Up on the Roof

Where do my stories come from? First, from a voice. In 'Ex Libris' I was given the voice of Ivor and from there on it was plain sailing. Is that true? Not completely, I suppose, because every time I had to stop -- to get a meal, to go out -- I couldn't help wondering if the voice would be there when I began again. I was not Daedalus. There was no thread in my head to lead me on. Only the voice. The same is true of 'Up on the Roof'. Once I had the voice, I had the story. Only that voice knew that story, so if I lost the voice I lost it all. The same can roughly be said of all the others. The reason I hedge a bit here is because sometimes another element is there too: a vestige of plot or colour. But only a vestige. Very thin ice that would not bear my weight. I began writing stories in my twenties. They were usually bizarre: the man whose leg came through the ceiling, the child who fell from a steeple, etc. Then I stopped for some years. When I began again the stories were still bizarre. What has become clear to me is that the closer the stories come to autobiography, the more impossible they are to write. I write out of the imagination. Facts clip my wings. And without a voice, I have no voice. I am mute.Page, P. K. is the author of 'Up on the Roof ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780889842878 and ISBN 0889842876.