Fact or Fiction...Phyl and George.

I was 26 when I wrote my first autobiography. I didn't market it as an autobiography, of course. Who's going to believe that by the age of 26 anyone would have enough material to fill a book?

The m/s kept coming back unread because novice authors are not considered skilled enough to write in the first person - so said all the agents in South Africa at the time.

On opening up the 5th refusal citing this as the reason, I kinda lost it, strode to my computer and wrote back that I didn't give a damn what some people could or could not do - only in what I could do. And I bloody well COULD write in the first person.

Thus began a wonderful relationship with Frances Bond who became my agent, and remained so until her untimely death.

But, we didn't see eye to eye on her perception of two of the characters - Phil and George. She kept telling me to tone them down, and insisted that they were OTT as characters and the kinds of things that happened to them were so bizarre they weren't credible.

It was only after I'd 'fessed up and admitted I hadn't written a novel but a true tale; AND after she had met both Phyl and George, that she admitted that I'd got them to a tee.

So the bit about George being declared pregnant by the RAF doctor in Egypt was perfectly true. As was that of Phyl being introduced to Princess Diana, on her way home from Tesco.

Both m/s and all the photos which proved my point having gone up in smoke it struck me that there are very few people left now to tell Phyl & George stories - so I'm going to do so, here and there. If anyone comes across them they can view them as fiction, or accept them as fact.

George is the Dad who, at a party, persuaded one of the guests to help me with a homework project over the phone; and even called in for some re-enforcement on certain points. The guest was an old friend. His name was John Lennon. The friends were George Harrison and Ringo Starr. (I was given Detention for telling porkies when the teacher asked who'd helped me and I told her.)

Phyl is the Mum who on board a ship once, when a dodgy meal struck the Cabaret suddenly and devastatingly one evening, nonchalantly donned the Captain's jacket and cap and entertained the entire crowd for the allotted hour and a half.

Really?

Well, I've exhausted my cache of pictures which randomly escaped the fire. Got nothing else, from herein in, to prove they even existed. Let alone had all the jolly japes and admirable adventures that was their life story as well as mine.

Am writing up The Tale of Flying Fernando now, so watch out for it. OTT or not - it's a ripping yarn!

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