Nab isn’t exactly my most endearing character. He’s a cantankerous sod of dubious morality who is easily incited to violence. But as one of my earliest creations, I’ve always had a soft spot for him, and felt that he deserved another book to elevate him to trilogy status. So I gave some thought as to what this might involve. Initially I considered bringing back Essex Boy Barry, the other protagonist from ‘Nabbed!’, but it wasn’t really working for me. If I was going to develop their story, it should have been done straight away, without referring to what happened afterwards in ‘Nabbed Again!’. Then it occurred to me that another Glaswegian character I had created would work much better alongside Nab. And that would be Gangster Gaz.
Gaz made an appearance in a Wild Side tale ‘The Taming of Gangster Gaz’, and like Nab he was arguably a victim in the story, although most would say they both had it coming and deserved everything they got. But whatever the view, they have this notion of victimisation in common. And being a couple of hard men from Glasgow’s East End, Catholics by birth, and Celtic supporters by default, the chances were good that they would meet at some point.
And this is the point – ‘Right Here, Right Now’ as the Fat Boy would say. For argument’s sake it can be viewed as the completion of Nab’s trilogy. But I think of this story as more of a beginning, rather than an ending. The start of a very unlikely romance between two outwardly straight, decidedly butch, somewhat confused products of their society.
Okay, so wind that sentence back a bit… Romance?
As their creator, I’m probably the only man who can use that word in reference to Nab and Gaz without risking my health, and possibly my life. ‘Bromance’ is perhaps a more acceptable term, although even that would be frowned upon by these proud and violent men with socially ingrained homophobic mind-sets. But they’ll have to lump it, because that’s what I’m calling it. This is the start of a Glaswegian Bromance… When Nabster Nab meets Gangster Gaz.