The ageing rockers are on a roll
POPULAR FICTION
WILD AND FREE
by Wendy Holden (Headline Review £7.99)
YOU ONLY have to read the first page of a Wendy Holden novel to feel a satisfactory glow of certainty, knowing you can lean back, click on your seat belt and let the plot drive you off into the sunset. Wild And Free begins with handsome jailbird Jude stepping out of prison and into a 1955 750 Monza.
Cut to a school in the Midlands where plump young teacher Ginnie is in love with Mark, the 50-year- old ( single) headmaster; cut again to his old friend, disillusioned banker James, his ambitious wife, Victoria, and their gap-yah son, Guy.
These and other characters are brought together at Wild And Free, the kind of summer rock festival in Wiltshire or Gloucestershire where Ottolenghi cooks and Bryan Ferry plays, at which the 50-year-olds (Mark, James and mates) are due to reconvene their college band.
Cue lust, sunshine, jokes and a heist — Holden is a master storyteller.
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
by Elizabeth Renzetti
(Corvus Books £7.99)
WRITTEN by a Los Angeles newspaper columnist, Based On A True Story is a ballsy yet soft- centred beach read about a fresh-out-of-rehab actress, Augusta Price, who seeks to resurrect her career by writing a bare-all memoir.
She soon becomes aware that her ex, a sex and couples therapist and radio phone-in star living in California, is planning to write his version of events.
When she accuses Ken (known to his public as Mr Romance) of having a memory like a colander, he talks of pots calling kettles black and so their tempestuous two dogs-after-a-bone relationship is re-kindled. Which Augusta quite likes.
As does Ken. Augusta also likes a drink (preferably vodka). Can they overcome their differences and get back together?
Based On A True Story, embracing celebrity and female friendship as well as romance, is funny, self-deprecating and, despite its outlandish characters, true to life.
THE LITTLE PARIS BOOKSHOP
by Nina George
(Abacus £12.99)
THIS glowing story tells of Jean Perdu, a 50-year-old (blimey, they’re everywhere this week!) Parisian, who has a bookshop on a boat on the Seine, or rather, a ‘literary apothecary’. He has a special ability to ‘read souls’ and will only sell you the book you need.
Unsettled by a new woman in his apartment block, Perdu sets off along the canals of France to slay a romantic ghost, in the company of two cats and a brilliant young author, Max, who has writer’s block.
A classic voyage and return narrative, layered with wit, enchanting writing and a love of books, TLPB was written by a young German woman ( it’s already a best-seller in Germany), which may account for the freshness of its perspective.
I prescribed it for a cynical friend who has ‘seen it all’ (and read it all) and she swooned.