John Bowen

In a neglected graveyard we encounter both the quick and the dead. Deceased Harry is waiting for his wife, Beth, to join him. Unable to be seen, or to communicate with the living, Harry can only watch helplessly as his daughter Angie wheels the deaf and ailing Beth to his graveside. Meer

Featuring a story about the Baker family: the father Justin is a retired Colonel, the mother, Teresa, is over-possessive and refuses to admit that her sons have grown-up, the sons Julian and Charles, one is a married advertising copywriter with a penchant for extra-marital affairs while the other is withdrawn and suicidal. Meer

In John Bowen's The Birdcage Peter Ash and Norah Palmer have been living together for nine years. By turns wildly funny and frightening The Birdcage is a novel about the end of a love affair, the repercussions and the emotional fallout. Meer

Beginning in the basement of Foyle's bookshop in the Charing Cross Road in London and moving to rainmaking in Texas, love in Chew Magna, a camp in the Mendips, a storm at sea, sharks, sunstroke, a giant squid and a fight to the death on a raft, this work tells a fable that makes a serious comment on the human situation. Meer