Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has reflected on a loveless childhood in a new memoir. Growing up in Northampton in the 1960s and 70s, he describes a distant father and a disapproving mother, retreating into his own world as a bookish child.
Haddon recalls the family home at 288a Main Road, New Duston, a house with Scandinavian modernist touches. He remembers the silence: no one talked about things that mattered. The most important events happened inside his head, and he never knew if others felt the same.
He recounts a vivid memory of his sister Fiona having a nightmare, screaming that their father was coming with a knife. This dream persisted for 45 years, stopping only when their father entered a care home with Alzheimer’s. Haddon himself had recurrent nightmares of giant insects and drowning in a diving suit.
Looking at old photos, Haddon sees his mother on a beach, radiant in a way he never witnessed in real life. He questions what it means to lose parents who never showed love, and why he feels a longing for a time and place where he was often profoundly unhappy.
