'No More Walls' for Derry Author

It became immediately apparent chatting to Derry author Glen Smith, he was indeed a storyteller.

His autobiographical new novel ‘No More Walls’ is ultimately a tale of redemption, one he hoped “might help people too to see, it is not too late to turn your life around and try and get a relationship going again with your family”.

Brutally honest from the get-go, speaking to Derry Now, Glen said: “I was always a storyteller. I would have entered wee writing competitions when I was in prison - the Prison Writing Competition held during Listowel Writers’ Week and the Koestler Awards.

“Anything I was putting in for Koestler, short stories or poems, I was winning gold and platinum awards.

“The last time I was in jail, it was in Magilligan Prison, they brought in a creative writing teacher to do the class. I did the wee creative writing class first - stages one, two and three - and then I stayed on as a class mentor, helping other younger boys who were coming through.

“The people who were running the class were really passionate about writing and about the positive effect it could have on people, how it could change their lives.

“I would be a wile one for telling stories as well. I remember everybody saying to me over the years, ‘Glen, you have to write a book’. So, I was sitting in a wee class one day, just chatting, spinning stories, and the teacher said, ‘Glen, do you see all those stories you are telling, I know that you can write, you need to sit down and write a book.”

It took quite a few attempts before Glen finished ‘No More Walls’.

He explained: “So, I tried to write down my story and to be honest with you, the first time I tried it, I got so far and I just deleted it. Every time I got so far, I deleted it. It was because of all the things that happened in my childhood. Writing brought too much stuff to the surface again.

“You see, when I sat down and started writing this wee book here, I was in Magilligan. We were in the creative writing class for three hours in the morning and then you were taken back to the wing for your lunch and you were away for an hour and a half. You used to get locked in your cell over lunchtime, then you were back in the class again from 2pm to 4pm, before another lock up.

“A lot of people have been asking me this past while, ‘What changed your life? What made you turn your life around from addiction and alcohol and prison?’

“I took to a life of crime from the age of 15 or 16 - which is all dealt with in ‘No More Walls’. Addiction and the way I was brought up had a lot to do with it.

Glen's mother Ann Maxwell.

“So, sitting down and writing and going back and lying down and thinking about it, it made me think in a way I had never thought before. I honestly think this wee book, the actual act of sitting and writing it, is what changed me as a person and what completely turned my life around.”

Glen began writing ‘No More Walls’ about seven years ago.

“I was actually still in Magilligan when I wrote it,” he said. “I was still suffering from addiction. However, about halfway through writing the book, I just made a decision, ‘That was it’ I was going to keep myself completely clean and I did.

“I just went cold turkey. I didn’t want people saying, ‘You can’t do that. You need to go to counselling.’”
Glen spoke very movingly about some of his heart-breakingly tragic family history.

“My father committed suicide in 2002 and my wee sister took her own life in 2010. Just two years ago, my other wee sister, Charlotte, took her life as well. It was me who found her,” said Glen.

“It has been hard to hold things together over the last few years. Then my wee niece, my sister’s daughter, took her own life a week before Christmas, two years ago.

“That is another reason why I wanted to go ahead and let people read the book. There is a wile lot of honesty in it.

“I just think about the town now and I look about at young fellas now that remind me of me at that age and there is not a lot I can do. I think somebody suffering from addiction has to want to help themselves. You say this or you can say that but if a person doesn’t want to listen, they won’t.

“I thought, if I did bring this book out, it might teach people about addiction, about suicide, about gambling and about crime. There is a lot in it that maybe might help.”

Glen said he had been moved to put up a social media post about ‘No More Walls’ saying what fathers could maybe take from his novel.

He explained: “I think there is a whole lot in it for fathers. The importance of a father or mother and their role in a child’s life or the absence of one in a child’s life. So, I think maybe fathers can get something from the book.

“I think maybe young fellas can get something from the book too. I think maybe kids of addicts can get a lot from it. I think there is a good wee bit in the book.

“The book has everything in it, from paramilitary attacks to my tour of prisons. I’ve done jail North and South. I have escaped out of three prisons and I escaped out of Strand Road police station. I escaped from guards, I have always been escaping from places all my life as well. I have always been running.

“‘No More Walls’ is about the grip that crime and drugs took on me but it is also to help people see that, even me in my 40s - it took me to my 40s to catch myself on and to see the light - could say, ‘Hold on a wee minute. There is something better. There is not just being an addict and being in and out of jail’.

“I think it might help people to see too, it is never too late to turn your life around and try and get a relationship going again with your families.”

Glen was quick to point out ‘No More Walls’ was not all “doom and gloom”.

“There are a couple of wee laughs in there,” he said. “The book is funny as well. There is funny stuff in it. There’s sad stuff. There is everything in it.

“Anybody I gave it to read for feedback said they couldn’t put it down. When I was writing it, I left a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter, so readers would want to go on and read the next one.

“There is also a lot in the book about me and my partner, Rhona. Someone told me ‘No More Walls’ is really a love story. At the time we were on the run down South. Rhona gave up everything in the North and came down on the run to me in the South.

“In the 1990s, all her crowd used to call us Bonnie and Clyde. We were running about with nowhere to live and we were booking into big hotels and running away without paying the bills and the guards were after us,” said Glen.

Reflecting on his life now, Glen said: “This is the first time I have ever been happy. I am a daddy. I am a granda. What I try to do now is help. When I see young boys and the way things are in the town, with drugs. I think ‘That was me 30 years ago’ and it saddens me. It leaves my heart sore.”

Glen said his family had “been through a lot with addiction, drugs crime unemployment and suicide.

“But, so have a lot of other families in this town,” he added sadly.

“I just want to grab them and give them a hug and say, ‘Come here kid’.

“I tell them what I did, where I went wrong and maybe ways they can improve their lives.”