Confessions of an Ageing Figure Skater

Unlike Peter Pan, the boy who never wanted to grow up, Peter, the narrator of this story, has had to grow up much too soon. By telling this story from his point of view during the early 1970s, it necessarily includes his memories of certain celebrities and incidents. Viewed from a modern perspective, the reader may well look at these figures or events in horror or disgust, but for Peter, at that time, they seemed glamourous, inspirational, and were part of his and his peers’ everyday lives. It is possible that the horror and disgust the reader might feel upon reading parts of his story, reflect the uncomfortable fact that those celebrities were entrenched in society’s everyday lives.

Whilst the testimonies of many young people have since given us a radically different understanding of those celebrities’ behaviours and actions, many of us are still wondering how on earth it was possible that wider society could have unwittingly condoned and celebrated those actions which led to so much damage, distress and personal trauma for so many, caused by so few.

Figure Skater doesn’t attempt to provide answers to the disconnect between what we know now and what we thought we knew then; but offers the perspective of one vulnerable young boy who saw the artistry of figure skating as being a route out of that disconnect and a way to save his life.