Thank you for not Smoking
"Thank you for not Smoking" is the first title to be published by Barfly, and also the first novel by Arlo Flinn. We wanted Arlo to provide some kind of explanation, a synopsis, maybe. It took a while to track him down but now we have ... here's what he has to say about it:
"I was doing alright, all things considered. Jessica, my sister, had been in rehab on and off for years but this meant that I lived in her house in Clapham, looking after everything until she was sane enough to do it herself, i.e. probably never. It was a good arrangement.
"I'd go out to see her every other weekend at the happy hippy no-pressure place in Richmond, not because I liked her but because she paid me to deliver her supplies. They had a pretty relaxed attitude, which was how come she stayed there. So the good more or less balanced out the bad. It was alright. My girlfriend Electra was alright. The band, my band really, was alright as well, when anyone got round to booking up a gig. Then it occurred to me that maybe alright wasn't enough. Maybe I needed something more so I rang some agencies, to try to get a tour for the band, and one of them was interested. They were going to come to see us play. I didn't really need the money but I did need something to do, other than hang out and have parties. In Jessica's swanky house. That everybody thought was mine. More good/bad stuff.
"And then Miles the trombone player turned up, the morning of the gig that the man from Ersatz Promotions was coming to, the gig that was going to pull me out of my slump and give me direction, a steady wage, respect, even. He was having a crisis, which could ruin my plans: his father was dying and he'd made Miles promise to give up smoking. This is the sort of situation I usually avoid but I needed him. Without a trombone, 'The Jimmy Edwards Experience' didn't make any sense at all. It didn't make much sense with one but it was too late to change the line-up so there was nothing for it. Miles had to become my new best friend.
" I suppose that was my biggest mistake, or not, depending on how you look at it, but just one brief little week later Miles' father was dead and cremated and between us we'd lost one domicile, two girlfriends, half a band and an entire family. Jessica didn't count. No-one minded losing her. On the plus side, we'd gained a goldfish, a mock-Bolivian percussionist and, as it turned out ... but I'm giving too much away.
If you want to know all about it, you're going to have to buy the book.
Read extracts from Thank you for not Smoking...
"Hilariously funny ... possibly the coolest book in Christendom." King O'Bling
"In the end, the best thing. you can do for a child is leave it alone"
Dr. Martin Fleischman
WARNING:
This book contains a wealth of offensive language, scenes of wild narcotics abuse and descriptions of gratuitous violence. On the downside, there is absolutely no sex whatsoever.
£8.49 - Includes P&P
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