"Brilliantly written in the vernacular, this complex book explores family, status and love" - the Independent
Abacus (2001)
This is a novel about language and power. It is about codes and code switching, about violence and about love. Rosie Spence was born into one set of expectations, and forged herself another, but although she is now a successful lawyer, her clients are minor East End villains. In her work, she is amoral not least because she is loyal to her brother, Darren, who is part scrap metal merchant and part (very) small-time gangster. Only when Rosie meets Alex, a man whose work involves ethically based as well as emotionally felt decisions, does her own moral sense become more complex. This is brought into focus when her brother’s activities infringe on her relationship with Alex. From the point where they are directly touched by criminal violence, a darker tone emerges in Rosie and Alex’s mutual sexuality, which both enacts and distances them from the pain they have seen caused.
Although opposed to the fashionable glamourizing of ‘hard man’ violence, there is (for me as its writer) no unqualified redemptive force in the book, but nor does it condemn in any way sexual non-conformity. Ultimately, love is seen to be of tremendous importance and power, and yet as never enough in and of itself. Whether the characters learn this, I’m still not sure.
