TAKING LEAVE
“Jeremy Thomas is a complete original. His writing, like his life,
is a whirlwind of brilliance, wonder and blunder, by turns,
hilarious and terrifying. Highly recommended.”
– Stephen Fry
London 1979. Tim Lomax is only twenty five and already setting up a new label with Rick, manager of the Ox. He’s just won a major music award, and his Mother is finally getting out of hospital. He’s even just met a girl called Loveday who bears an uncanny resemblance to the girl of his dreams. Everything’s working out, the chanting uncertainties shaped like worms or ravens in his mind seem to have gone quiet, and Tim can’t help telling Ned, his cat and confidant, he thinks he might really have ‘cracked it…
So when Tim has a ‘Big Idea’ that ought to make them all millions, he drags everyone around him on a roller coaster ride to the 65th floor of euphoria and beyond:
A funny and enjoyable read despite it’s subject matter, Taking Leave, is packed with unforgettable characters, wryly humorous observations upon life the universe and everything, as well as some of the most fantastic comic set pieces you will read this year, or any other.
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“Taking Leave is funny, intelligent, moving and elegantly crafted. If you are interested in the record business, in lives out of control, or the plaintive and absurd realites of human nature then Thomas is your man.”– A.L. Kennedy
“Taking Leave is a glorious celebration of human frailty. It is funny, moving, and clever and exposes uncomfortable truths about the record industry.”
– Sue Townsend
“It is a long time since I have read a book which is erudite, engaging throughout, tightly written and makes me laugh out loud – but ‘Taking Leave’ is all those things. Regardless of whether the reader has an insight into the record business, this is a very funny and completely gripping story of slow and irrecoverable decline in disaster through ego mania mixed with inferiority feelings and human frailty. The central character Tim Lomax is very reminiscent of John Self in Martin Amis’ Money and the scrapes he gets into are similar too – in scale and nature. If you liked Money, you will love this. It’s a page-turning feast.” – P. Henry via an Amazon review
Taking Leave is now available in electronic form – either to buy or borrow – via the Amazon Kindle Store.
