There is something irresistible to me about the veneer of small town respectability, and especially the characters who live on the edges. I think it comes from growing up in a village of only a few thousand people, where almost everyone worked at the psychiatric hospital a few miles away. I realised at a very young age that madness and wisdom come in many forms; often there is just a hairsbreadth between them.

And perhaps because of this I have a deep love for the dingledodies of this world. One of my favourites is David Lynch, his latest offering is The Interview Project, a collection of soliloquies from random people filmed during an epic road-trip across the United States. There is something so beautifully life-affirming about these stories. I can’t chose just five!

‘They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awwwww!’ ~ Kerouac

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