Stone Grown Cold

'Where does it take place, Stone Grown Cold?

'Let yourself think it’s a town you know well. Some bits are real and help like the sun on your back. Other bits have been gathered from gossip, screens and scumbags. There’s a good dose of sex in it and knucklehead glamour. It’s such a town. For good and for bad. With dazzle all over it. Dumb-arse to match. More gorgeous than reasonable. With everything you want. And who gives a fuck? Not prepared to play or say nice. Not much shame about the wrong things. Except on the quiet.

'Most citizens are nine-to-fivers. They’re always bumping into folks who are not:

sham company promoters; hollow share hawkers; men loitering in yards; mendacious women importuning on telephones; purveyors of poorly provenanced smallgoods; covert-camera seducers and follow-up extortionists; hotel ‘barbers’; boarding-school snow-droppers; hospital potion filchers; theatre impresarios and fanciful futures conjurers.

'Best accept it’s a town knows you well.'