Walking Into Trouble #newbook #launch

Posted on Jun 15, 2020 by TanGental

This spring I’ve done something I really wondered if it would ever happen. I finished the first book I ever wrote and have punched and pummelled it into a state that it is not only fit to be published but I think it’s my best yet.

It’s not humorous like my Harry Spittle sagas. It’s gritty, very real and with a tough uncompromising story. It’s about three friends who decide to take a week to walk the Cotswolds Way, ostensibly to help one of their number, Chris to recover from the dreadful death of his wife, leaving him to bring up their daughter on his own.

Martin and Peter have been Chris’s closest friends from school and while they all suffer from that not untypical Male disease – the inability to communicate anything that might betray your real emotions – they have been there for each other as they matured into grown men.

Yet, this is not just a week of bonding and banter. It soon becomes apparent that there are other forces at work that lead the three friends to unpick their lives and especially those friendships and see them for what they are.

As we follow their progress from a soggy Chipping Campden in the hear for the Cotswolds, across some of the most beautiful scenery in Southern England, we wonder what will happen next. How many revelations can there be? Is anything about their friendship as it seemed when they started? As the weather deteriorates, strains are placed on the three men as never before.

Can their friendship survive? Can they?

This book looks at modern manhood and deconstructs notions of loyalty and trust. It asks you, what would you do, given what these three men know? How would you react? And it challenges notions of what is right and wrong given that such black and white distinctions pay no regard to the shades of grey in which most of us inhabit our lives.

I’m hoping this will be available in all the usual channels on 30th June. If anyone things this sounds intriguing and would like to read it with a view to doing a review then I’ll be happy to supply you with a copy. Just drop me a note in the contacts box above.

Tomorrow, to whet your appetite, I will post an extract from the start of the book.

About TanGental

My name is Geoff Le Pard. Once I was a lawyer; now I am a writer. I've published several books: a four book series following Harry Spittle as he grows from hapless student to hapless partner in a London law firm; four others in different genres; a book of poetry; four anthologies of short fiction; and a memoir of my mother. I have several more in the pipeline. I have been blogging regularly since 2014, on topic as diverse as: poetry based on famous poems; memories from my life; my garden; my dog; a whole variety of short fiction; my attempts at baking and food; travel and the consequent disasters; theatre, film and book reviews; and the occasional thought piece. Mostly it is whatever takes my fancy. I avoid politics, mostly, and religion, always. I don't mean to upset anyone but if I do, well, sorry and I suggest you go elsewhere. These are my thoughts and no one else is to blame. If you want to nab anything I post, please acknowledge where it came from.

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