because it clashed with seeing Black Sabbath. She went on to graduate with a Masters in Health Psychology from Coventry University. Luckily this didn't clash with anything and her Mum got a nice day out.

During the day Sarah does cancer research, squirting things at other things in a science type way. She started writing her first novel because a friend kept telling her to write a book and because another friend had inspired her to write a "things to do before you're forty list" and write a book made it on to this list.

Eviscerated Panda - A Metal Tale was written after twenty-four years of experience of going to gigs and drinking in rock pubs and twenty-five years experience of listening to metal. It was hugely enjoyable to write and Sarah hopes to create heavymetalworld, much like Terry Pratchett created Discworld. The sequel to Eviscerated Panda is half written. The author photo was taken by the lovely Bernie Galewski during a strange evening that involved giant pencils and a glittery skull.

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