Luke was born in 1983. It is his 19th birthday when we first meet him. He has grown

up as part of a  spiritual community called Mabon in West Wales.

    His father disappeared shortly after Luke's tenth birthday. His mother couldn't handle

life at Mabon or single motherhood and left Luke with her mum. Since the age of

eleven, he has been brought up by his grandmother, a founder member of Mabon.

    As a small child, Luke was thought to be an 'Indigo child'  by the adults around him. 

He was educated at the Mabon School, which was established when he was seven.

When Luke was 14, Jamie Holland, then 13, arrived at the school and became Luke's

closest friend. The pair formed the band N-Trippy to perform the many songs they had

written together. They have built up a small but faithful local following. Since then,

Luke's relationship with Jamie, or at least his perception of it, has altered.

    Luke's casual girlfriend, Andrea, is three years older than him. They've been going

out for eighteen months, which is by far the longest sexual relationship Luke has

ever had. When we first meet Luke, we hear that she is leaving the area, an event he

is looking forward to.

    At the beginning of the story, we hear that Luke considers himself to be without any

friends. And he has become disillusioned with his band.

    Through his teens, Luke was quite obsessed with the work of Marilyn Manson and,

to a lesser extent, Eminem, and was also influenced by the characters which these

artists projected in their performances and interviews. Over the last year or so, Luke

has been very impressed with both Muse and Gorillaz. 

    No longer seeing his own band as a vehicle for his self-expression, he has started

writing a novel.

    When we first meet Luke, he's planning to go off travelling on his own in a van ...

but first he must learn to drive ...