Bill & Maggie: A Dark Story Of Love

Bill & Maggie: A Dark Story Of Love is an experimental, darkly comical novella that delves into the mind of Bill Burton who is an unemployable, noisome, deluded, socially isolated, and personality disordered celebrity stalker although he regards himself as a, “distant lover.” He has a streak of dangerous naivety and foolishness running through him. He blindly pursues his beloved Maggie Best who is a very cynical and world-weary television presenter-cum-journalist and B-list celebrity. Bill, who lives in a 29th floor council flat which is so dingy that only Kamikaze flies are crazy enough to enter, convinces himself that his love for Maggie reaches back to the beginning of time and that it will also endure for eternity. A radical romantic and Crazyhead, he strives to transform his carnal and lusty thoughts into action in the form of unhygienic acts of love. Maggie is Bill’s escape route from his horrible life. He regards her as his saviour. He became aware of Maggie in an epiphanic moment whereby he aborted his attempt at suicide when he saw her beautiful smiling face on a poster across the Tube platform from which he was about to leap from. Bill now believes that he has a mystical, telepathic connection with his beloved, Maggie. He calls it ‘channelling.’ He uses this apparent paranormal ability to send his mischievous, obscene thoughts to Maggie when she appears on television. Bill wants to be her saviour by rescuing her from her life of celebrated media mediocrity. He sees her outside the BBC’s New Broadcasting House ostensibly to get an autograph and selfie but he is desperate to simply touch her. After hanging around her smart home in west London for a few days, the fixated Bill makes his initial serious contact with his beloved via letters and emails. He vows to replace Maggie’s “dodgy” boyfriend as quickly as possible. Maggie and her beau privately and viciously mock “Billy The Pervert” and his absurd, soul-baring love letters and emails. Blinded by love, Bill doesn’t realise that the outwardly bubbly Maggie is really a dangerously bored, jaded, foul-mouthed cynic. She hates her growing amount of fans for loving her so much, especially her stalkers past and present.

At first she doesn’t reply to Bill’s letters and emails which he has so conscientiously written for her. Bill begins to hear negative voices in his head criticising Maggie, which could be the early signs of schizophrenia. Bill’s attitude towards Maggie ranges from lovingly lusty to unhinged and obsessive. He is blissfully unaware that Maggie has come up with a very radical way of dealing with her latest stalker. Maggie becomes fascinated by Bill’s letters and emails. Eventually, Maggie pretends to split up with her “dodgy” boyfriend, who Bill hates with a passion, thus bringing Bill closer to her. She admits to her boyfriend that she is more dangerous than Bill. When Bill is tormented by his jealous, negative internal voices he informs her that he will call on her at her home, not realising that he is walking into an ambush. Maggie’s boyfriend decides to leave her because he fears that she is now dangerously obsessed with Bill and that he will therefore be incriminated into any of her criminal behaviour towards Bill. The love-struck Bill meets Maggie at her lovely home. They discuss the apparently absurd content of his letters and emails. Bill reveals to Maggie that he was her protective knight in a previous life and that he will do anything for his lady fair. She uses the captivated Bill to extract revenge on her former boss. Maggie then asks Bill to physically attack her former boyfriend. The situation comes to a head when she lures Bill at midnight to the windswept and bitterly cold Millennium Bridge over the River Thames. Bill senses danger as he approaches his beloved Maggie but he is compelled to realise their shared destiny.