MAN AND BOY
Tony Parsons
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999
Copyright © Tony Parsons 1999
Cover design by Sim Greenaway © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photograph © Joe Partridge
Tony Parsons asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780006512134
Ebook Edition © July 2019 ISBN: 9780007362899
Version: 2019-06-18
‘As ever, [Tony Parsons] is in impressively depth-charging, straight-talking form. A broadsheet mind with a tabloid tongue, he remains one of the few male writers prepared to look beyond his own navel in search of answers’
GQ
‘As tautly plotted as a thriller and its rich cast of characters defy stereotype … Like Kern or Gershwin, he touches the universal via the specific and we weep’
Irish Times
‘Unashamedly touching … funny and well-written’
Telegraph magazine
‘I sobbed my way shamelessly through this book’
Woman’s Journal
‘Superb. Man and Boy is as witty and sharp as you would expect from Parsons but it is not at all bitter – rather profoundly moving. It will strike chords with many readers’
Yorkshire Post
‘Entertaining. Hugely so. Parsons has the skill to grip you by the collar and drag you into the heart of the story’
Manchester Evening News
‘Parsons is a brisk and punchy writer, moving the story on in a series of jaunty episodes and comic vignettes’
Times Literary Supplement
‘Anyone expecting Parsons’ trademark razor-sharp mockney one-liners will find something altogether more subtle. It might sound a bit Nick Hornby but I’d liken it to Kramer v Kramer. A surprising tear-jerker’
Mirror
‘What distinguishes Parsons’s effort from a shelfful of “male identity” outings is his ability to take the traditional framework of the genre … and work within it to produce a series of wholly unexpected twists and eddies … If this is the direction in which British chaps’ fiction is heading, then no one who cares about contemporary writing can seriously complain’
Literary Review
‘The writing is confident and accomplished … He makes the reader care … This is art shot through with humanity’
Independent on Sunday
‘He takes as his specialist subject contemporary emotional issues which almost every other male writer has ignored’
Guardian
‘Funny, serious, tender and honest … Tony Parsons is writing about the genuine dilemmas of modern life’
Sunday Express
‘Memorable and poignant – nobody squeezes more genuine emotion from a scene than Tony Parsons’
Spectator
‘One of the many great things about a Tony Parsons novel is that they always make you feel not just alive, but even more aware of how precious life is … Another modern classic’
Mirror
‘Parsons manages to astutely cut right to the heart of family life’
Woman and Home
‘His stories show all too well how we muddle along in search of love and fulfilment, and when we fluff it … sometimes that’s just because it’s easier’
Observer
For my mother
Contents
Foreword to the 20th Anniversary Edition
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World