Selfish People – Lucy English

A female Trainspotting about a young woman who is a romantic but is also determined to overcome the depression of inner-city living in 90s Britain and carve out a life for herself – even if it does means she must become a selfish person to do so.When her nice, repectable mother tells her: «In my day it wasn’t the thing to walk out on one’s husband and live with a strange man. One considered the children.» Leah replies «It’s not your day. It’s my day.»People in love are selfish. Leah, 28, mother of three, married for 10 years to burned-out Al who got her pregnant in college, is in love with Bailey, the anarchic, feckless hulk who teaches basketball at the Community Project in Bristol where she works. Their courtship, conducted over pints at The Woolpack with other drifters looking for love on the dole, at ‘seshes’ (sessions getting drunk and watching football videos) and in clubs on ecstasy, forces Leah to do the unthinkable and walk out on her children to be available for Bailey. Theirs’ is a totally destructive, out of control relationship. The fact that Bailey confides in Leah a horrendous secret from his childhood is the closest he will ever come to telling her he cares. Their love is doomed from the start, but Leah is a survivor.