Lionel Bart lights a 'harry rag' for John Lennon When it comes to deferment activities – the ones that allow you to kid yourself you’re working even if you’re not actually writing – there are plenty of options. In detail mode you can always go the legitimate research route: story development, character studies, time-lining, lunchtime drinking etc. Or you can focus on those actions that are loosely and more accurately termed ‘arsing about’. On balance, you’d have to say that mentally casting your novel-in-progress as a film constitutes arsing about. With Frank’s Wild Years three weeks from publication, I thought I’d share, if not the imaginary casting call, some songs from the accompanying soundtrack album. I put it together as a playlist around two-thirds of the way through writing the novel, adding as I went along. It was a mix of songs that inspired the writing and served as a soundscape to the story. It also played a part in evoking the world of the novel when it cam
Nick Triplow on books, films and music