A ripping yarn - Mark Baxter's latest novel

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Well, I've just finished reading 'Elizabeth, Peter & Me', published a couple of months ago by Mark Baxter. It's truly a ripping yarn, with a very definite, London voice. In his own, inimitable style, Mark has written a novel that engages the audience with the story and won't let go until the final page.

It's got Cockney rhyming slang aplenty and tons of ducking, diving and dodgy geezers.

What stays with you when reading this novel is the ubiquitous voice of the 'hero'. Vinny is an old man who decides to regain some of his lost youth in the most bizarre and gripping of ways.

I was lucky to meet a reformed ex-criminal last year who is actually one of the nicest men I've ever met, so I could quite believe in this character. People DO change. And sometime they try to get what's theirs. Well, sort of.

By no means a perfect piece of literature, 'Elizabeth, Peter & Me' does, nevertheless rewards the reader with an unusual viewpoint. It's a great story and I hope it's picked up by a film-maker as Mark Baxter's earlier novel - 'The Mumper' - was. It became 'Outside Bet', one of my favourite films of 2012.

A screenplay in the making? Possibly. A ripping yarn? Definitely.




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