Where is Bohemia?

Where is Bohemia? – The David Baskerville Interview

David Baskerville, February 23, 2025, Interview, Where is Bohemia? Hosted by Jeff Ellsworth

Podcast Interview: The Breakers, Nags Head, North Carolina.

Jeff: Welcome, David. It is great to meet you.

David: I am very happy to be here. And I do thank you for your invitation. I would never have expected to be here at The Breakers talking about my books back when I was young, so this is always such an honor. In fact, I remember swearing I would never return. I truly think my mum is looking over me and guiding me to these things. This was so creative Jeff, to have the interview here in The Shoebox. The actual Shoebox.

David looked around the house. Looks pretty close to what I remember actually.

Jeff: I thought that may get your attention.

David: It did. And it aligned perfectly with my vacation.

They both laugh.

Jeff: Yes, it does and that was no accident.

David: The Shoebox here and the one across the way are the only two houses that are standing from The Breakers summer. The AC House, the Frat House, and the Art House are gone, unfortunately. These houses should be preserved as a historic monument to the surfers and bohemians of the Outer Banks, but I suppose I am biased.

Jeff: Yes, perhaps. So, were there originally ten houses here?

David: Yes, around ten. There may have been twelve, but it started as you know, as a set of vacation cabins from the 1950’s evolved into a place where lifeguards and surfers lived when the story took place. It was like an upgraded summer camp. Very nice to be here, though. Right on the ocean, practically.

Jeff: No worries at all. You have always been so humble, David, and I think that is what your readers like about you so much.

David: Well, if you had grown up with my mother, you would be the same.

Jeff: We will get back to that later, but I have been following you since you wrote, The Other Movable Feast, The History of Bohemia. What a great book. I liked the Paris part, but I really liked the New Orleans Jazz sections and the blues. The Roadhouse history part was so interesting also.

David: That was quite interesting to write and to research that book. I made a lot of trips to Memphis and then down to New Orleans. David laughed. I mean a lot of trips.

Jeff: Yes, it was rumored that you rented an Aston Martin from a place in Memphis.

David: Yes, I don’t know why, but for some reason when you mix my accent with the Aston and people think I am legit. They start opening up and talking.

Jeff: So, the Aston is essentially an ice breaker. Kind of like the Jaguar in East Bonnett?

David laughs: I suppose you could say that. It didn’t really work so well with Tucker, but normally, yes, it is most definitely an icebreaker. Not a reliable car, but more of a reliable ice breaker. Kind of like the van in The East Bonnett. You know, I met Tucker in the Jag in real life.

Jeff: Yes, I do. So, your latest book, The East Bonnett, is about a group of boys, well, I should say young men, who lived on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Nags Head to be specific.

David: Yeah, I had been writing this book for a few years, and then that Netflix show about the Outer Banks came on, and I thought. Really? Of all the places. But you know, the more I thought of it, there is so much influx of new residents in North Carolina in general, it was just a matter of time before this relatively unknown area found its way to the mainstream. Once I heard about the Breakers from Tucker, I wanted to get it down on paper before it completely disappeared. Bohemia of times gone by.

Jeff: And you say it was based on this young man named Tucker that you met hitchhiking in Cape Cod.

David: David laughs, yes, that is exactly the case.

Jeff: What was it that made you write an entire novel based on a short ride with this young man, well, maybe I should say vagabond. Jeff laughs.

David: Well, it was like talking to myself 20 years previous. It was uncanny. Very surreal. Right after it happened, I wondered for a few days if Tucker had been a ghost, but you know I eventually met him, so he is not. He is real. David laughed.

Jeff: That is interesting, I did not know that. The ghost part, I mean.

David: What is even stranger is that he contacted me a few years ago while I was writing the book. We met up in San Francisco. I will never forget, when I gave Tucker the synopsis of The East Bonnett, he looked at me with the most sarcastic of voice, “All the world needed was another coming-of-age beach story, David”. Luckily, he was dead wrong. Anyway, he is living in San Francisco now. And he writes screenplays, and he wants to pick up The East Bonnett and turn it into a screen play. I couldn’t believe it. So, we are meeting up next month. We may really end up working on a project together.

Jeff: Well, kindred spirits I suppose.

David: Yes, I would say so.

Jeff: I think my favorite themes of the book are this yearning to be free. This dream of Elysium. Well, and it is kind of an American Dream story in a way.

David: I don’t know if the road trip is a thing anymore. You know, like the Jack Kerouac stuff, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, all of that. Like a physical road trip. Where you and a group of friends get into a van with very vague plans and see what happens.Tucker and his buds were on a road trip like that when I met them and it looked kind of retro hippy. They had that VW van and all, but as the book shows, these guys were more punk rock being Gen Xer’s and all, but they did have this hippy overlay and it made me start to think. What and where was Bohemia? They seemed like the real deal. That triggered The Other Movable Feast. I don’t know what it was, but in 1988, I was 35 and these kids really made an impression. I was also an architect like Tucker who was studying architecture in school at the time.

Jeff: I always find that interesting too. You are also an architect?

David: Well, that was just going to happen. In the blood really. I grew up in Portsmouth, England and my dad was a builder. A home builder. Mom was the construction project manager for him. My grandfather was a carpenter, and my brother is even now an electrician. Get the picture. This building stuff is just in our blood. Based on family folklore, many generations back, our family helped build some of the Elizabethan fleet, so, this is a bit of family pride.

Jeff: Ok, that makes sense. Hence, your biography of Queen Elizabeth I and your weaving of Queen Elizabeth into the East Bonnett story.

David: That’s it mate.

Jeff: So, you meet this kid. Young man. And it’s off to the races.

David: Yeah, the book just wrote itself. I wanted to have this dialog with my younger self. So strange. I dedicated it to my mother who had just passed away. The more I let it write itself, the better it got. Once I got completely out of the way, I was finished in a month. It became one of those books that summoned me to it. I just had to show up and help it come into the world.

Jeff: Wow. A month. That is incredible. But, I am so sorry to hear about your mother.

David: Well, it is ok. She is in a much better place as they say. If anyone earned their way to Elysium, it was mum.

Jeff pauses.

David: Just like Tucker's mother, she had bipolar disorder and that was really a train ride through hell for her at times. She used to say she was going to write a book called, To Hell and Back about her life with bipolar disorder. She said it as a joke, but I know she meant it. I didn’t tell her the title sounded like it had been used before, but I also knew if she ever did get serious about writing a book, it would be great despite the title. She just never got around to it. I don’t know if I have ever told this to anyone. David paused: Half of the profit of all my books straight away have been going to NAMI. The National Alliance on Mental Illness. If I can get a little more financial independence, I plan to give all of the profits to NAMI.

Jeff: I hear it can be quite a brutal disease.

David: Yes, it can. This was one of the main themes of the novel too as you know. I wanted to show how a son of a mother with bipolar would track in the world. I wanted to make it subtle. I hoped the book would be a friend to someone like me when I was that age. The stigma was like a dark shadow and back in the 70’s. You just didn’t talk about it. And my dad was so shellshocked, he just kind of forgot everything around him except taking care of mum. So, I guess I have a soft spot for the orphan types. Even if they are temporary orphans.

Jeff: You could argue attention to mental health hasn’t gotten a lot better.

David: Well, Yes, I agree, I think it has gotten somewhat better, but we do have a long way to go. I have encountered quite a few people with bipolar disorder in my life that just never got treatment. The disease resists a cure since it is a bit like an addiction. From what I understand, the person with bipolar gets addicted to the manic highs and truly doesn’t ever want to give that up.

Jeff: Such a strange disease.

David: Yes, it is. That is why I hint in The East Bonnett that it is somewhat like an evil spell. The person is not themselves. You are correct, it is such a strange disease.

Jeff: Agreed.

Jeff: Well, this in the book is subtle and I like how it is almost like Tucker his haunted by this issue with his mother. It creates a lot of anger it seems. This is really what intrigued me about the way it was presented.

David: I am glad you picked up on the anger. I wanted to have a happy go lucky, English Rover type character that tried so hard to hide the pain, but it just gets out no matter what.

Jeff: Yes, it does.

Jeff: Well, it is time for a quick break for our sponsor, but we will be back and we will continue our discussion with David Baskerville and his books Where is Bohemia and The East Bonnett?