Shaz

Shaz, also known as Pot Boy, is a performance ceramic artist and Sophie Pettingell’s boyfriend. The book presents him chiefly through Sophie’s account of his ambitions and their limited place in her conversations with him; the available scenes do not give him a direct speaking role or establish what becomes of him.

Identity and Work

Shaz performs with ceramics and pursues opportunities to appear at shows, gigs, fairs, and pubs. Sophie tells Paul Carpenter that Shaz repeatedly treats a possible booking as a chance to begin building a larger career, whether through a regular pub spot or further engagements with the same organizers. She calls him preoccupied with these prospects.

The work brings little money, according to Sophie, even though she says money is what Shaz is most interested in. His hoped-for career gains and his actual earnings therefore stand in tension: the promise of future bookings sustains his attention, while the income from the work remains poor. Sophie frames his outlook as a contradiction between being unconventional and unconcerned with practical matters, and taking the pursuit of work seriously.

Relationship with Sophie Pettingell

Sophie identifies Shaz as her boyfriend when speaking with Paul. In the same conversation, she says that after the distressing experience of being locked in, she felt she needed someone to talk to and had even considered telling her parents. She adds that she ought to be able to confide in Shaz, presenting the relationship as one in which that expected support is not readily available to her.

Her frustration also centers on what she says Shaz chooses to discuss: his prospective performances and the possibility of earning money from them. This account is Sophie’s perspective, not an independent portrait of Shaz’s motives or feelings; the narrative offers no corresponding explanation from him.

A Canceled Booking

When Paul asks about her plans for the evening, Sophie explains that she had been due to help Shaz set up for a pub gig in Penge. Shaz called the previous night to say the booking was off and that he would stay in to work on his kiln. The canceled performance gives a concrete instance of the precarious work Sophie describes: a prospective engagement disappears, and Shaz turns back to his ceramic practice.

The exchange also changes the immediate circumstances between Sophie and Paul. With the gig canceled, Sophie has no plans for the evening, and she accepts what Paul has inadvertently made into a date invitation. The passage does not establish a breakup or any later decision by Shaz; his role here remains that of the absent boyfriend whose canceled booking leaves Sophie free that night.