This week I witnessed a dramatic scene on the streets of West London. A elderly, rather rough looking man emerged from the doors of a clothes store, pursued by a young security guard who was asking to see the receipt for his purchases. The young guard - who was considerably smaller than the man - tried to grab the bag off him in which he believed were stolen goods ( given the man’s reluctance to show his receipt I’m inclined to believe he had a case). The shopper/shoplifter then became very aggressive, calling him a ‘cxxt’ and threatening to attack the security guard - something he looked very capable of doing.
A fracas ensued and then I heard shouts from behind the two. ‘Thanks heavens’ I thought, ‘someone is going to intervene on the part of the security guard’. Far from it. Two young men, as far as I could tell strangers to the shopper/shoplifter, intervened on behalf of the ‘thief’, pushing the security guard away and berating him for trying to stop the man. The man made his way off , still yelling at the hapless security guard, who was being restrained by the two other men.
I found the spectacle unnerving, because, I suppose, I instinctively thought that ‘the citizenry’ would intervene on the side of ‘law and order’ - whereas in fact the reverse was the case.
The drama wasn't a plot - there was no structure to it as such - just a series of things happening that happened to be diverting. It inspired me to invent a writing exercise based around real life.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Tim Lott's Writing Boot Camp to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.