Wallpaper

There's no more humbling an experience than entering the working world for the first time as an adult. You get out of school/college ready to finally be a grown-up - and find yourself being infantilised even worse than before. The writing process for 'Wallpaper' was mostly drawn on writer Fabien's experiences of trying to be an antique dealer himself as a hubristic nineteen year old. Even though he'd grown up in the trade and knew exactly what he was doing, people would refuse to take him seriously and were often quite blatant about not taking him seriously because he was young. It was only when he got a bit older and started channelling Richard E. Grant in 'Withnail & I' that he found anything resembling success in the trade. This drove him mad at the time of course, but being reminded of this now always makes him laugh. It's an experience that also speaks to how environment and circumstance can shape us, how much of that battle was solved by acting how people presumed an antique dealer ought to act, copying the affectations of older people in the trade. Happily, there's a flip side to these early adulthood teething problems, as Sally discovers, in that there's no greater joy than when you eventually manage to start finding your feet.