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His girlfriend commands that he marry her. His wife demands him home in time for tea. His blackmailer commandeers half of his secret earnings. Then he gets hit by a bus. All in all, it's not a good day for Eric. And once he's on crutches, it becomes impossible to juggle two lives, three women and one vicious gangster. Eric's double-decker life and triple-tangled lies drive him to a catastrophic collision in Joseph Connolly's wry and ingeniously plotted black comedy.
Joseph Connolly (1885-1961) was born in Belfast. He began his working-life at the age of fifteen and was a successful businessman in Belfast, Dublin and the U.S.A. An ardent nationalist, in 1911 he co-founded the first Freedom Club to spread the gospel of Sinn Fein; he was a leader of the Irish Volunteers in Belfast in 1914-16 and was imprisoned after the Easter Rising. He served on a commission of the First Dail and acted as consul-general of the Irish Republic in the U.S.A. in 1921-2. In 1923 Connolly played an major role in channelling the activities of antitreatyites into a new political organisation. He was a member of the Seanad from 1928 to 1936, a director of the Irish Press in 1931-2, minister for posts and telegraphy in 1932, minister for lands and forestry from 1932 to 1936, controller of censorship from 1939 to 1941 and chairman of the Office of Public Works from 1936 to 1950.
A stunning collection of Faber covers, published as part of Faber's eightieth anniversary celebrations.
Jim and Milly. Stan and Jane. Jonathan and Fiona. Winter, 1959. Three married couples: each living in England's Lane, each with an only child, and each attending to family, and their livelihoods--the ironmonger, the sweetshop and the butcher. Each of them hiding their lies, disguising sin, and coping in the only way they know how.
On their way to a tedious dinner party with a couple they loathe, Barry and Susan find themselves in a stranglehold amidst a smashed bottle of whisky. As Barry's gambling debts propel him to desperate measures and Susan's boredom finds relief in Barry's best friend, the poor souls tumble from miserable mundanity into social apocalypse. In an acid portrayal of boozing, fornicating, money-grubbing and extreme marital angst, Connolly shows himself to be a master of the genre with wickedly comic panache.
The moment he spots Maria's long legs at a party, Jeremy knows he's done for. The moment she sees that look in his eyes, Maria knows she's in for a free ride. The moment she twigs Jeremy's sneaking around, his wife Anne thinks she knows he's having an affair with Nan - their nanny. And chucks him out. Like dropping a grenade into a pond, this sets off a ricochet of concentric calamity that changes Jeremy's life; and those of Anne, Maria, Nan, Max, Hugo and everyone else they know; leaving them in disarray, washed up or exactly where they were before. In razor-sharp comic style, Joseph Connolly sets up his characters like pawns in a devilish chess game, prodding them towards war, conquest, or merely in evermaddening circles. Lust, manipulation and fear of being alone propel Jeremy in the most inextricable of purgatorial repetitons, until he seems to embody society's cruellest absurdities about the pointlessness of it all - forever going on.
Terence is sick of people making a fuss of Alexander. His looks. His money. His fame. Who wouldn't resent so successful a son? Even if he is only ten years old. Joseph Connolly's brilliant new comedy of manners weaves together a domestic tableaux of characters - those with old-fashioned manners, tabloid manners, and no manners at all - in a satire on oedipal envy, neighbourly rivalry and the shameless stupidity of our fame-fuelled society.
Howard's getting it in the neck at home. Dotty isn't getting any at all. And Norman's getting it at work - from the girl under his desk. What they need is a holiday to let off a bit of steam. And steam is just what they get. As couples of varied ages, class and income set up their deckchairs on the beach, the scene is set for a few crossed wires, a wave of embarrassment and a lot of sand between the sheets. Sun, sea, sex, squabbling: Joseph Connolly's bestselling novel goes straight to the secret heart of that sticky farce of lust and snobbery: the British seaside.
London, 1939. Mary and Jack. In love, unmarried and happy. Until the outbreak of the Second World War. Jackie, ever the lad, is bent on escaping conscription, but the contacts he makes drag him ever deeper into a dangerous criminal underworld. Yet it is Mary who undertakes the most surprising transformation. Despite striving for normality, she must confront a set of choices that will lead to a backstreet abortion and an unexpected vocation. With every tone and cadence of this novel, from wireless to air-raid siren, Connolly conducts with masterful hand and compassionate grace the voices of a once hopeful working class couple - now blitzed, battered and breaking into a desperate new dawn.