Writers and their Teenage Jobs

Collected is a weekly series of articles from Royal Literary Fund writers, and this week’s feature is from me. A few weeks ago, I sent out the question: Writers! What was your best and worst casual job as a teenager?  The responses were fascinating (and often amusing), inspiring me to write this piece:

Cafes, Chemists & Holiday Camps
– How youthful work experiences can make a better writer

As I reflect on my own development as a writer, I am certain my teen experiences of weekend and holiday work were instrumental in my creative growth, arguably more so than my years spent limping through O levels at the local high school. Growing up in a small seaside community, I yearned for independence and dreamed of escape to ‘other places’. I developed the unnerving suspicion that nothing went unnoticed, that somehow everyone had an eye on each other’s business. My Saturday job in the local chemist confirmed this … read more