COLLIE

About the Book

“You did this; you killed my brother, you and your fancy tart downstairs, you and your Hollywood ideas. You killed him, as sure as if you had taken a gun and shot him through the heart, now you can join him you bastard!” She pulled one of the large kitchen knives from behind her back and raised it above her head then lunged at Lenny. I moved quickly and tried to grab her arm but she had the strength of a man, so much strength that she tossed me aside like a rag doll. I remember her eyes vividly, staring, empty, as though nothing else mattered but driving the knife into Lenny, as though there was nobody else in the room. I tackled her from behind and by this time Stan had managed to get a grip on her arm and all three of us fell onto the bed.

I was pleased to read Collie this is both a substantial novel and an extremely good one, with a story whose credibility rests on the author’s literary style, which is assured, controlled and atmospheric. It is a touching and compelling work, balanced between detailed description and a paced narrative of events.

The story is built gradually and with a great deal of patience on behalf of the writer, who takes pains to increase the tension and atmosphere whilst drawing his characters with accurate and well observed characterisation. He weaves their relationships with unpretentious charm, marking the text with genuine warmth. The dialogue is believable and well written, the setting evoked clearly but with subtlety – this is a novel with an individual and original style, one which will appeal to readers of quality fi ction.

Helen Pascall-Barton.

About the Author

The Author was born in 1939 in Stepney, East London at the outbreak of W.W.2. By the time he was 5 years old, a large part of his life had been spent, in air raid shelters. His father was a soldier, fi ghting in North Africa and returned home on crutches, having sustained leg injuries, he couldn’t resume his job as a fruit buyer in Borough Market and was for some time unemployed, when, he was able to work, some years later, he could only get work as a labourer so money was very short. The story up until chapter 16 is based on fact, all that you read actually happened. The year of his birth plus names are the only fi ctitious entries. From chapter 16 onwards is how he would have liked his life to have turned out. However, the author has always been involved in music and now sings with an 18 piece big band and many other Jazz trio’s and quartets.