York academic’s rude relatives Down Under book
Added: (Fri Aug 27 2021)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
A retired university academic from York has returned to his Australian roots to retell the story of a mysterious death that shook a rural township.
Ronald Clayton taught history and literature at universities in both England and his homeland during his career.
Now in his 80s, he has turned his attention to a strange death more than 50 years ago in his native Riverina region of New South Wales.
Set in Boree Creek, which had a population of 64 at the last count, In the Course of Events is based on events that still have residents baffled, outraged and incredulous.
Ron says that he is “hardly aware of having actually written this thing, only of having channelled some of his ruder country relatives. It might easily be mistaken for a grotesque and brutish farce but it is in fact nothing short of a True History - only lightly fictionalised to protect the few remaining innocents - of a sensational sequence of events in 1966, in the course of which most of the district's inhabitants ran amok.
“In the Course of Events is also the first full and unexpurgated account of any of the famous cases of the legendary Detective Sergeant Herbert Truscott, the Riverina's iconic investigator.”
He has had stories published in Australia, and in the UK a novel, On the Hill – also set in the Riverina district.
His latest offering is likely to leave its readers baffled, outraged and incredulous.
He cites William Faulkner, Nabokov, Jerome K Jerome and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ as important influences, and compares the climax of his latest work to Homer.
“Discerning readers will notice striking parallels, some of them intentional, between the climactic scenes of In the Course of Events and the more fraught episodes of the Iliad.
“Even relatively undiscerning readers will have no trouble recognising In the Course of Events as a major contribution to the Outdoor Dunny school of Australian literature.
“In the Course of Events is emphatically, he hopes, a one-off - although a few of its female characters are currently demanding a right of reply.
“Its concluding words might also suggest that it all needs to be done again differently.”
Ronald is currently working on yet another novel, which is also set in the vicinity of Wagga Wagga.
For more information visit Amazon and search for Ronald Clayton, where the Kindle and paperback versions of In the Course of Events are both available.
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