For you and me, baby

Ah, the summer of 1988. I had just turned 15, and lived in Cyprus. So for me that summer was mostly hanging out on the beach, water skiing and drinking Sprite out of glass bottles (other than when I was drinking vodka and lime, which was quite a lot of the time). There was some other stuff, mostly involving boys who turned out to not be Good People, but we’ll gloss over that in favour of my rose-tinted sunglasses.

And music. God, I loved my music. For me, 1988 was all about Erasure, Whitney Houston, Pet Shop Boys, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, and (inexplicably, because I couldn’t be doing with the endless conveyor belt of Kylie/Jason pop nonsense), ‘Summertime Love’ by Sabrina. Also I secretly loved Bros’s music, but pretended not to because being a Brosette was Not Cool in 1988. Actually now I think about it, being 15 was something of a minefield.

But the one song that dominated the charts in the summer of 1988 was ‘The Only Way Is Up’ by Yazz and The Plastic Population, Number 1 in the UK charts from the start of August until the week we all went back to school to get ready for these new-fangled GCSE things. And if you remember that song being EVERYWHERE, imagine what it was like living on a sunny Mediterranean island. There was no escape – every bar, every club, every radio station, every teenager with a tinny portable stereo, was playing that song.

And that’s why I hate The Only Way Is Up by Yazz and The Plastic Population with the force of a thousand suns, and why I can’t entirely explain why it’s the title of my new book, because it’s now the soundtrack of every Instagram post about it (including mine). All I need to hear is that train horn at the beginning and I’m 15 again, at a beach party in July 1988 trying to attract the attention of an 18-year-old boy who turned out to be not Good People.

But I love this book, and I’m so proud of it. It has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with any of the above, but it is OUT TODAY in paperback, ebook and audio. If you’ve already pre-ordered it, I hope you love it. If you haven’t, you can buy it now.