This year, I completed my bucket list.
There was only one thing on it. Publish a book.
My memoir Atypical Girl came out in March, traditionally published (by Polygon) which made me feel like a Proper Author.
It’s felt like an adventure. I’ve done a lot of things I’ve never done before and that I would never have thought of doing.
One of them was interviewing another author for his own book launch. I met Tony Fletcher on Substack, and recently did the “in conversation” for the Liverpool leg of his book tour. Tony’s documented his journeys on Substack, so I thought I should do the same for mine.
Some if it’s a bit hazy now - I wish I could remember all the questions that people have asked - but I’ll try and remember what I can.
March – the launch
My book is published on 3rd March which is also the day of my first launch event which is, of course, in Liverpool.
Paul Cook, a friend of a friend, had contacted me about doing an event at the British Music Experience, a music museum in the historic Cunard Building at the Pier Head.
I asked for News from Nowhere to be the bookseller for the evening. I know Julie, who works there, from the Eric’s days. And I always want to support independent bookshops. Especially if they are also a radical & community bookshop. Norman Killon, ex-Eric’s DJ and also my ex-husband, offered to DJ in the bar afterwards.
Back in November 2024, Jeff Young and I had agreed that he’d do the Q&A. It was one of those pub conversation decisions that actually end up happening. Jeff had been in Oxford doing a talk about his own book, Wild Twin, and we’d gone afterwards to the White Horse, the pub next door to Blackwell’s bookshop.
While we were there, someone from Blackwell’s asked what my book was about. “Punk rock, Liverpool and trying to be normal”, I said, which is the subtitle of the book. I realised that was a bit too brief. I would have to learn how to talk about the book properly.
So in 2025 I did a training course at the Society of Authors called “Professional Development – Speaking with presence and poise: confident communication for authors”. It was incredibly useful. I spent a lot of time on my homework.
Liverpool and Chester
I arrive in Liverpool the day before with John, my husband. We’re staying in the Travelodge on Aigburth Road, which is convenient for Liverpool South station and convenient for the city centre and also happens to be over the road from where we used to live. Which is a bit weird. There’s a pub/Toby Carvery next door which we used to try and avoid going in. It wasn’t the sort of place you’d consider your “local”.
When we lived there, we were more likely to go to Keith’s wine bar in Lark Lane, a short bus ride away. And that’s where we arrange to meet Jeff to talk over our plans for the event. Keith’s is one of the few old haunts of ours which is a) still there and b) unchanged. Lark Lane, on the edge of Sefton Park, has changed a lot. In the 80s and 90s, when I used to live there, it was a slightly bohemian area where a lot of musicians lived. Today, it’s full of restaurants. The chippy I used to go to is still there. The butcher, greengrocer and newsagent are not.
Jeff has asked me to bring some memorabilia. Memory is a big theme of his own books, especially the award-winning Wild Twin. We look at some of my home-made badges (which are mentioned in the book) and an old Smash Hits with Pete Wylie on the cover.
The next morning John and I get the bus to the city centre for an interview at Radio Merseyside. The bus is late, and we get there with minutes to spare. I’m almost too stressed about getting there on time to be nervous about the interview. Live radio is way out of my comfort zone, but Presenter Tony Snell is brilliant and puts me at my ease. He must be one of the few journalists in Liverpool who still knows who I am (from when I used to work there as a journalist) and isn’t retired. The producer has asked me what record I want to open the interview with. I choose Story of the Blues by Wah! At the end, Tony plays The Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen.
Afterwards, John and I have time to admire the new corporate BBC building, a bit different from the shabby HQ where people would pile into a tiny studio to watch live bands as part of Janice Long’s Streetlife programme. There’s a dalek in the foyer. Time for selfies. I also take a photo outside the building next to a banner saying “United by music”.
Then we walk up Bold Street and I’m a bit in “I need to breathe” mode. We call into News from Nowhere, where my book is on display on a table of new non-fiction. This is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened in my entire life. I am high as a kite by this point.
Up the road, we get a coffee in Café Tabac and sit in the window. “I think I might cry,” I say to John. Then I do. Then it’s fine. “This is the second-best day of my life,” I tell him. The first one was when we met.
There’s an exhibition in Café Tabac of photos of Dead or Alive by Francesco Mellina, their former manager and also an ace photographer. There are also murals relating to the Liverpool music scene with pictures of my old Eric’s compatriots Jayne Casey and Pete Wylie. I feel a bit at home here.
It’s all a bit emotionally exhausting so we rest at the hotel in the afternoon. In the evening we meet Paul and he shows us round the museum. My favourite exhibit is Suzi Quatro’s leathers.
The evening is everything I could have wanted. There are so many people in the audience. I think I’ve probably met most of them when I lived in Liverpool. The BME post a photo on Facebook the next day and it’s my favourite photo of myself ever, because I’ve never looked so happy.
“How does it feel?” is Jeff’s first question. “Exciting,” I say.
Later he tells the audience how much he likes the book. “This is poetry”, he says, reading an extract: ‘Spent the evening drinking Jack Daniel’s, listening to Johnny Burnette and making paper chains.’ It’s actually a diary entry that I’ve quoted in the book. I don’t consider myself a literary writer, like Jeff, but it’s nice that he thinks that.
I don’t remember many of the audience questions but I know there were a lot. Someone asks who or what inspired me, as a female music writer. “I did,” I say. I don’t really understand the question. A young woman with aspirations to be a music writer asks a question, and I try to encourage her. There still aren’t enough women doing this work.
Afterwards, I sit and sign books until all the books are sold out. News from Nowhere tell me this hardly ever happens. Jeff and John are hiding in the green room because the music in the bar is too loud. I circulate in the bar. An old Twitter friend has come all the way from Edinburgh, and there are lots of old Liverpool friends. It feels epic.
That was my biggest gig. The smallest one is the next day in Chester. Books on the Walls is a tiny bookshop but they manage to fit in books, drinks, Norman and his record player, and quite a lot of people.
Among the people are an old university friend and his wife, who I haven’t seen for over 20 years (they’re putting us up for the night) and an old school friend, who I haven’t seen for over 40 years, and his wife. I think it’s him who asks the question about prog rock. Also, Liverpool musician Mike Badger who introduces me to his friend who I realise later is Tommy Scott from Space. I didn’t recognise him.
There’s no formal stuff, I just read extracts from the book and answer questions. The extracts make people laugh, and this makes me happy.
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| Being interviewed at the British Music Experience. |
London
A week later, I’m in London for the Walthamstow Rock’n’Roll Book Club. I’ve been to a few of their events before, and Mark, who runs it, is from Liverpool. It turns out that I will come across the Scouse diaspora at most of my events.
The gig is in Mother's Ruin Gin Palace in a trendy industrial estate (I didn’t know there was such a thing).
Music journo turned podcaster Andrew Harrison, who’s from Liverpool but a lot younger than me, does the interview. In the audience are my Walthamstow friends, and Bill Sykes who wrote the excellent Roger Eagle biography, and also an old Twitter friend who’s come all the way from Norfolk. A freelance photographer called Hazel Dunlop (who I’ve met via the NUJ) asks to take a portrait and I pose in front of the toilets. Her idea.
The next day I meet my editor, Alison, for the first time, because she’s down in London from Edinburgh. I already know I like her but it’s good to meet in real life.
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| A great line-up of women writers. |
Oxford
Another week later and I’m doing the local (ish) launch at Oxford. My friends at Oxford NUJ branch are organising it (here’s the blog post I wrote for them). We’ve chosen Gulp Fiction Books partly because we like the name but also because I want to do it in an independent bookshop.
We invite writer/publishing lecturer Sarah Franklin to interview me, because she’s good at this stuff – I’ve seen her in action in Blackwell’s many times. She does a great job.
I know most of the audience because they are from the branch or former colleagues. I’ve also invited the HorMones, Oxford’s over-50s feminist punk band. Afterwards they post on Instagram: “So entertained tonight by the clever, funny, incisive @pennykileywriter at the launch of Atypical Girl in Oxford. No fucks given, no shit taken. I'm already loving the book.”
I’m starting to enjoy all this. I am surprising myself.
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