Читать книгу Sun On The Water - The Brilliant Life And Tragic Death Of My Daughter Kirsty Maccoll - Jean MacColl - Страница 5

During the long years since Kirsty’s death, I have received hundreds, if not thousands, of kind, warm and supportive messages from all around the world. It was those expressions of love and support that kept me going through the darkest days. It is a tribute to Kirsty’s enormous gifts that her music and spirit continue to inspire such admiration, respect and love. ‘It’s hard to be brief about a talent as great as Kirsty MacColl,’ wrote one of her fans, Wes Eichenwald, to me from America:

Perhaps the most important thing about Kirsty’s music is that she was able to capture emotions – jealousy, regret, joy – in a way that few artists have done. Sometimes it was with quiet vulnerability, other times with wicked wit, but always with honesty. It is this combination of intelligence and sincerity that makes Kirsty’s music special. She recreated snapshots of her life and, in doing so, gave us a clearer picture of our own.

In some ways this book is another collection of ‘recreated snapshots’ from my daughter’s life; it certainly contains a wide range of emotions: joy, pride, love, anxiety, anger… and it is my anger at Kirsty’s loss, and at the failure, now nearly seven years after her death, to achieve justice in her name, that has led to my writing this book. In telling the story of our campaign for justice over Kirsty’s death, however, I have also chosen to tell for the first time the story of her life – of our life together, from the days before I first cradled her in my arms in the maternity ward of the Mayday Hospital in Croydon, to the time I scattered her ashes in the seas off Cuba.

Sun on the Water is therefore as much a celebration of my darling daughter’s life as it is a manifesto of the grievous wrongs associated with her death. In writing this book, I have been overwhelmed by the enduring friendship, love and practical assistance offered me by the many kind souls without whose assistance, so freely given and in so many different ways, this book would never have been written. So in addition to my beloved son Hamish, and my darling grandsons Jamie and Louis, I would especially like to thank Nick de Somogyi for his practical advice, sympathetic ear and constantly supportive encouragement to ‘just keep on writing’;my great friend Denise Keir, who kindly volunteered to take over the typing when my eyes deteriorated in the latter stages of the book (making me grandly feel rather like Barbara Cartland as I relaxed in an easy chair, dictating to my ‘secretary’); and my agent Robert Smith, who took me on trust, but believed, as we all do, that this is a story that needed to be told.

The profound gratitude I feel both to John Dalby and Fred Shortland is recorded in the pages that follow. Further thanks are due to Stuart Robertson, Lucian Randall and all at John Blake Publishing; and, finally, to the following close friends who, in their many different ways, have helped me to keep going over the last few years:

Danny Assadourian – Sarah Aucott – Eddie Beck – Ann Beach – Art Bennett – Alison Boberg – Bono – Boz and Lyn Boorer – Billy Bragg – Viv Bridson – Jo Briscoe – June Brown – Carl Chase – Philip Chevron – Jono Coleman – David Coolidge – Rosemary Cooper – Ivan Diaz – Charlie Dickins – Michele Drees – Keith Dyson – Donna and Wes Eichenwald – Marcia Farquhar – Jem Finer – Jenny Frankel – Pete and Leni Gillman – Pete and Ingrid Glenister – Demetrio Guerra – Ginger Halstead – Ronnie Harris – Philip Hedley – Alan Herdman – Nick Hern – Jools Holland – Wolfgang Hoss – Claire Iden – Tommy James – Julian Jones – Miriam Karlin – Dr Sabjit Kaler – Lee Kent – Alix Kirsta – James Knight – Olivia Lichtenstein – Steve Lillywhite – Janice Long – Shane MacGowan – Louise McLean – Tracey MacLeod – Johnny Marr – John Miranda – Mitch Mitchelson – Frank Murray – Mark Nevin – Pip Newlove – Alan Officer – Stella Powell – Philip, Jann and Georgia Rambow – Peter Rankin – Tosh and Judy Rapoport – Nigel Reeve – Lindsay Royan – Dave and Jen Ruffy – Peter Schaufler – Victor Spinetti – Margaret Spurring – Spider and Louise Stacy – Alison Steadman – Sonja Wallis – Jill Welfare – Matthew Westwood – Tom Willingson.

I hope I haven’t overlooked anybody, but if I have, I offer them my apologies – and my thanks.

‘Thanks for being Kirsty’s Mom,’ wrote my American e-mailer in a PS to his message: ‘Girls don’t get to be as cool as Kirsty unless they have a great role model’. I really don’t know how true that is, but my constant role model in writing this book has been Kirsty herself and the honesty, warmth, passion – and rage against injustice – she always brought to her life, to the music and to our world.

Jean MacColl

March 2008