It's World Book Day today and the children at my son's school
have to dress as their favourite characters from literature.
Friends' offspring are planning to be: Alice in Wonderland,
Angelina Ballerina, The Cat in the Hat, Winnie the Witch. My pride
and joy insists he will be nothing but one of Lord Voldemort's
Death Eaters.
'Cos, that's not a difficult costume to put together in a couple
of days, is it?
It's also another reminder of what I've been worrying about for
some time. My son is a whole lot darker than the average 8 year
old.
So far, I think I've been able to keep this dark side contained.
(I put my foot down when he wanted his last birthday cake to
feature a mutilated Terminator.) But I've always known there'll
come a time when I have to be a whole lot more careful about what
he's exposed to.
I suspect that time might have arrived.
Earlier this week he needed some geography research material, so
I printed a few pages off the internet and sent him to school with
it. I really should have checked the reverse of the paper. I use
paper twice, you understand, and I'd filled my printer's paper tray
with a draft version of my latest book. When he got home that
night, I discovered exactly what I'd sent in to my son's Roman
Catholic primary school: the scene that deals with gang rape, knife
crime, drug taking and lesbian sex. Jesus wept! (to use an
expression rather frowned upon by said school)
Luckily, I don't think anyone spotted it, but if the expulsion
papers arrive in the next week, I'll know otherwise.
He knows full well that mummy writes books he's not allowed to
read until he's 21. And that I have a lot of reference material
he's not allowed to look at either and so far, he's been very good
about it, even letting me know when I leave things lying around.
But there'll come a point when curiosity gets the better of
him.
I guess this is a problem crime writers come across a lot. We
deal with some very dark subject matter. We often have young
children. Keeping the two separate can be a challenge.
It might be time to invest in a big cupboard with a strong
lock.
Perhaps not surprisingly, everything we needed to put together a
superb Death Eater costume was in the house and assembled within
five minutes. Another reminder, as if we needed one, of the
prevailing culture Chez Bolton.