Meet the aptly named Blytes in this delectable story full of Dickensian characterisation and black comedy.  The Savoy Truffle is a witty, dramatic novel about life in Britain's richest, wildest Surrey suburb in the early 1960s, and comes to us from an acclaimed author best known for his philosophical works. Instead of the blissed-out revisionist nostalgia you get in most re-enactments of the 60s Harpur dares to portray the generational clashes and awkward transitioning from Britain’s post-war era.  Passages of rip-roaring rompery are deftly infused with stark realisations pertaining to the gender and class issues of that time.  The Savoy Truffle is a literary treat, chock full of historical anecdotes and cultural associations – a veritable truffle worth digging through the layers of our past for.

Set among the mansions and tennis clubs of Surrey’s richest suburb, The Savoy Truffle is a darkly comic drama that evokes an era when Mod gear was fab, the Shorty Nightie shocking, the coffee frothy, and a new Beatles’ single brought hysteria to the classroom. The grey post-war years are trembling on the verge of Technicolour, and the Blyte children are struggling to cope with the transition in their own idiosyncratic ways: Hugh’s novel is held up by yearning for the Irish au pair; Janey moons over the mystery of men and the enigmatic Black Mini; George wages savage war on his Enemy; and the Moo takes refuge in his exclusive Sloppy Club.

A crisis in their parents’ lives brings madness and death, a supernatural visitor and an all-too-real tiger… The children have to confront – and conquer –the follies of their elders with wit and invention.

Patrick Harpur is the acclaimed author of three novels and three works of non-fiction, including Daimonic Reality, The Philosophers’ Secret Fire and Mercurius. He lives in West Dorset, worlds away from his Surrey upbringing.

ISBN: 978-1-908011-65-7
Copyright: Patrick Harpur
Language: English
Pages: 272  
Binding: perfect-bound paperback
Interior print: black & white
Dimensions: 140cm wide × 216cm tall (demy 8vo.)

Published June 28th 2013

£9.99

$15.99