A change of direction

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to try something different: in this case, a narrator rather closer to my own age.

The central characters in most of my novels so far (apart from the narrator of Woke Up This Morning) are in their 20s and 30s. These are decades of great hope, energy, optimism and excitement — everything is still possible in life — and so lent themselves well to stories that were trying to project the same feelings of positivity.

This time around, I felt myself drawn to the other end of life, a time of memories and evaluation — sometimes, as in this case, gaining a new perspective on the past. I really enjoyed writing it and I suspect that I might be tempted to return to the subject. This is the cover blurb:

The past is another country or, to be more precise, it’s Belgium.

Newly-retired Harry Wells believes that everything in his life is clear, settled and organised; he has achieved what he set out to do and every path that he chose was exactly the right one.

Then, out of the blue, Harry learns something about his wartime experience that turns everything upside down. Has he remembered everything correctly or has he only recorded selectively in order to hear what he wanted to hear?

Harry’s actor friend and wartime companion, Donnie Dale, suggests that the only way to find out the truth and bolster both of their increasingly untrustworthy memories is to take a road trip to their past, following the route they took when liberating Europe after D-Day.

This time around, it might not just be Europe that’s liberated.

Here’s the link to the Amazon page: A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY