GEOFF THOMPSON rather liked his time at a comprehensive school. "They were good days but as it was for a lot of working class kids, it was not inspiring.
"We were schooled in the art of lathe-turning and bog-cleaning but we were not prepared for the arts. If you wanted to be a writer or an actor you were seen as being pretentious and it was kind of knocked out of you."
The trouble was that the young Thompson DID want to be a writer, his only problem being that he was a writer "with nothing to write about".
Now, 45, he has achieved his ambition with 30 books to his credits, film scripts and a play. The play Doorman has been twinned with his short film Bouncer for a unique double bill due at the Liverpool Everyman from April 25.
The subject matter for both is the life of a club doorman, a pretty clear indication of how Thompson spent his early working years.
He had left school at 16, and although "good at English" left without taking any exams. "I wanted to get into the workplace but then spent the rest of my life trying to get out again."
He tackled a variety of jobs, making pizzas, hod-carrying, sweeping floors, driving lorries and even trained as a bricklayer.
"I never made good money, it was always back-breaking work." But there were benefits:: "I developed a strong character and with working in a series of manual jobs I got a plethora of stories."
Most of all, he spent ten years working at night as a doorman, first in clubs and later in pubs "as the hours were more sociable".
He was always writing. "I didn't know what to do with it or where to go with it. I had no idea about the process of selling your work."
