The Hopeless Life Of Charlie Summers

Hector Chetwode-Talbot, Eck to his friends, has left the army and is slightly at a loss as to what to do next, when he is approached by an old army pal, Bilbo Mountwilliam. Bilbo runs an investment fund company and business is booming. Bilbo persuades Eck to join the company as a 'greeter' for moneyed clients. All Eck has to do is supply the contacts with entertainment and large G&Ts and then the fund managers will do the rest.

Soon Eck is able to buy himself a luxury sports car and decadent flat. It is on a golfing trip to France that Eck first meets Charlie Summers, a fly-by-night entrepreneur whose latest scheme is to import Japanese dog food into the UK.

Soon Charlie lands on Eck's doorstep with his suitcase, intent on staying and relaunching his dog food business in the area. But with the financial crash looming, Eck begins to ask himself if they are so very different. . .

One of the most outstanding authors to have emerged in recent years DAILY EXPRESS
Brilliantly and sympathetically drawn...this wonderfully written, clever book does not miss a single trick DAILY MAIL
Funny, touching and ultimately surprising SCOTSMAN
Charlie is a wonderful creation, at once sad and heroic, whose search for redemption attains real pathos at the end of this affecting, skilfully crafted novel FINANCIAL TIMES
Torday is master of blending satire with gentle humanity PSYCHOLOGIES
Shades of both Greene and Ambler here, both in the crispness of the exposition and the marrying of humour with something close to tragedy SPECTATOR
A beautifully told tale - we loved it! BELLA
A brilliant, page-turning read that combines the pace of Torday's THE GIRL ON THE LANDING with his trademark humour in SALMON FISHING GRANTA
A fine tale. Even the worst of us, according to this novel, can find redemption DAILY EXPRESS
His quietly compassionate portrait of Charlie has powerful echoes off Dickens's Sydney Carton in A TALE OF TWO CITIES METRO
The SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN author is now achieving 'must-read' status. You're in for an Eck of a good time NEWS OF THE WORLD

Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He spent the next 30 years working in engineering and in industry, after which he scaled back his business responsibilities to fulfil a long-harboured ambition - to write. He burst on to the literary scene in 2006 with his first novel, SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN, an immediate bestseller that has been sold in 25 countries. He is married with two sons by a previous marriage and has two stepsons and lives close to the River North Tyne.

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