Tilting at Windmills A Spanish Year Chasing a Henry Murphy

Mark had never thought of retiring. Barristers don t retire. However, his 64th birthday was fast approaching. When I m Sixty-Four and all that, and, beneath the wig and gown, he had always had a desire to write. Time was running out. He rather he and his wife, Helen decided they would take a year out. Like their children had, only later. They quickly ruled out the West of Ireland and the Wild Atlantic Way. For obvious reasons. And opted instead for a pueblo blanco in Andalucìa. Mark could write his bestseller there. A white-washed house in a white-washed village in the mountains of Andalucìa. What more could an aspiring author want? He lost no time in getting down to it. A writing room without a view and a typewriter. And no interruptions. Everything went splendidly for a day or two, when fate intervened. Followed by weeks of slow progress while he negotiated surgery and the intricacies of plot. In May, Mark carried out a quarterly review. Radical changes were called for and implemented. Ruthlessly. Beginning with telling Helen he couldn t come home for her birthday. Summer came and went. Deadlines loomed. Would Mark do it? Would he achieve his New Year s resolution: One Year, One Novel? From the author of the Dermot McNamara series, An Eye on the Whiplash, Brief Cases and A Night at the Inns, comes a comedic new novel which will ring familiar to anyone who has ever thought there is a book within them.