Ex-Summerhill teacher John’s new novel set in time before social media
A FORMER secondary school teacher in Sligo has released a new novel.
Is It Four O’Clock Yet? by John McLoughlin – an English teacher of many years at Summerhill College – is set in the 1990s, before the advent of social media when young people interacted face-to-face, and there was an immediacy and spontaneity to their encounters.
The novel relates to the adventures of 22-year-old Stephen Daly, who arrives from Dublin to start his new life teaching in the west of Ireland.
For a variety of reasons, this young man has lived a sheltered life to date, but he is determined to make up for lost time. He cannot wait to start dating women, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and living life to the full. Despite initial good intentions on his part, his classroom performances are comically inept, in the aftermath of a hilarious but damaging first-day experience.
Stephen makes some very bad choices professionally and personally, as he lurches from one crisis to another. However, everything changes for him when a certain lady enters his world and turns his life upside down. At various times, the book will make one laugh and cry as it captures the rollercoaster of emotions experienced by the young man and his friends, as they try to make their way in the world, that is capable of delivering great happiness to some and tragedy to others.
‘Is It Four O’Clock Yet? is available in Liber and Eason in Sligo in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon.