Fragments is a collection of thirteen short stories that somehow miraculously survived the long journey I took them on, some from as far back as 1989, two from 1997 and the others from 1999, until very recently, that's to say I wrote them under adverse circumstances and managed to cling onto them by putting them all into booklets. The first six, from the spring/summer 1989 while I was living in a squat in Hackney in east London, are: 'Slight dreams of a Northern bastard', 'Crawling king snake', 'Preparations', 'Baptism by fire', 'Foray' and 'Maxine'. I sold a few copies at Compendium bookshop in Camden High Street in London in 1989. 'I walk the line' and 'Roman Road' were written in 1997 after I'd left London for good and was living in Darlington. The remaining five - 'Confessions of a rock n roll star', 'In the year 5749', 'Thatcher killed my Grandad', 'The Gospel according to David' and 'Unknown writer on the dole' - all come from 1999.