Serious Things by Gregory Norminton

Serious Things by Gregory Norminton

In the early 1990s, at an old-fashioned boarding school, two boys form an intense friendship that will shape the course of their lives. Bruno Jackson, the shy and lonely son of British expats, is infatuated by the glamorous but troubled Anthony Blunden. Taken under the wing of an idealistic English teacher, the boys are encouraged to explore the more serious things of life beyond college. But in the hothouse of the school, a slight from their mentor seems of earth shattering-importance, with fateful consequences. Years later, with the memories of that time almost buried, Bruno leads a blameless, uneventful life. The sudden reappearance of Anthony forces him to revisit the dark corners of his past and to decide how far hes prepared to go to assuage his conscience. From the acclaimed writer of GHOST PORTRAIT and THE SHIP OF FOOLS, this is a gripping tale of vengeance, morality and the complex paths that can lead to redemption.

'Suffused with desire and regret, this beautiful, understated novel is a moving meditation on change and compromise' -- Guardian on GHOST PORTRAIT 'Anything by Gregory Norminton is a pleasure to read - the pages skip by in his light, cadenced style' -- Time Out on GHOST PORTRAIT 'Sardonic, carnal, intellectual, violent, urbane, ARTS AND WONDERS delves straight back to the origins of the novel..classic picaresque' -- Guardian on ARTS AND WONDERS 'Clever and energetic and sly and funny and full of inventiveness. I wish there was more fiction like this being published in Britain.' -- Kate Atkinson on SHIP OF FOOLS 'A remarkable achievement' -- Times Literary Supplement on SHIP OF FOOLS 'impeccably written... It is rare enough to find a successful conflation of the personal and the political but to articulate immense issues such as environmental depredation, the culture of narrow self-interest and the mendacity of power within a story that stays anchored to its plot and characters without falling into tub-thumping is astonishing. Norminton's measured, elegant prose makes beauty and menace sing in perfect harmony. The book is worth reading for his writing on teh English countryside alone, while his scaling of the treacherous cliffs of the human heart will take your breath away." -- Seven, Telegraph, Neel Mukherjee 20080209

Gregory Norminton was born in 1976. He studied at Oxford and trained as an actor. His first novel, THE SHIP OF FOOLS, was published by Sceptre in 2002 and was followed in 2004 by ARTS AND WONDERS, for which he won an Arts Council Writers Award, and GHOST PORTRAIT in 2005.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780340834671
ISBN 10	0340834676
Title	Serious Things
Author	Gregory Norminton
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Year published	2008-01-24
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable