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Gordon Lawrie

Halfway to London

In The Blogger Who Came in from the Cold, Danny Marwick is a failed pub singer-songwriter – he can churn out melodies but struggles to produce lyrics. That all changes when Rosaria MacTavish enters his life.

However in the distant past he has written one decent song, called Halfway to London, and it's the knowledge that he can write songs that keeps him on the search for more inspiration.

Halfway to London is a real song dating back to 1973. My then girlfriend and I (we only lasted a few months) set off by bus from Edinburgh to London to see a rugby international at Twickenham. For someone like me who's 6'5", the overnight journey was pure hell and I didn't sleep a wink; I insisted on coming back by train.

It struck me that the bus journey was a bit of a metaphor for life itself. I couldn't see a thing in the dark, and we simply started in one city and ended up in another. It's not a love song, although she was a nice young woman, and 'Marianne' isn't her real name.

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