Meet ETHELRED JONES, acclaimed film director of the bizarre; CLYTEMNESTRA, his beautiful 'bacterial' artist wife and the rest of this discordant quintet, the disgraced 'donor' doctor, CHARLES CONRAD CROSBY; the priapic black giant Man Friday named MONDAY and TRISOMY - a child old beyond her years - all melded together in the creation of the ultimate cinematic and art experience, STILL LIFE.Into this monstrous mélange comes the unsuspecting OSWALD ARGENT, an aspiring thespian more narcissus than actor, who finds himself - literally - taking 'a step too far' when accepting a misleading role in the meticulously planned STILL LIFE scenario. On entering the rarefied world of Bethlem Báthory, the JONES'S mysterious isolated country mansion known to the locals as Castle Dracula, the devious young OSWALD finds his film debut more gourmet than glamorous.Enter BRYAN SCIMA, his former lover who, by chance, ends up as Lady of the Manor with distant neighbour, SIR MILES ANSTRUTHER, a wealthy property developer. Coincidence follows coincidence through never-ending scenes of gratuitous violence mixed with glamour and the grotesque.Set in London, Italy and Morocco, STILL LIFE is an articulate, cynical novel filled with black humour at its most humorous; a volcanic-volatile hot bed of sex, greed, money and destruction. The story, which runs at a breath-taking pace, will keep the reader riveted in more ways than one. STILL LIFE is an 'up and down' ride which gathers momentum leading up to an unprecedented climax.Think EDGAR ALLAN POE meets FREUD, THE MARQUIS DE SADE and NOEL COWARD in a mind-blowing gang bang and you are almost there. To quote ETHELRED JONES, 'We stuff the snuff!'
About the Author: Robin Anderson, an internationally known author and interior designer was born in Scotland and brought up in the former Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. Before attending Rhodes University (the Oxford of South Africa) he hosted his own radio programme in Rhodesia ('The Golden Voice of Teenage Half Hour!) and worked as a cub reporter on 'The Bulawayo Chronicle' during his gap year. Leaving South Africa, he spent the early Sixties working with interior design companies in Paris, New York and London. He set up his own design company in London in 1970. Although interior design had been his first interest, the designer never stopped writing. Nowadays he makes numerous television appearances and is a regular guest on selected radio programmes, gives regular lectures on his writing and is a contributor to BEIGE MAGAZINE, a gay, upmarket monthly available on both the web and in hard format. His first novel, REGINA, A NOVEL OF SOME EXTREMES, was published in 1998. The novel gives a salacious look 'behind the scenes' of the glamorous but bitchy and competitive world of interior design, following the path of the unpleasant but talented Reginald Forbes as he cuts a swathe through the lives of his many unsuspecting victims. Though London-based, the author/designer travels extensively and the benefits of this are apparent in the various settings to his books. The Amazon, the Yucatan, Borneo, Myanmar, China, Russia, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Australia, The Maldives, Mauritius, Central Europe, Canada, North and South America plus the majority of the Caribbean Islands have also been visited. He has walked the Inca Trail in Peru; climbed Mount Kinabulu (Borneo) and Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania). The author/designer is a strong believer in the protection of endangered species. In 1959 he took part in 'Operation Noah' which involved the rescue of hundreds of animals from the rising waters of the new Kariba Dam being across the mighty Zambezi River in the north/western part of Zimbabwe. He is also the proud 'foster parent' to four Orang-utans living at the famous Orang-utan Sanctuary in Sepilok, Borneo plus two elephants, Marlene and Marlon, who live happily on a ranch in Zimbabwe..