Back to Square One By Cherry B – Book Review

Back to Square One by Cherry B

Independently Published – Buy

Described as memoirs of music and murder, renowned poet, performer and writer Cherry B twists poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction into a rollercoaster tale of leaving and returning home for her debut novel.

Normally I sacrifice a lot for a good murder story, in terms of the likeability of the characters and cultural references. Cherry B knows her audience. In Back to Square One I identify with the music, the venues and clubs, as well as the type of people. (“Casuals and skinheads are the only enemies.”)

Yes. The Square One reference in the title is the infamous and much-loved venue which became just The Square, a more familiar sounding moniker. During the 90s, it seemed like every band played at The Square for their warmup gig before the tour or the London showcase. (Buzzcocks, Mega City 4, Harlow natives Collapsed Lung, Carter USM, and even Iron Maiden, allegedly, with their ‘side project’.) A mention of its name and people will put a hand on their heart and nod, yet another fallen soldier (closed in 2017). From the 80s to its demise, the council-run venue is the backdrop for many of this book’s scenes and settings, the main character’s sanctum sanctorum of sorts. The author is Harlow homegrown, as is broadcaster and journalist Steve Lamacq, incidentally, which explains all those live reviews from The Square in NME ‘back in the day’. It’s the place where the story begins and ends.

Back to Square One is not an archive of your favourite bands though, despite some great anecdotes about local and well-known visiting artists; like the time Mark Keds (RIP) of Senseless Things was grabbed and tied up until he agreed to change the set list (for the songs the Harlow fans wanted).

The memoir narrates a familiar cycle of hedonism, hope and healing; breaking down and starting again. Brutally honest and reflective, shit happens when you get out there and begin to carve a life for yourself. The murder is a fictional tale full of malice, told by a separate voice, eerily only ever referring to our heroine as ‘she’ and dehumanising such a complex emotional being.  Like a novel, it’s shaped by scenes and dialogue that satisfy conventional narrative expectations. But there is no mystery and no resolution, that job is left to the reader and manifests itself like a haunting, an understanding that the fictional ‘John’ is believable, that the journey’s end was inevitable.

At times the memoir element is lost in too much telling, even with the great description – there is no let up from the ‘I’.  Author and academic Vivian Gornick argues that creative non-fiction is best when it’s true to the story, not the situation. In the case of Back to Square One that truth is reflected in the poetry, real and rhyming, lending itself to being read aloud (even on the commute). The poetry is the anchor for this combination of genres which could easily have made a run for it and galloped off into the sunset. This is no easy feat – often poetry can sit between the pages awkwardly and unattached to the plot. Not here. The poetry shines. This will be no surprise to Cherry B fans.

One final thing that resonates is the value of places like The Square and the people who run them to the local community, rather than from a music industry perspective about our dwindling live circuit, particularly for the mixed characters of an alternative crowd. Young and old, they weren’t invisible while The Square stood.

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Words by Ngaire Ruth – her author profile is here: