The new paperback cover
The updated Bluefish Books edition, featuring the invitation to help bring the story to the big screen.
Shane Westward is twenty-four, skint, loud-mouthed and certain that the Blues can fix almost anything. He fronts The King Biscuits, a Covent Garden street band surviving on music, nerve and whatever their bottlers Tina and Mags can charm from the crowd.
Their patch is prime busking real estate. Leicester Square is better. There is only one problem: Leicester Square belongs to Ray the Dog, the feared “king of the queues”, a violent street enforcer who has no intention of sharing his territory.
When Shane decides that London's pavements belong to whoever has the nerve to play them, a row over a busking pitch becomes something far more dangerous. Friendships are tested, loyalties harden and the Biscuits discover that defending their freedom may cost considerably more than they expected.
Inspired by Duncan McCowan's own years performing with The King Biscuits on the streets of London.
Read an extract From the book
The Big Busk by Duncan McCowan
Call me Shane. My parents did. They loved that movie. One against the many. “A flawed and tainted soul striving for redemption in a world of sin and corruption,” said my dad. Shane Westward to you. It could have been Clint. But the old man thought that was taking the piss. They loved their Westerns.
Enough about them though, I’m here to tell you something most people don’t know.
First, I’m a busker. Well, that’s no news. Half the city’s seen or heard me at one time or other.
No, the news is that busking, contrary to common opinion, is in reality, gang-warfare.
And that’s what I’m going to tell you about today.
Revised paperback now published.
The corrected text and updated cover are now published on Amazon.