Page 108 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
You should get out more Don’t worry about Ol. I won’t let anything really bad happen to him.
Ellie Cooper
Please keep him away from pubs and restaurants called The Orchard.
Amanda Bailey
Yes, and actual orchards. I’ll do that for you
WhatsApp messages between me and true crime author Craig Turner, 24 July 2021:
Amanda Bailey
Craig, babes, can I use your log-in for national archives? Don’t want to use mine
Craig Turner
Will dig out and send
Craig Turner
Remember it’s Sunday, babes. Chill please.
A list of names printed from National Archives, under the heading: Notting Hill & Ealing High School, 2002–3. Among them two are highlighted:
Adesina, Jessica A.
Wild, Rowley F.
Meeting with author Jess Adesina at Warrior’s Arrow Fantasy Bookshop, 26 July 2021. Transcribed by Ellie Cooper.
AB:Hi, Jess!
JA:Who to?
AB:It’s for someone else …
JA:What’s her name?
AB:If you could just write: ‘To Rowley Wild, thanks for inspiringMy Angel Diary’. [Long pause here. Have you accosted this womanas she’s signing books? EC]
AB:Only joking. You can just sign it, that’s fine. [You must switch the recording off, then on again for this next bit. EC]
JA:What do you want?
AB:You were at school with Rowley Wild: ‘Holly’. Why didn’t you say? [You don’t get an answer to that one. EC] Do you remember the circumstances that led her to leave and live with the angels?
JA:[She sighs. EC]
AB:The character in your series of books meets another girl at school and an adult man and moves away from home to live with them both. The angel thing represents bisexuality as far as I can see.
JA:It’s more pansexuality and alternative lifestyles. The angels inspired the series, but it’s not Rowley’s story.
AB:You and Rowley were in the same year at school. I’m from this area myself and I know there aren’t many girls who go from Notting Hill & Ealing High into the care system. It would’ve been the talk of the school. What happened to her?
JA:She was only at the school for a few weeks at the end of term. Look, her family were eccentric. There was chaos, drugs and neglect. She moved to a foster placement, then back to the family home, but she met a man and … that was it. She didn’t come back to school.
AB:That man was Gabriel?
