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Synopsis
George Geraghty, the notorious satirical cartoonist, ought to be enjoying his retirement to the wilds of North Cumbria. Instead he cannot shake off the legacy of his long dead father Bill, who spoke some fifty-five languages and had at least fifty-five mistresses. John Murray’s latest wild extravaganza characteristically concerns itself with erotic love, linguistics, familial rivalry, and other contentious matters . . . Praise for John Murray’s novel, Murphy’s Favourite Channels: ‘An exquisite dryly comic tone. The funniest novel I’ve read for a long time.’ - Andrew Martin, Novel of the Week, the Daily Telegraph ‘A wonderfully funny collection of set pieces. A Sterne de nos jours.’ – John McDermott, Literary Review ‘By turns sharply funny, sweetly self-deprecating and heartbreakingly sad.’ – Iain Millar, Independent on Sunday‘ His flow of zestful gallows humour, scatological reminiscences, daft anecdotes, local yarns, surreal wordplay and hectoring oratory is unstoppable, but always under expert artistic control.’ – Tom Deveson, Sunday Times John Murray has published seven critically acclaimed novels and a collection of stories, Pleasure, which won the Dylan Thomas Award in 1988. Jazz Etc. was long listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize and his 2004 novel, Murphy’s Favourite Channels, was a Novel of the Week in the Daily Telegraph Paperback Original – Fiction Price: £8.99 ISBN: 1-873226-81-0 Publication: June 2006 216 x 138 mm, 256 pp Flambard Press
George Geraghty, a satirical cartoonist, has retired to the depths of Cumbria. But this retirement is anything but peaceful. George is tormented by his bad back, his obsolete talent, and the towering figure of his father. George’s Dad was certainly a hard act to follow — he spoke 55 languages, and had 55 (at least) mistresses. His “carnality“, says George, was due to disappointment — a highly promising academic career was ruined by an attack of vaudevillian slapstick, and his womanising was all that kept him from going bonkers with bitterness. Very funny — Murray has a fine eye for life’s custard pies.
Kate Saunders
John Murray's forte, in his novels so far, has been the portrayal of the often extraordinary and sometimes plain barmy people who inhabit his version of Cumbria. A Gentleman's Relish, his eighth, is a bit of a departure. While it keeps an unbilical link to Cumbria it strikes out in time and place, to follow the misfortunes of three generations of the Geraghty family in Oxford and London...The epigraph to this novel is from the Donegal novelist, Peadar O'Donnell: "The great thing about the world is tht it is full of people. Human nature is great stuff." It is John Murray's stuff, and it is good and heartening to see a writer who is willing to engage with it in all its full glory.
William Palmer
George Geraghty, satirical cartoonist, aged 65, reflects on long-dead father, Bill, speaker of 55 languages and asolutely barking mad. Besides the elegiac sadness rippling throughout this novel, it is one of the most uproariously funny books you will read particularly when Bill's birds, Gerund and Participle, converse in Basque and medieval Aramaic.
Martin Tierney
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