Billy adapts his novel, My Fault, for the screen.

In November 2001, a man named Larry Clark contacted me and asked me to meet him at the London film festival. I’d not heard of Mr Clark or his work, but this is not unusual as I don’t go to parties and rarely visit the cinema. The following Friday I travelled to London with my wife and we met Larry at his hotel. At dinner Larry told me he was a fan of my writing and music and asked if I would write him a screenplay of my first novel, My Fault.

As Larry is an American I helped him bone his Dover sole and I asked him where he envisaged the film taking place? "England," he said, which was the right answer. We were then driven to Leicester Square to the screening of Larry’s latest film, Bully, which I could understand. Larry was a friendly and honest chap, so I agreed to try my best to write him a screenplay.

The novel My Fault was started in the early 80s but wasn’t published until the mid 90s. I have no agent and no representation, and Larry could give me nothing towards adapting the novel for the screen. But I undertook the commission for fun and as a long shot.

The story is the journey of one person from childhood to early adulthood. It includes child abuse, sex with a dog and culminates in the hero beating up his own father. This is quite familiar territory for me but, as I point out in the preface, the novel is completely fictitious. My Fault is a product of the imagination - characters and events are invented. And even if time and place seem to point to a definite person, this is only coincidental, an invention, fancy, fiction, a story.

I had to remind Tracey Emin of this when she rang me, threatening to sue if the film is ever made. Larry’s response to Tracy’s threat was, "Isn’t she the bitch that put your name in her tent? She hasn’t got a f**king leg to stand on, man. Tell her to go f**k herself!" "It’s OK Larry," I explained. "None of this ever really happened."

I understood that I would have to decide what the story was about, and leave out what the story wasn’t about. After working on the first chapter Larry told me I was a natural: “I can see the f**king film, man!" I don’t write a standard screenplay but just explain what the camera sees and what we hear. I decided to adapt the whole novel and then to discuss with Larry what we drop. I trust Larry to do his best with this, and have asked him to make My Fault the highlight of his career. I’ve finished the first draft and Larry is now looking for the money to make the film.

As for actors, I have an 11-year-old brother who tells me he would like to play the child part of the film, and I thought I could possibly play the father, though these are fantasy thoughts only. I’m dyslexic and only think in pictures. Billy Childish 04 April 03