Nancy Boy: For One Year Only… (The Rowlings Years, book 2)

A new dawn approaches – “the real out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new,” deems Emmaline; “the shedding of crinkly baggage.” What with a tired and tested Conservative party spiralling downward, and the emergence of a New Labour drawing near, the writing is on the wall; things, as they’d say in time, could only get better. And how better might this majestic isle express herself than by her ever innovative musical sons! Oasis? Blur?

The ’80s are gone and good riddance to them, that’s what Phillip thinks! Or he would, were he to think at all. Yes, Phillip Rowlings is back… all grown up.

Save that he couldn’t give a garlic snail about emerging British dawns – he wants out. And has invested years applying himself to that end – he’s heard the calls, conveyed, of all the eccentric ideas, by no other than T. Rex’s Marc Bolan, and Blind Date’s Cilla Black.

France. 1994-’95: ex-Soul boy goes Nancy Boy, for the one year only…

And while it all looks lovely on the brochure, “poor Phillip”, as someone once said, may not be as skilled as Emmaline in the shedding of said crinkly baggage. Further to which – and here lies the real question:

FOR THE DREAD OF LOSING LOVE, CAN A MAN COME TO ACQUIRE MORE THAN A LIFE’S WORTH?

Yours to find out. But let’s get one thing clear from the outset – dès le départ, as they say in the old hexagon – this isn’t A Year in Provence…