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For bohemians everywhere

Mel Wright – One Thing and Another

Mel Wright - One Thing and Another

Mel Wright – One Thing and Another

“One Thing and Another – a seaside caper” by Mel Wright. Deptford Forum Publishing 2012. ISBN 978-1-898536-18-5. Fiction. £4.99. Cover illustration: Fiona Pienkowska Watching The Girls Go By. Available from the Bohemia Village Voice shop.

(From the back cover) An English coastal town can sometimes feel like the end of the line, but despite its grand Victorian buildings almost crumbling into the sea, Hastings is quirky, bohemian and fun. Even so, post-war baby-boomers Abi, Rita, Bill and Leo are feeling adrift. As they face up to becoming a certain age, things are getting tougher. With the credit crunch officially shifting into recession, the town’s struggling low pay economy begins to bite harder. 

Born and bred in Hastings, Abi’s daily care for her aunt Millie goes unquestioned but, as she says, it’s hardly helping her sex life. Millie herself can cope fine, she thinks – as a seaside landlady she had to – but there are times when things seem hazy and she’s not sure why. Abi’s old schoolmate Rita is on hand to help out but she’s got her hands full wondering about the future of her job at Woolworths and keeping an eye on her wayward single-parent daughter, Gayle.

Bill is defiantly lost. A Geordie through and through, and a seventies socialist throwback, he’s escaped to Hastings, drawn like a bee by his passion for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – the Holy Grail. Slick and snappy dresser Leo, despite the creditors and exes on his tail, thinks he’s above it all. But although he’s having to lie low, this entrepreneurial has-been still has ideas of making a quick killing.

An endearing, poignant, comical portrait of everyday dilemmas and friendship set in a sunny seaside town buffeted by the big waves of the financial shakedown. 

REVIEW

Review by Jonathan Broughton March 2013: [AWAITING POST]

 

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