Ex-headteacher Mark Patterson’s new novel, ‘Scraped’, looks at what it means to be ‘normal’

Former Cambridge headteacher Mark Patterson’s debut novel, Scraped, offers a “thought-provoking look at what it means to be ‘normal’”.

During his time spent working at Chesterton Community College, Coleridge Community College, St Ivo School and Hinchingbrooke School, Mark has encountered many people with labels such as OCD, autism and ADHD.

Scraped – the title of which refers to the psychological equivalent of scraping your skin: ‘being laid bare, vulnerable, and exposed’ – explores the idea that those without labels may be just as unique and misunderstood as those who have them.

So does the novel use some of Mark’s experiences gained from the teaching profession?

“It does,” he replies, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from his home in Cambridge, “in the sense that the main character draws on some of the people who I knew when I was a teacher.

“Not in any identifiable way, but just traits and characteristics of people. That’s what we do – we draw on people that we know or have met, and that was what I did.”

Scraped follows Joe Smith, a man in his 50s who struggles with relationships and friendships but is otherwise functioning.

Joe’s mild neurodiversity is never explicitly named, mirroring the ambiguity and complexity of real life, as the narrative shifts between Joe’s earlier life and the present day.

“He’s not a teacher at all, he actually becomes an accountant,” explains Mark, who has now retired from teaching and is training to be a Samaritan.

“So he’s a mathematician essentially… The novel isn’t set in education at all but it draws on the subject of neurodiversity, something which is very topical at the moment.”

On where the idea for the book came from, Mark, who spent more than 20 years leading schools in the Cambridge area, says: “The idea came from all the people I’ve met over many, many years that I would class as ‘different’ from typical people in some ways…

“And the fact that that’s such a rich thing, and then obviously we had the pandemic… and in recent years, as you probably know, we’ve had an explosion in diagnoses of people with conditions like OCD, Asperger’s, autism – lots and lots of these conditions which, when I was a boy, didn’t really exist as diagnosed conditions.

“I find that very interesting, and then with the pandemic a lot of that has exploded and neurodiversity is now very topical.

“I personally find it, a) a very good thing, and b) very interesting as well. So I wanted to write about a character who is neurodivergent essentially.”

Mark’s interest in writing grew from his time as a headteacher, when he regularly blogged about education and the challenges faced by students and staff.

Inspired by literary greats such as Sebastian Faulks and Ian McEwan, Mark wrote Scraped in just three months and chose to self-publish to retain creative control.

He is already working on his second novel.

“The next book is a crime caper, again set in Cambridge but with different characters and a different genre,” notes Mark, who says he looks back “really fondly” on his time in education.

“Scraped is sort of literary fiction, if you like, whereas the second novel will be just a pure crime caper.

“But also I’m keen to have some messages about the human condition in there. For me that’s important, to write something related to the human condition that isn’t just a story.

“So there’ll be a message in the second book which is not yet clear, even to me because I’ve only just begun.”

Mark says he wanted Scraped to be two things: “First of all, I wanted it to be a good story – I think people like to read stories – and secondly I wanted it to have a message, a message about neurodivergence and indifference and what does normal mean.

“I wanted to try and get that across as well, in a way that’s hopefully well-written.

“I personally like novels that combine being a good story and being well-written – and I’ve tried to achieve that with Scraped.”

Mark is originally from Northern Ireland. He moved to England to attend the University of Kent and later moved to Cambridge, in the summer of 2004, to take up the post of headteacher at Chesterton Community College.

He reveals that Scraped could well get a sequel “if there’s a good reception” to his first novel, and adds that every penny he makes from Scraped, he will be giving to the charity Oxfam.

Scraped is available now.