And I know I loved this book because I was Googling things I didn’t know but really wanted to find out...like what a doctor bird looks like. Ashleigh, who now lives in Moreton, Wirral, said: "We needed to make it clear this is not for stuffy, middle-aged, middle class Shakespeare heads. This is for the people of Knowsley and the wider city region. A man from the Liverpool suburbs who ended up in a tough Jamaican jail aged just 16 now helps others find a path to a better future.

Such a lot of people write a book and get it out there, and write another one, and maybe five books later they’ve learnt the craft. Whereas I’ve been trying to learn the craft on the first book because it was so important to me that I wasn’t prepared to just leave it unfinished. So I’ve had to learn how to do this on the job. Going on to university, Ashleigh achieved a first class degree in literature, getting work published during his course. It wasn't a slur - there were different systems of racial classification there but it was about having your identity stripped from you. Ashleigh continued: "For aspiring writers, I’ve been doing this for 26 years. I haven't always stayed on the path and always done the right thing and I haven't always had the confidence to really be honest about what I was trying to achieve.

What to say about this book? It’s such a difficult one to review because there are so many layers to excavate in this story and they are so hard to convey, it is really a book you need to experience for yourself before you can understand what it is really about. It seems it was the person who signed for my bail, he worked for the American Embassy, and he was in the terminal with the cops looking for me. Once on that plane, in the air, it was over." It's a very musical book, drawing on song lyrics to create an atmosphere of rhythm and violence, heat and claustrophobia. The same songs and lyrics curl through the narrative as Aeon parties and gets into trouble, when he is imprisoned, when he attends a swanky tourist music festival, and when he is driven into the deep tropical countryside to meet some family members. The Jamaican characters largely speak in dialect, and this increases the reader’s alienation alongside Aeon, as he struggles to understand the context of what’s happening to him.

What I loved was the injection of humour into this, at times, harrowing journey. It really added something else to the otherwise tense read. The Liverpool Literary Festival is now a major highlight of the city’s cultural calendar and we’re really pleased to be able to showcase local talent. Now in its eighth year, this well-established festival, taking place between Friday 6 and Sunday 8 October, will feature a range of inspirational discussions with an exceptional line up of authors. Ashleigh, who experienced exactly that, spent his 17th birthday imprisoned in the mountains of Jamaica.Ashleigh Nugent, who co-curated the opening weekend programme at the Shakespeare North Playhouse (Image: Handout/Shakespeare North Playhouse) The creativity on the island brings that out in him. So then he has to walk away. He still doesn’t know what any of it really means. But that’s for the next books to resolve. Because of that approach, it’s powerful. Because of what we teach, it’s powerful. Because we use the arts and get into this unconscious level, it’s powerful. And then it bubbles up on the inside. Like “Oh, no one’s told me to do this. This is coming from me, and I’ve decided I don’t want anyone to control me anymore.” So yeah, it’s deep. It’s powerful. He said: "I'd never read a book but I started reading voraciously every day, I found myself in a different world, around creative people, studying, changing my mindset and taking control."

He said: "I got caught with spliffs and ended up banged up, then to court and then put in the Strong Room in the mountains, which was basically an underground dungeon. The audience coming want to be entertained. They want to laugh, they want to get angry, they want to get entertained, and they want to leave there going that was dead interesting. So I think I am going to develop it more as a play, because they don’t care whether I think it’s a play. They want to be entertained. I came to understand the reason Shakespeare has lasted 400 years is because it's pure genius. It says everything about the human condition in so many ways. I'm a fan now but I'm still trying to understand it." The place was for lads 21 and under and I spent my 17th birthday there. There was no running water, toilets that don't flush." Read More Related ArticlesThis was a really interesting read and one I wasn’t aware of until the blog tour invitation. I can only describe this as an eye opening read following Aeon’s journey of self-discovery and working out who he really is. There are a lot of interesting ideas here, and a nuanced portrayal of community dynamics and growing up an outsider. It’s not always perfectly executed though. There’s a first-novel feel to it, especially in the structure, explicitly modelled on Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey,” which is a bit… silly. And precisely because Aeon is an undeveloped teenager with a lot of learning to do, the reader is required to follow him as he makes all kinds of clearly idiotic decisions.

P: The way it talks about your relationship with race – or Aeon’s [the lead character’s] relationship to race – is so pertinent to now, and the confusion that a lot of people are feeling around their own relationship to race. Are you still feeling that now, or have you found a space where you’re comfortable? The story is really farcical and jaw-dropping. It is therefore a surprise to read Nugent's endnotes claiming that the novel is basically autobiographical. This would explain why the creation of the world - of Montego Bay, of Kingston, and of the way Jamaican society functions is so convincing. But it doesn't sit easily to know that a real 16 year old could be treated the way Aeon is treated. I was 21 when I decided to admit to myself I wanted to write and went to college and met others into creative stuff.

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A: Somebody who recently read it had no idea how it was going to resolve. She said she was amazed by the end that it managed to resolve. After several run-ins with the police, disaffected with school, and experiencing racism on a daily basis, the teenage Ashleigh, whose dad was from Jamaica, decided to travel there himself to understand more about his roots. I adore Ashleigh's writing style. The book was poetic and intense. I experienced so many different emotions while reading this one, ranging from tears to laughter. He's such a talented, inspiring man, and I'm beyond glad I signed up for this book tour.