Description
An hilarious caper through Regency Bath – wherein justice and bigotry collide with a bump
Following Belle Nash and the Bath Souffle, this is second adventure in The Gay Street Chronicles, in which our hero returns to bath be-pained by love and confusion, only to learn how great is the suffering of others.
At the end of his last adventure (Belle Nash and the Bath Souffle), Belle Nash was banished for four years to the island of Grenada. It is now 1835, and Belle has returned to Bath, glad to be back but pained by the absence of his most recent Caribbean love. His heartache leads to confusions when he meets Pablo Fanque, the Black equestrian acrobat from Norfolk who longs to set up his own circus. As a well-loved figure in Bath, Belle uses his influence to try and help, but has to run the gauntlet of Lord Servitude, the most hated man in England and a die-hard supporter of slavery. As ever, William Keeling’s whimsical tale brings Belle, his gay hero, into a situation where comedy does not obscure stark moral issues to do with prejudice and bigotry that are as alive today as they were in Regency times.
William Keeling
William Keeling is a former foreign correspondent of the Financial Times who exposed a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal in Nigeria that led to his summary deportation. He eventually left journalism for chocolate, becoming co-owner of the historic chocolate company Prestat, but is still plotting his return to the true home of jollof rice. Like his late uncle (referred to in The Gay Street Chronicles), he has a creative mind. He lives and writes in Somerset.
Metadata
Publisher: EnvelopeBooks
Extent: 320 pages
Size: 203mm x 127mm (8.0” x 5.0”)
ISBN: 9781915023117
Contact: editor@envelopebooks.co.uk
Reviews
“A real romp of a book – full of surprises””
Alexander McCall Smith
“Funny, clever, silly in the right kind of way, and strangely moving in its unexpected ending.”
Jeanette Winterson
“Incisive, outlandish and hilarious…there’s a brilliance in The Gay Street Chronicles.”
Matthew Parris
“Bravo! A rollicking tale of corruption, intrigue and romance.”
Peter Tatchell
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