These Years: 1973
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These Years: 1973
Set in Massachusetts, this 88 page novella tells the story of 12-year-old Ruth who develops a crush on Greg, a relative visiting from England. He is a professional artist, and being an aspiring artist herself she dreams he will be so impressed by her talent that he will fall in love with her. School friends tease her, but her family, apart from a sympathetic aunt, are oblivious to the joy and anguish of young love. These few momentous days in Ruth’s life rush to a denouement in the last hours of Greg’s visit.
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“a remarkable, marvellous and magnificent piece of writing… The moving story of a young girl’s first love paints a vivid picture of her feelings at the stage of early adolescence [put] brilliantly in the context of her family, her peer group and of course the relationship with the object of her love… The emotional highs and lows of the encounter are treated with touching poignancy and gentle humour.”
Prof. Harry Procter, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
After All...
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This anthology brings together prose pieces written over several decades. Mainly short stories, they include an attempt to change fundamental reality by not thinking; an awkward outcome of picking up someone at a party; the over-enthusiastic production of a play based on the first Easter; and an earlier glimpse of Phil, a main protagonist of my novel ‘Still Crazy…’.
Two of the other pieces are based on my experiences working on a locked psychiatric ward in the late 1970s, and have both been previously published in literary journals.
Also included in the collection are a dozen short comedy sketches performed in cabaret and revue over the years: the Health and Safety Officer of the Afterlife addressing the newly dead; a dodgy group therapist; a steeplechase for saints and theologians; the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse going AWOL; a Welsh football match; and much intricate wordplay.
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“Great writing … [This] collection of stories and sketches is both profound and hilarious… I heartily recommend it.”
Gordon R Clarke, author of ‘Someone Else’s Gods’
Still Crazy
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Still Crazy
A dinner party. A cabaret. The unforgotten past bursts into the present, ripping open the future.
When Phil, an undergraduate at Cambridge University, performs in cabaret at a party, he meets and falls in love with Melanie. As she in turn appears to have fallen in love with him, he cannot understand why she then plays hard-to-get, even after he learns of the traumatic events that shaped her teenage years. But the influence of former boyfriend Simon is still strong, and she and Phil part. Twenty-five years later, both now married, they meet again by chance and resume their relationship. Soon each faces a tough choice: Will Melanie decide on love or loyalty? Will Phil commit to his estranged wife or return to his first love?
Spanning 42 years, and interweaving three time strands set in Cambridge, Devon and London, the story of Phil and Melanie also tracks the highs and lows of performing comedy in cabaret; the compatibility of science and religion in bed; moments of transcendence; the precariousness of mental health; ambiguous adjectives; climbing Skiddaw; and transgressive ducks.
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“This is a wonderful novel, beautifully written, that threads its way through the lives and loves of its characters who step vividly out of the pages. A delight to read.”
The Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge.