DRINK. SMOKE. LAUGH. SNEAK OUT. SMOKE AGAIN. GET ROBBED ON THE WAY HOME. FIGHT BACK. GET A BUST LIP. MUM ASKS. SAY IT'S AN ACCIDENT.
CREEP OUT AT NIGHT. CLIMB ON THE TRACKS.
GET. UP.
Living round here is like walking a tightrope: at some point, you know you're going to fall. UP is a raw, unflinching work of autofiction about Nash, a teenager trying to find his place amid the chaos of South London. By day he's a schoolboy. By night he's sneaking onto railway tracks, running from fear by courting danger. When a teacher recognises his spark and pushes him to write, encouragement tips into something far more complicated - the lines between trust and desire begin to blur. Caught between intimacy and danger, Nash learns that survival means choosing what kind of man you're willing to become.
Inspired by the experiences of its author, Raphael Myerson, UP is a coming-of-age story about youth, violence, desire, and secrecy. It explores the weight of loyalty and the cost of stepping away - looking beyond the headlines to paint a raw, yet deeply human portrait of growing up in London in the mid-2000s.
