Since I’ve had some fun with Liverpool restaurants in the course of this novel, I think that in fairness I should recommend some of our favourites. These include the Sultan’s Palace (Indian), the Maharaja (South Indian), the Jumbo City (Chinese), La Tasca and Don Pepe’s (Spanish), the Alma de Cuba (South American), the Olive Press (Mediterranean), the Istanbul (Turkish) and Zorba’s (you guess). On our side of the river we’re fond of—among others—the Mezze (Turkish), the Magic Spices (Indian), the Ming Vase (Malaysian and Cantonese) and the Thai Rooms (Thai and Chinese).
I’ve a special, if somewhat bemused, thank you to my friend Margaret Murphy, the crime writer. At the launch of a booklet of Liverpool short stories in the summer of 2004, she read her contribution while I did my best to amuse the audience with the Gollum chapter of this novel. Imagine my surprise when her tale proved to have virtually the same narrative as chapter two of Secret Story! I emailed that to her the next day, and we marvelled at the coincidence.
