Roddy was born on October 23, 1582. His father, Alistair, was an inventor, and his mother, Mary, was a laundress. When Roddy was seven, his mother died of the bubonic plague. Alistair dealt with his grief by immersing himself in his inventions. Meanwhile, Roddy kept himself occupied by wandering less affluent (and often dangerous) parts of London.

After Roddy describes his father as a great inventor, Cooper retorts that there is no Wikipedia entry for him. Roddy claims his dad laid the groundwork for the school bus and the TV, which Roddy calls a “magical window” (101). If “Wicked Pedia” ignores his father, Roddy proclaims, it is the fault of England’s authorities, who accused him of being a warlock (a sorcerer) and had him executed. Roddy wanted to testify on his dad’s behalf, but his abusive employers, Mannering and Brown, would not let him leave the printing shop. They forced Roddy to labor from sunrise till night, setting type, cutting manuscript material into single pages, and then binding these pages into a book.

One of the few bright spots in working for Mannering and Brown is that their shop introduced Roddy to the art of playwrighting.