A swinging 60's novel from the pen of Don Bull.Cecil Rhodes said, 'to be born English is to have won first prize in the lottery of life.' Probably true in Victorian times but to be a teenager in 1960's England was to win the Football Pools, the Premium Bond Jackpot and the Reveille Newspaper 'Night Out with Lulu Competition' all rolled into one.Those too young to remember the 60's will find themselves cursing their tardy genes.Those that suffered the geographical misfortune to find themselves living around Kings Road Chelsea will rue missing out on being part of the Bearwood Scene.It's the late 1960's and Daniel Bell whose existence has been one of understated contentment until now, shows signs of bursting into life. Daniel fortuitously meets up with the girl of his dreams Julie Rogers, after not seeing her for a few years and to his total amazement they begin to go out together. Meanwhile Daniel's best mate Dave has even more unbelievably started seeing a girl from an aristocratic background who appears to entertain working class aspirations. Much of the action centres on Daniel, Dave and the other five members of their clique Phil, Johnny, Gary, Bill and Steve. Their interests are football, music and girls and they pursue all three with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Although the story is based around the love affair between Daniel and Julie, I realised as I was writing it that it was really a much more basic and often ignored love story between a gang of lads who spent more time together than they ever did with their girlfriends. It's about the loyalty they have for each other and an affection they'd laugh at if you mentioned it. It charts that unique time of life between leaving school and gaining the financial independence a job gives but before the inevitable pressures of marriage and children that will cruelly snatch that freedom away as arbitrarily as it has been handed out.Along the way there's also the matter of Daniel being dragged into a major crime as well as various fights, a couple of strippers, a lot of drinking, a cornucopia of delectable females and the usual scrapes a bunch of lads will get into, all set against the golden musical sound track of the time.If you weren't around in the 60's I hope this will give you a flavour of what life was like. If you were around back then I hope it will evoke some happy memories. Other Writers Views.Brian Lockett.This is an all singing, all dancing, cast of thousands Technicolor epic that rushes us along whether we like it or not. It's noisy and irreverent and brings to life the atmosphere of a particular slice of young Britain in the 1960's. We have the lads drinking, pulling birds, thumping each other and generally behaving immaturely and irresponsibly as they blunder their way to adulthood.James A Murray.I find the speaker a truly original wit and nothing short of devastating. On the whole I have to say I found this a very enjoyable read.Leigh Twersky.The characters are vividly portrayed and completely believable. The narrator is most engaging.CS Mayal.The story seems to roll along with a heedless inevitability that effortlessly gathers momentum to eventually spin out of control to a jarring stop where it all began.Although a completely different milleau, this novel reminds me of the film 'American Graffiti.' The obvious difference in locale aside, both of the stories chronicle a personal and cultural journey from relatively innocent bawdiness toward an awakening of a different sort that will quite likely separate those willing to embark on a new journey and those who remain intent on living in the past, despite a new era dawning.
About the Author: PG Wodehouse, George McDonald Fraser, Tom Sharpe and Sue Townsend would be at the forefront of my own favourite writers and I think they give a good idea of my own approach to writing. As you have probably deduced, I'm not aiming to be the next Cormac McCarthy or Sylvia Plath. I like to be entertained and uplifted when I read and subsequently I hope to do the same for my readers. My main aim is to raise a smile and hopefully make people feel that the World is a slightly better place than when they started reading. I've been writing for over ten years now having come to it late in life. I'd always wanted to write but people like me just didn't did they? Authors always had a solid background, university followed by a career in journalism or advertising whereas I left school with no qualifications and embarked upon a succession of dead end jobs. I know there has been the odd exception to the academic types monopolising the book world but there weren't enough to convince me that I could join their ranks and so I didn't try. Eventually though it struck me like a bolt from the blue, if I wanted to write no one was actually trying to stop me and luckily not too long after this thought, internet publishing burst through the steel gates that publishers had previously defended against a sea of would-be novelists. What qualifies me as a writer? I believe that the most important tool at my disposal has been that I've worked all of my life and observed and listened to a vast raft of humanity, every one interesting in their own way. I love my characters whether they be good, bad or downright ugly and it's the characters that seem to decide where the story goes rather than me. I believe that very few stories can't be improved with an injection of humour and my characters often make me laugh involuntarily and I thank them for that. What's the least enjoyable part of being a writer? It is undoubtedly the death struggle that is involved in getting the words from a lovingly put together novel onto a platform that can be read by anyone else. I am to technology what Brian Sewell is to cage fighting. Perhaps publishers aren't such an evil after all, if you're lucky enough to have one that is.