Welcome to the world of football-mad Troy Brown, a typical fifteen-year-old, with a loving family, a tight-knit group of friends, and a nice house in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Materially, he has a comfortable life – but then no hormone-ridden, angst-filled teenager would ever describe their life as comfortable, and Troy was no exception, plagued as he was by ‘the whole world is against me’ complex, ‘no girlfriend’ syndrome, the pains of unrequited love (or lust) and the usual hoard of teenage frustrations and obsessions.
A privileged peek into his very private ‘warts and all’ 2003 diary reveals the transformation of his boring, ordinary life, as Troy tries to negotiate the many twists and turns in what was to become the most extraordinary year of his life, fraught with family secrets, misunderstandings, dangerous liaisons, challenging adventures, shocking realities and unexpected outcomes, interspersed with teenage insights into the state of the world, including war, crime, death and disease.
As you travel with Troy on his one-year life-changing journey, you will undoubtedly laugh at the adolescent humour, cry at his misfortunes, sympathise with his plights and empathise with his feelings as he works through his personal traumas and is forced to learn by his mistakes. Be warned, however: those of a sensitive disposition may also be shocked by some of the diary’s content, possibly offended, but you are, after all, delving into the grimy mind of a pubescent youth!
