Them Feltwell Boys by David G Bailey is an emotive read

Them Feltwell Boys is the latest book from author David G Bailey. David was born in Lincolnshire and mainly schooled in the Isle of Ely, also studying in the Fens and the Black Forest. He has lived in the USA, Caribbean and South America as well as the UK. Currently based in the Midlands, he travels to write reports on insurance markets around the world. He published his first book in 2021;

If women are so much trouble, Ray, why do you always want more than one?

Parallel narratives of a schoolboy’s developing first love affair and his career and marriage unravelling 25 years later eventually converge at a school reunion.

Ray Roden is a Fenland schoolboy in trouble with teachers and friends as well as women after his boys’ grammar merges with the girls’ high. He has already met Tina: that girl would give me some of the best moments of my life. And the worst.

Ray Roden is an insurance executive travelling the Caribbean in trouble with his job, his wife (one of them Roper girls), his children – and still women: this last ten days I’ve been kicked out of their beds by my wife, my girlfriend and a … another one. And then there is Hurricane Martin, ‘storm of the century’, heading straight for his home in Puerto Rico.

Alongside humorous scenes in Ray’s unenlightened development from schoolboy clumsiness to mid-life crisis mismanagement are grimmer adult ones including adultery, alcohol abuse, physical and sexual assault. Will he emerge from his school reunion with more than one, one, ‘the one’ or no woman at all?

Them Feltwell Boys is an extremely emotive read. It’s a very character-driven story so you get to really understand the characters and the motivation for their actions.

What makes this book such a good read is that the author doesn’t try to sugarcoat or hide the fact that Ray is flawed and makes questionable decisions. It’s mark of his talent as a writer though that you fully understand the choices Ray makes, even if you don’t agree with them, and it doesn’t make you him hate him.

You can get a copy here!

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