I have known most of the characters in this book for as long as it has taken to write. Jem pointed out that I have lived with the Pogues longer than I lived with my own family. The people in the book are my family. My dreams have featured Shane more often than my dad for some time now.
This book is a work of creative non-fiction. I have tried to revivify the events and characters in it using the tools and the sensibilities of a fiction writer. According to the demands of the narrative I have recreated episodes, conversations and environments. In order to reproduce the spirit of an event, I have conflated a number of similar, recurring situations and exchanges.
Above all, it is a memoir. It is how I have remembered the twelve years of my life it covers.