Somebody Always Drowns

A very different piece, this. It’s not autobiographical per se, but safe to say I was not in a good place when I wrote it and neither were a lot of the people I knew.

Given that, I think its probably best if I note that information on drug, alcohol and mental health services from the NHS can be found here, here and here, and the UK number for the Samaritans is 116 123, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There are people who will listen, and can help, and it can get better. It did for me.

Thanks to Eleanor Hope-Jones, Holly Parsons, Becky Beynon-Lewis, Mel Ciavucco and Esme Betamax for the feedback (even – perhaps especially – the bits I decided not to use); Es in particular is owed a very special thank-you for “bellend”.

Thanks also to Anthony Smith, for allowing me to use more of his experiences working in a contact centre than may have been prudent, and Peter Gibbs and Nathan Richards, for their help workshopping some of the dialogue.

If you’d like to hear a recording of me reading an abridged version of this story, Stokes Croft Writers’ Talking Tales even has a YouTube Channel here – the video is the one for the event on 20^th February 2016.

Link to .pdf