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 Caitlin Davies |
A candid look at the secrets kept between friends
Friends Like Us.
By Caitlin Davies.
Simon and Schuster £6.99
HANGING around the exits of West End night clubs on a school night does not sound like the usual research novelists do for their craft – but hearing about such a chore was a crucial part of putting together the background for her new novel, Highgate-based writer Caitlin Davies admits.
Davies, who writes for the Independent, spent time researching the life and times of a breed of photographers whose stock in the eyes of the public could not fall any further – yet whose work is one of the daily staples of the entire media industry.
Previously Davies had written a memoir about the 12 years she spent living in Botswana: now she has turned her attentions closer to home. Her latest novel, Friends Like Us, charts the relationships between four life-long friends who have pledged loyalty to one another – but have secrets that even best friends can’t share.
Set in the Dartmouth Park area (where Davies grew up) with a climax that takes place on the Holly Lodge estate, the novel draws on themes of privacy in a world where private lives seem to be public business and friends don’t know how to share secrets, as confidences are no longer worth very much.
The novel also features a character who is a paparazzo – hence a six-month stint meeting as many press photographers as possible so Davies could credibly recreate the professional life of a celebrity snapper.
She quickly discovered it wasn’t avoiding the flying fists of angry celebs or taking shots of ministers scratching their bottoms or picking their noses that would grace the front pages the following day.
“I went on a couple of the circuits to see what it was like and it is a very macho world,” she says. “You have to be very aggressive.
“Of course, a lot of it is actually dead boring,” she admits. “There is a lot of waiting around and trying to put off answering the call of nature for as long as possible, so you don’t miss that crucial shot.”
Davies, while now firmly ensconced in the area where she grew up, spent a long time away from North London. As well as living in Africa, she had a stint in California. It was partly being able to consider how much society in London had changed while she was away that gave her further ammunition for the book.
One issue that she acknowledged was much more pronounced today from London of her earlier life was the cult of celebrity. It stunned her when she returned from Botswana.
“In Botswana, there is simply no such thing as a celebrity,” she recalls.
“When I returned, there was suddenly Big Brother and all these new magazines.
“I found it all so bizarre. In Botswana even footballers and models are not celebrities. People may know what these public figures are up to privately but just do not publish it – unlike in Britain.”
Davies also thinks the popularity of pictures that show someone up to no good, or with bad hair, pulling a terrible face or having a Janet Jackson-style wardrobe malfunction says something about the British character and our approach to fame.
“We seem to like people to be successful so we can then knock them down,” she says.
“We have an insatiable appetite for that, and there is nothing really off limits any more.”
Dan Carrier
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