The idea for Roosters came to me in an instant when a young black man who had been working Saturday mornings in our garden told me one day he wouldn't be back because he was going to Durban to try to find work.
I knew there was no way he would get work; instead he would very soon be sucked into an underworld of desperate survival fuelled by crime.
I managed to persuade him to delay a week, and in that time managed to get him enrolled in a bricklaying course.
One of my better deeds in this life, I think.
I wrote the book for him. The style of language is deliberately intended to mimic the simple cadences of a young black man who speaks poor English, telling his story of how he tried to get work.