Scarlet West is the author of I’d like to thank Manchester Air Rifles, a memoir written over the course of 10 years. The book, published by Grey Tiger Books, documents her inner and outer life throughout the time she has lived in Leyton and Leytonstone.
When did you start keeping a diary?
I was about 12 when I first started keeping a diary, no one ever found it so no one ever read it. I had to clear out my room in my mum’s house not too long ago, and I picked them all up and thought “oh God this is embarrassing”. I thought about burning them, but then decided that I better keep them.
What is the book about?
It’s a diary written over 10 years of my life living in Leytonstone. I wrote it in different Internet cafes and libraries because I didn’t have a computer when I moved here.
How did you stay consistent in writing it?
Well, J.K. Rowling wrote hers in cafes long hand, and she also got rejected loads of times. She’s not my personal inspiration, since I’ve never read a Harry Potter book before or seen the films, but I really like Charles Bukowski, and if you like his books then you’ll like this too. I’d say he was an influence, but a lot of the time I didn’t read anything because I think sometimes if you read too much of what you’re into, you can lose your own voice.
What does the title ‘I’d like to thank Manchester Air Rifles’ mean?
I’m originally from Oldham, which is six miles north from Manchester. On my way to Manchester, which was a 20 minute bus ride, I used to pass a shop called ‘Manchester Air Guns’. And when I thought of the book, I didn’t want the title to mean anything or give anything away – some people might think it’s about the military or something. I’m a big fan of The Catcher in the Rye, and I don’t really think the name means anything either, the intellectuals might say there is but I didn’t find any direct link.
Did you study at university at all?
No, never. I dropped out of my A Levels after the first year and just have been working at different places. I used to work in a lot of call centres, and I found that so many of the people working there already had graduated with degrees but weren’t finding any jobs.
What sort of attitude does a writer need to complete and publish a book?
I can’t really speak for myself because this book is just an accident because it was never meant to be. I was just writing a bit every day, sometimes with gaps of a couple of months, so there are entire months missing there. The book itself was never planned, it just came out that way because the publisher found it on the internet, and they came to me and asked if I was interested in publishing it.
What challenges did you have to overcome in the completion of this book?
One hard thing for me about completing and publishing this book was the editing, because I’m a procrastinator and never get round to doing it – I leave everything till the last minute. I had to read through it all and it’s a big book, but the hardest part was going back to difficult times and reading about what kinda things I’d got up to and what risks had been taken, and the bad things I’d done. I liked what was written in it but in editing it, I took out a lot of the dodgy parts.
What’s your favourite part of the book?
My favourite part I think is at the end, but the thing about this book is that you can sort of pick it up and start reading it from anywhere, it doesn’t have to be from the beginning. Because it was written as a journal, you’d read it backwards anyway, most people would start at the most recent thing and then work their way back. But I would say the best part is at the end because throughout the whole book it’s kind of building up to something that happens then.
Do you intend to publish more of your diary?
Yes, I’ve got a prequel that’s gonna be out once I’ve done the rounds with this one, I’ve nearly finished editing it now. It’s about the same length but just maybe a bit shorter, it’s funnier than this current one.
What would you say is the aim of publishing your life experiences?
A lot of it is about loneliness and isolation, and alcoholism as well. I just wanted to give my side of the story to the person that everyone sees stumbling about drunk on the streets, there is a deeper story. I just felt like I needed to write it and during the time they offered me the opportunity to get it out in the open, I’d been going to the job centre at Walthamstow where they put me on this presentation course at Whipps Cross hospital, and I had to act all professional going in a business suit and doing these PowerPoint presentations. And it just wasn’t me, and that book, if a potential employer read it they’d think ‘I’m not going anywhere near this person’. But as I decided that I didn’t want to be a professional working in an office, I thought I’m just gonna do what I like even though I might struggle for money sometimes. The DJ-ing is pretty lucrative, though, so that’s always good.
What are the things that mean a lot to you?
Music is a big part of my life, it’s what I did when I dropped out of my A Levels, I did a diploma in Pop Music which was only a year but it was to keep the kids off the streets. I’m in a band, and I do a lot of music and I have been doing it since I was 17. My band’s called Scarlet Realm, we usually play at the Leytonstone Festival, we played at All You Read Is Love last time too, but we’re taking a break from it now. I’m also collaborating with Dave Ball, from another band called Soft Sound, from the 1980s.
How did you make the move from Oldham to Leytonstone?
I moved to Leyton first of all, I think the internet was still new so most people advertised for rooms in a magazine called Loot, so I used to get that and there was a room on there in Leyton for £57 a week all inclusive plus £2 for electricity so when that was out I’d get me some candles on the go. There was no central heating or anything, it was freezing and there were mice, then when the mice left we got rats but I put up with it because I thought “London’s just like that”. I only knew this girl that I met in a nightclub, and I’d only met her a couple of times, and I told her I wanted to move to London just cause I wanted to get away from my mum who was nagging at me. I moved two days after my 21st birthday, so I slept on a settee for a fortnight and each time I’d come back from looking for a room she’d be like ‘oh gosh, you’ve not found one yet?’ so I guess she just wanted her own space back. And then I found that place in Leyton, and put up with it for about two years and then they sold the shop. So I had to quickly look for an alternative and found an ad for a room in Leytonstone that was £60 a week all inclusive. I’m still living there now but they’ve put the rent up to £85. I had been working in a nightclub in Manchester so I had a tax return of £400 that I had saved up for my move to London instead of spending it on clothes and stuff. At some point I was working for about £2 an hour and they kept saying I’ll get it back in the tax return and I didn’t have it for ages so when it did come I thought this is it, I’ll move now.
How do you finding living in Leytonstone?
Leytonstone is paradise compared to Oldham, absolute paradise. I love it here. My mum loves it too when she comes down to visit, she says ‘oh if only I could afford a house here’. It’s becoming really expensive though, the room I moved into when I first moved here 12 years ago was more or less the cheapest you could get anywhere.
What has changed most in your 12 years of living here?
The people. I couldn’t believe it but there was a hipster-type person walking down my street. So the people have changed mainly, but they’re being shoved here because rent is becoming more expensive everywhere else too.
In the book, are there any links to the political atmosphere of any particular time?
Sort of, actually. I’d threatened to assassinate Gordon Brown, the then Prime Minister, but I blocked out his name with asterisks. You can see the initials, but I just thought I’d do it as a joke. I was after seeing if the police would read it and catch me out and question me, but I don’t think they ever saw it. I don’t know what was going through my mind, but there are lots of bits like that. It was just a way of checking if anyone was reading it, no one was.
Do you get involved in politics much?
There was a group of MPs that used to come down to my disco, from the Labour Party, and we used to do karaoke. I didn’t know what they were, I thought they were businessmen, they’d always wear suits and then I was watching the telly one evening then I said ‘Hey! He comes to the club and we do karaoke sometimes!’ There was a whole group of them, they all used to work in parliament and yeah we’d have a right laugh. But they were so kind, and one of them started reading my journal and there was one point in it where I had no money whatsoever and I was single so I didn’t have friends I could rely on. Poor me. So he read that, and I had written how hungry I was and how I had no money for food, I probably spent it all the night before on alcohol or something, so he used to bring down a food parcel for me and leave it at the club. Very kind. I’ll keep his name a secret cause I don’t wanna get him into trouble but he was very kind. I used to think all MPs were just out there for themselves and especially now when you see how they are, but after that I thought he’s one of the good guys. I’m not saying the Labour Party in general, there’s individuals in each party, and I thought ‘he’s one of them’. This was in 2007. So politically, I try and keep out of it but I’ve got my own opinions on things. My boyfriend’s really into George Galloway, and my friend who’s mentioned in the book a lot used to work for Press TV, now he works for Russia Today, and his brother used to work for CNN, now he works at Al-Jazeera. So they just talk non-stop about politics whenever I’m out with them.
Are you a person that joins protests/strikes and signs petitions?
I don’t do protests cause I hate crowds, but my friend is a busker in Dublin and they’re doing a crackdown on buskers there. So recently I signed a petition to support them because that’s how they make their living. And when I was at school, I used to be really anti animal testing.
Do you vote, and would you encourage the youth of today to vote too?
I always vote because my grandma was a suffragette, and she chained herself to some railings. She didn’t get done for protesting, she got done for stealing the chains, which is really weird because when I was growing up she was an elderly woman, devout Catholic, and you wouldn’t think she’d do something like that, but I think she must have felt so passionate about votes for women. Yeah, I definitely do encourage others and especially young people to vote. You would think that it doesn’t make a difference, but it does.
If you had to describe your book in three words, what would they be?
Loneliness, squalor and alcoholism.
Scarlet West was talking to Kay Ayed.