Only Strange People Go to Church (28 page)

What is the significance of the title? Does it imply provocation? And who are the ‘strange people’?

‘People in Hexton never speak to Blue Group. Apart from the odd chorus of Spot the Loony from hooligans, the populace largely shuns them. Hextors seem to believe that mental disability is contagious, keeping their distance and averting their eyes when Maria and her clients pass by. Shopkeepers speak only to Maria, and even then, reluctantly.’ Why do you think this is?

What is Maria doing when she meditates?

How helpful do you think Maria’s spiritual advisers are? Is it important that her spiritual advisors be wise people in real life? How does it affect her relationship with spirit-guide Arlene when Maria discovers real-life Arlene’s background?

What are the problems affecting the people of Hexton? And why do they love to sing?

Why does Mike have so little faith in Blue Group becoming integrated into the wider community?

Why is Mike so hostile to Pastor McKenzie and his group?

What are your first impressions of Dezzie and how do they change?

What’s Ray’s role in the story? He says he believes in ‘faith ’n community’: how is this manifested?

Why is Alice so hardboiled? And what softens her?

Do you think it’s true that the young people of Hexton have a harder time than the pensioners?

Who are the good guys in the story, who are the bad guys and do the lines between them ever get blurred?

What greater purpose does the snooker table serve in the church?

Does Maria respect the rules and authority figures? With what consequences?

How much sexual freedom, support and opportunity should people with disabilities have?

Parents and guardians of the centre’s clients have very different perceptions of their child’s disability – from Brian’s dad’s violence to Martin’s parent’s
laissez-faire
approach. What, in your view, would be most appropriate?

Why does Bert ask Maria to keep his condition a secret?

The story begins and ends with inappropriate sexual behaviour. How do Maria’s reactions to these events differ?

What do you believe were Dezzie’s motives in his behaviour with Brian? Does Dezzie show humanity or does he have a God complex? Is it his fatal flaw?

Are there any other messiah-like characters in the story?

Does Maria make the right decision in the end?

By the time I began what was to become
Only Strange People Go to
Church
I was getting paid actual money to write novels. This gave me the freedom to work from anywhere, and so I decided to fulfil a lifelong dream and move to Spain. I randomly chose Barcelona and, I’m now willing to admit, perhaps this was a bit rash. I’d never been to Barcelona; I spoke little Spanish and even less Catalan, but worst of all, I didn’t have a single friend or contact there. I arrived in the city with nothing more than my laptop, my creative genius and a clean change of underwear.

Despite my impulsive decision, things turned out OK. I found somewhere to live and began writing. Knowing nobody in Barcelona turned out to be a good thing: lonely for the company of my family and friends, my laptop became my new best friend. I told my laptop everything and we had many long and entertaining, albeit one-sided, conversations. The only thing that disturbed these cosy chats was the noise from the street.

I began to notice that Barcelona people were always celebrating something or other. At least once a month all my neighbours were out in the street having a music
fiesta
, a poetry contest, a religious ceremony or an acrobatics display. There was always something going on. They even had a festival to celebrate leeks. They had leek-eating contests –
Calçotada
– and huge street parties where everyone sat at long trestle tables and enjoyed eating leeks together. Everyone except me, that is. I stood outside this community, my nose pressed hard against the glass, and it made me think of the community I had left behind in Glasgow.

Some years previously, in the Govan area of Glasgow, I had produced two large-scale community shows not unlike Maria’s Diva Extravaganza. I worked with my business partner and close friend John Grant. While John rehearsed the schoolkids in circus skills, I took the drama group from the local adult training centre.
Although I was never a key worker I regularly worked with and got to know a group of mentally disabled people and we produced comedy skits and sketches for the show. A week before the curtain went up, my partner John was killed in a car crash.

The show must go on. I knew that if I stopped and let myself properly take in John’s death, the show would collapse. There were an awful lot of people involved: individual performers, the church choir, bhangra dancers, a disabled drama group, mothers and toddlers, the pensioner glee club and the retired musician’s orchestra – a whole community, in fact. They had worked so hard at writing their material, sewing sequins on their costumes and honing their performances. How could I let them down? John would never have wanted that.

The performances were of course dedicated to John, and I confess that at the end of each show, on making the dedication speech, a golf ball always somehow got lodged in my throat, but I never shed a tear.

In the real life show there were none of the bad guys of the novel: no Aldo or Mike, no McGraw or Ronald – and there was no Dezzie either, thank goodness. The Dezzie/Brian scenario was entirely fictional, I hasten to add, but I was interested in the idea. I wasn’t entirely sure myself how I felt about such a relationship: it was a tricky one, and I was keen to explore it.

I located the novel in the fictional town of Hexton, the idea being that a hex – a curse or magic charm – had fallen over the town: the curse when the factory shut down; the magic charm when the mysterious figure of Ray appears. This was based on the wee town of Kinlochleven that I had visited when walking the West Highland Way. Kinlochleven once had a thriving aluminium-smelting plant, but when I passed through it was like a ghost town, neglected and depressed, the people and businesses abandoned.

I was excited about writing a story in which the main characters, mentally disabled people, are often invisible in our society. Writing convincing characters is daunting enough; to make them seem real they have to feel complex and a bit contradictory. I wanted to paint a ‘warts and all’ picture. I knew that it would seem cruel
to criticise those who are already disadvantaged, but neither did I want to portray anyone as unnaturally innocent, as if they were saints. I wanted to show what I knew from my own experience: that disabled people are funny, wilful, smart, selfish, kind and incredibly annoying; exactly the same as the rest of us.

My original publishers were initially nervous about the concept. The Brian/Dezzie storyline made them distinctly uncomfortable, and the idea of a comedy based around a group of mentally disabled people freaked them out. But tone is everything, and once they had read early drafts and were assured that I wasn’t exploiting disability or taking cheap shots at anyone, they came on board.

When I produced the show in Glasgow it was a wonderfully exciting and desperately sad time. I believe the heightened emotion kept every moment of it crystal clear in my mind. Later, in Barcelona, I realised that
Only Strange People Go to Church
was a story I had been bursting to write for many years. The novel is a tribute to everyone involved, but especially to my good friend John Grant.

NO WONDER I TAKE A DRINK

NOBODY LOVES A GINGER BABY

MY BEST FRIEND HAS ISSUES

Published by Saraband

Laura Marney tries to do a good deed every day. Occasionally bad deeds do accidentally slip in, but there you go, nobody’s perfect. She is the author of four novels: this one and
No Wonder I Take a Drink, Nobody Loves a Ginger Baby
and
My Best Friend Has Issues
. She also writes short stories and drama for radio and the stage. She lives in Glasgow and holds a part-time post at Glasgow University.

In memory of John Grant, a terrific co-worker and great friend, who made the show such a success and made dreams come true. Thanks to Stuart McDonald for the room with the best view in the world and to Francesca Liversidge for the advice I wish I’d taken first time around. Newly arrived in Barcelona ready to spend the next three months finishing the book, I had a bizarre accident involving a skateboard and a giant television set. This resulted in me cradling a broken wrist for several months. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my nurse, my scribe, my minder and my wing man. These were all the same person: my best pal David Ramos Fernandes.