It's January 2026, new term's just kicking off, and I'm sitting here in London thinking F..., how did I end up doing a degree in Creative Writing at Birkbeck? If you'd told the younger me, the one laying bricks in the 80s or dodging trouble across the world, I'd have laughed in your face. But here I am, a mature student, fourth year in (started with the Foundation Year back in 2022), chipping away at modules and actually enjoying it most days.
Not the fairytale kind where everything works out because it is meant to. I mean the harder version. The kind that drags you through places you would never choose, then drops you somewhere unfamiliar and expects you to stand up and carry on.
Fate pulled me through a Jamaican prison and dropped me back onto the streets of Notting Hill.
A raw interview back in 2017 with Tommy Kennedy IV on boxing, family, and staying real in a fake world. No polish, no PR. Listen to the exclusive audio here.
Listen to the Interview above on YouTube with a picture of the sea and a tree.
They say writing is a lonely game. You sit in a room. You stare at a wall. You give the page a bit of blood and hope it gives something back.
Life does not work like that. Life comes at you swinging.
This interview pulls me away from the desk and drops me back where...
Survival, Identity, and Hostile Environments Reading Nightmare in Jamaica alongside Ossie Clark Both Nightmare in Jamaica and Ossie Clark examine what happens to identity when the environment turns hostile. One confronts physical danger inside a Jamaican prison. The other traces psychological collapse within the glamour and pressure of the fashion industry. Despite their surface differences, both books ask the same question. How does a person remain intact when the world they inhabit begins to...
Back to Birkbeck After the Christmas Break: Creative Non-Fiction Begins
I go back to Birkbeck next week, Monday 12 January. It is also my brother Anthony’s birthday. Before I travel in, the family will raise a glass in his memory. Then the day continues, because that is how it works.
Returning after the Christmas break always sharpens things. Time away strips the noise down. You come back knowing what matters and what no longer deserves space. This year, that clarity carries weight.
Whatton Detention Centre Abuse: My Story From 1974–1975
I was at Whatton Detention Centre in 1974 and 1975. Long before slogans hardened into policy. Long before politicians had a neat phrase for it. The violence was already there. What later became the “short, sharp shock” didn’t start with Margaret Thatcher. It was baked into the walls from day one.
Whatton Detention Centre: Discipline or Fear?
Whatton, in Nottinghamshire, was sold as a youth detention centre focused on reform and discipline....
Thanks to DMC for filming my brother Anthony’s funeral service. They handled it with care and respect, kept a low profile, and captured the day exactly as it was.
I am grateful to them for preserving those moments for our family.
They filmed the service, the burial and the wake ar the Irish Club . Massive respects to David from DMC Media x
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.A New Year: Grief and Keeping On
We laid my brother Anthony to rest on the thirtieth of December.
When a Legend Knows the Score: Chris Salewicz Reviews Nightmare in Jamaica
Legendary music journalist and author Chris Salewicz reviews Nightmare in Jamaica. Read why the man who wrote the book on Bob Marley and Joe Strummer calls Tommy Kennedy’s prison memoir an "extraordinary story."
The Dub Side of Life
You write a book and you send it out into the world. You hope it lands. You hope someone picks it up and understands that the ink on the page is actually blood and sweat and years of your...
Ossie Clark: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a British Fashion Icon
Ossie Clark was one of the most influential British fashion designers of the twentieth century. At his peak in the late 1960s and 1970s, he redefined how women dressed, moved, and were seen. His fall was as sharp as his rise, shaped by addiction, financial collapse, and an industry that moved on without him.
This is the full story of Ossie Clark. The genius, the damage, and the legacy he left behind.
dqni19z7dxwkgereawhtbpd0w7si63.68 KB Mandasue Heller, Manchester Grit, and Why She Backed Nightmare in Jamaica It hits different when a real one backs your work.
Mandasue Heller championed my book Nightmare in Jamaica, and she did it without theatre or ego. Just straight recognition from someone who knows the cost of telling the truth on the page.
That kind of support tells you you are walking the right road.
Mandasue writes the way she lives. Honest. Unfiltered. Grounded in places most people...
I’ve seen plenty of autumn leaves in my time. They’re the sort of people who drift in when the sun’s out and the beer’s flowing, only to blow away the second the wind picks up and the clouds turn grey. You find them everywhere. They’re common as muck and just as fleeting.
But the diamonds? They’re the ones who stay. They’re the ones who stand their ground when the grit gets under your fingernails and the world starts to squeeze.
Chapel of Rest Anthony John Kennedy Born: 12 January 1966 Died: 3 December 2025
For those who wish to pay their respects to Anthony John Kennedy, the Chapel of Rest will be open on Tuesday 17 December, Wednesday 18 December, and Thursday 19 December.
Anyone wishing to spend some quiet time with him is kindly asked to contact Mears and Jackson Funeral Directors to arrange an appointment. They will ensure that visitors are given the privacy, care, and time they need.
I don’t write one book and vanish. I build. Over time. On this site, you’ll find ten books I’ve published—autobiographies, fiction, biography, and flash fiction. Together, they form a continuous body of work that defines my voice as an author.
Autobiographies
Nightmare in Jamaica – My first autobiography. Raw, unfiltered, and lived.
Notting Hill Ponces – Second autobiography, direct follow up to Nightmare in Jamaica. Same voice,...
Meat Space Explained: What It Means and Why Younger Generations Use the Term Meat space is a term increasingly used by younger generations to describe the physical world, the offline world, the place where bodies exist and consequences land. It exists in direct contrast to cyberspace, which is everything that happens online.
This is not tech jargon or theory. It is a practical word for a real divide that now shapes everyday life.
What Meat Space Actually Means Meat space is the world you can trip...
Nightmare in Jamaica by Tommy Kennedy IV A memoir of survival, consequence, and place
Nightmare in Jamaica is a memoir by Tommy Kennedy IV. It is not a novel and it is not fiction.
This book comes from lived experience. It comes from pressure, memory, and the slow weight of consequence. It is about survival inside an unforgiving social ecosystem, where crime grows out of necessity, loyalty, and history rather than ambition.
I travelled the world before finding myself imprisoned in Jamaica for...
RIP ANTHONY JOHN KENNEDY: OUR KID’S COLOURFUL LIFE CAME TO ITS END ON 3RD DECEMBER 2025 Fly High, Our Kid
12 January 1966 – 3 December 2025
Shit news hit our family on Wednesday.
Our kid, Anthony John Kennedy, has died.
He was a superstar. A family legend. Full of life and full of fun. He could blag his way in and out of anything. He lived everything larger than life. He possessed a generous heart and gave freely to everyone he met. He would do anything for anyone and he loved a proper party.
tztdf4br8ei13zkxps713ng67a8j351.21 KBFLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Jezabelle’s Descent in Blackpool
In a seaside town, a story unfolds about a woman named Jezabelle. Her journey takes her through darkness and tests her limits of redemption. She is consumed by addiction, haunted by betrayal, and torn by her forbidden love for a priest. Her struggles play out on the streets of Blackpool, and her tale is so shocking that it defies belief.
"LUCIFER"
My twins have finally left home, leaving me to rot in...
When Cancer Came for Our Kid, 7 Months Later. Our kid took the worst words a doctor can fire at you back in April 2025. Stage four oesophageal cancer. No warning. No soft landings.
It hit right after he flew home from Dubai, the place he’d called home since 2008. His insurance blocked treatment over there so he packed what he could, swallowed the fear and came back to the UK with that dread clinging to him.
Something shifted in the wreckage. He came back to us. Properly. The whole tribe. The...
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