If I Fall Back Down: A Punk Rock Memoir

by Raven Taylor

Tobi and Morven have nothing in common, or so it would seem.Tobias Grave—a punk-rock legend who is pushing thirty—is the frontman of The Radicals. He has spent half his life on the streets battling with drink and drug problems and the other half touring Europe with his band.Eighteen-year-old Morven Strike grew up on a council estate on the edge of Edinburgh and was never really into punk music. She has had…well, a pretty normal life so far. Yet, their relationship works—for a while, at least—until it all comes crashing down around them.Motherless at a young age, an abusive, alcoholic father, the loss of good friends to drinks and drugs, and his own addictions, are just a few of the challenges Tobi has had to deal with. After all that, he would be able to handle anything life threw at him…wouldn’t he? But the loss of the love of his life to a group of racist skinheads proves to be his biggest trial yet.This is a story that will embrace all your emotions—compassion, outrage, sympathy, and hope—as you follow Morven and Tobi along their turbulent path to a dramatic conclusion.

340 pages, Paperback

Published June 22, 2020

About the author

Raven Taylor is a British novelist writing character-driven social realism rooted in emotional truth rather than spectacle. Her work explores love, loyalty, masculinity, and inherited trauma, often set around music and subculture, but focused squarely on relationships and moral ambiguity rather than nostalgia.

Her novels examine people who love badly, cling fiercely, and struggle to reconcile who they were with who they are trying to become. She is particularly interested in chosen families, the afterlives of subculture, and the ways grief, guilt, and belonging shape adult identity.

Raven’s writing is uncompromising but compassionate, refusing neat redemption arcs while remaining deeply invested in the humanity of her characters. She lives and works in the North of England.