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The Ruby Slippers by Keir Alexander
Featured author Keir Alexander finally follows up on his mysterious message
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ince the publication of The Ruby Slippers, I’ve had to try and explain the inexplicable many times over. People keep asking where the idea came from, and the characters. In both cases the honest answer has been, ‘I don’t know’. It all began with a dream I had in 1988; I was at the point of dropping off one night when I heard a man’s voice say ‘Do the red shoes’. It was just as if someone was in the room, and I later found out that it’s called a hypnagogic hallucination. The message though was a mystery. I had no connection with red shoes in any way, so, over the years I simply kept an eye out for anything remotely connected. I checked out Hans Christian Andersen’s story fi rst, but it had a hideous moral, so that was that. The 1947 fi lm of the same name, again did nothing for me, and Kate Bush’s 1992 ‘Red Shoes’ album didn’t move me either, although I’m a diehard fan. It wasn’t until twelve years later that anything came to light. My daughter was visiting Cardiff, where I lived and was wearing a badge with a picture of the ruby slippers from the fi lm, and I just said out loud ‘That’s it!’, having no idea why. The Wizard of Oz certainly held no special meaning for me; my mum took me to see it when I was five and at the fi rst sight of a wicked witch, I got up out of my seat and ran out into the street, never to return! Notwithstanding early trauma, I decided to check out the ruby slippers on the web and discovered some intriguing facts. Particularly noteworthy was the gay interest and of course the Judy Garland element. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote a synopsis for a fi lm, as simple as that. It kind-of wrote itself in a day and the characters just ‘volunteered’ themselves. It wasn’t until five years later that I dusted the
treatment off again, and, realising I wouldn’t stand any chance of getting the fi lm done, decided to write the novel – another simple decision but at the end of such an extraordinarily long process that had little to do with conscious thought. Hypnagogic illusions are apparently quite common and there are several recorded instances of writers and musicians claiming dreams as their inspiration. I’d love to hear from any readers who have had similar experiences. As for the characters, although I didn’t consciously plan it, there are characters in it who resemble people I know. Alas, I’ve had to be circumspect about these. All I can say is that the deepest secret in the story is one that was confided to me; the most troubled soul is someone very close; Old Rosa’s condition is not unknown to me as I once did my bit to clear out the place of a sufferer. I’m in there too in several characters, I’ve concluded. As a case in point, I worked as a sixteen-year-old after school in a grocer’s. I vividly remember the sepulchral atmosphere of the cellar, and the sour-sweet smell of the cold room. Interestingly, I also remember an old couple in particular, who used to come into the shop. They both stank ‘to high heaven’ and you knew they were coming long before they arrived. I privately christened them ‘the pair of nickers’ because I used to watch them surreptitiously secreting cans of cat-food about their persons. Out of sympathy, I never grassed on them, though the manager would have been livid. He was a funny old stick – Mr Barrett who ran the Liptons that used to be on Brixton Hill. Perhaps some readers will remember him? I was then that shop-boy up to a point, but I’m also James, Michael and Malachi in one way or another. If they ever make a film, I’ll put myself up to play the auctioneer.
The Ruby Slippers by Keir Alexander is one of this issue’s featured books and you can sample it over the page.
We have copies to give away FREE – see page 35.
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