An autobiographical novel spanning more than seventy years and five continents, Peter Ridgley’s story is a journey through adventure, love, lust, sex, money, and politics. At its heart lies a provocative reflection on what truly shapes our lives:
“There are no winners, no losers in this existence — maybe we are all lovers, this determining every aspect of our lives.”
The Nosy Detective (on Meeting Madam Charlie)
Nina Fairweather, Bristol
Hang on. HANG ON. Who on earth is Edith Cutlacks, and why does everybody in this scene appear to know her except me?
Charlie crosses a nightclub floor in Adelaide, of all the places on this earth, walks straight up to him and uses his name before he has said a word. And that is it. That is the hinge. A whole marriage comes off its runners in the space of two paragraphs and we are not given so much as a hint of an explanation, we are simply expected to keep up.
I have read a great many I met someone and everything changed scenes, and most of them take a chapter and a half to do less than this one does in half a page. My compliments to whoever decided not to explain it. Although I would like it noted, formally and for the record, that I am still thinking about Edith.
