Christopher Beck (Chris Cuthbert, MA Creative writing, 2010) has written a novel, The Summertime Blues. He describes the plot and his inspiration.
“The Summertime Blues is a millennial novel that taps an American perspective.
Nick, an alternative family physician in his forties, is increasingly at odds with the business-style NHS, his partners and his profession. Aside from his own, he’s concerned about “the big future” – he has visions of a return to a medical dark age. A poor man’s Hamlet, he knows something big but can’t or won’t get his message out.
Despite – or because of – a hearing defect, Nick has become a ‘voice connoisseur’ and falls for Greta’s lyrical mezzo. She is a bluestocking; a teacher who encourages Nick’s unconventional methods. But her mind is returning to the instability that plagued her twenties.
Time in the novel takes a circular course and the reader is transported back to summer 1997. Greta is edging towards a major breakdown and Nick’s job is on the line.
Enter Steph, Greta’s sister from Ohio. Both she and Nick bring to bear their aeons-apart approaches to Greta’s problems, and to life in general. In doing so they underscore the novel’s principal leitmotif – the accommodation between the physical and the spiritual.
For me, ideas and inspiration come from interfaces; for example, those between Western and Eastern philosophies, and between British and American perceptions. I believe the setting of the novel (Southampton and the South Coast) is a rich but largely unchartered territory for literary fiction.”
Douglas Bamford (BA Philosophy, 2003) has published his book Rethinking Taxation: An Introduction to Hourly Averaging, introducing a new proposal for calculating personal tax by taking account of the number of hours people have worked in their adult lives. The book is available from Amazon
Class Notes – Books Launches
James Sale FRSA (PGCE, 1979) is celebrating the recent publication of his book Mapping Motivation.
James says: “Following my PGCE at the University of Southampton I had a successful career in teaching, leaving it after two stints as a deputy head teacher in two comprehensive schools in 1995. Since then, I have been in the management consultancy and training business. Ten years ago I created Motivational Maps, a unique diagnostic that is now licensed to over 250 management consultants in 14 countries, and in seven languages. Mapping Motivation is a cutting-edge text containing new and original research and ideas about motivation and performance.”
For more information about the book, visit the publisher’s website
Christopher Beck (Chris Cuthbert, MA Creative writing, 2010) has written a novel, The Summertime Blues. He describes the plot and his inspiration.
“The Summertime Blues is a millennial novel that taps an American perspective.
Nick, an alternative family physician in his forties, is increasingly at odds with the business-style NHS, his partners and his profession. Aside from his own, he’s concerned about “the big future” – he has visions of a return to a medical dark age. A poor man’s Hamlet, he knows something big but can’t or won’t get his message out.
Despite – or because of – a hearing defect, Nick has become a ‘voice connoisseur’ and falls for Greta’s lyrical mezzo. She is a bluestocking; a teacher who encourages Nick’s unconventional methods. But her mind is returning to the instability that plagued her twenties.
Time in the novel takes a circular course and the reader is transported back to summer 1997. Greta is edging towards a major breakdown and Nick’s job is on the line.
Enter Steph, Greta’s sister from Ohio. Both she and Nick bring to bear their aeons-apart approaches to Greta’s problems, and to life in general. In doing so they underscore the novel’s principal leitmotif – the accommodation between the physical and the spiritual.
For me, ideas and inspiration come from interfaces; for example, those between Western and Eastern philosophies, and between British and American perceptions. I believe the setting of the novel (Southampton and the South Coast) is a rich but largely unchartered territory for literary fiction.”
Douglas Bamford (BA Philosophy, 2003) has published his book Rethinking Taxation: An Introduction to Hourly Averaging, introducing a new proposal for calculating personal tax by taking account of the number of hours people have worked in their adult lives. The book is available from Amazon
Christopher Beck (Chris Cuthbert, MA Creative writing, 2010) has written a novel, The Summertime Blues. He describes the plot and his inspiration.
“The Summertime Blues is a millennial novel that taps an American perspective.
Nick, an alternative family physician in his forties, is increasingly at odds with the business-style NHS, his partners and his profession. Aside from his own, he’s concerned about “the big future” – he has visions of a return to a medical dark age. A poor man’s Hamlet, he knows something big but can’t or won’t get his message out.
Despite – or because of – a hearing defect, Nick has become a ‘voice connoisseur’ and falls for Greta’s lyrical mezzo. She is a bluestocking; a teacher who encourages Nick’s unconventional methods. But her mind is returning to the instability that plagued her twenties.
Time in the novel takes a circular course and the reader is transported back to summer 1997. Greta is edging towards a major breakdown and Nick’s job is on the line.
Enter Steph, Greta’s sister from Ohio. Both she and Nick bring to bear their aeons-apart approaches to Greta’s problems, and to life in general. In doing so they underscore the novel’s principal leitmotif – the accommodation between the physical and the spiritual.
For me, ideas and inspiration come from interfaces; for example, those between Western and Eastern philosophies, and between British and American perceptions. I believe the setting of the novel (Southampton and the South Coast) is a rich but largely unchartered territory for literary fiction.”
Douglas Bamford (BA Philosophy, 2003) has published his book Rethinking Taxation: An Introduction to Hourly Averaging, introducing a new proposal for calculating personal tax by taking account of the number of hours people have worked in their adult lives. The book is available from Amazon
