Dances and dreams on Diamond Street
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH best ‘Danny’ s like me, but prettier and more muscly’
He’s a dancer, choreographer, Strictly judge and best columnist. And now, Craig Revel Horwood has become a novelist – with his first fun-packed fiction, telling the story of a group of friends sharing a house in the Nineties. Craig, 55, who recently announced his engagement to partner Jonathan, admits he has drawn on his real-life experience to write Dances and Dreams on Diamond Street.
Tell us about your book…
Well, it is a romp set in the Nineties – about a group of friends who share a big house in Camden Town in London. I suppose it’s got a little feel of Friends, a touch of TalesoftheCity. The hero is a dancer-turnedchoreographer called Danny. And is he based on you?
A dancer-turnedchoreographer? What gave you that idea?! There are, of course, some elements, but I have made him prettier and much more muscly than me.
But it’s fair to say you have drawn on real life?
Oh, yes. My inspiration was the ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, as we called it – a house my friends and I lived in Camden Town in the Nineties. I was there for five years, and they were fun times – very free and easy! But yes, it is fair to say that a lot of the stories I couldn’t put in my autobiography for various reasons – some legal – may have been incorporated. I amalgamated people together and swapped stories around, but that’s the beauty of fiction, you can do that. That’s what’s been so much fun, and why I may have had a private chuckle to myself while writing it. Did you finish it during lockdown?
I did. One of the benefits of lockdown was that I was really able concentrate on it. I was able to develop the characters a little bit more, get in a few more stories
– tie up loose ends. It was brilliant to be able to do it at my leisure.
It’s such a shame you can’t have a big launch party...
I know, I’d have loved for all my old flatmates to be there. But I can’t wait for them to read it!
Might there be more books in the future?
I really hope so – I feel I have a long way to go with Danny as a character and some of the others. I want to know what happens to them next and I hope the readers will do, too!