Own, rent or timeshare?

To celebrate the official publication of When the Siren Calls, I am delighted to be offering a free 3 night stay in an idyllic resort in the very heart of enchanting Tuscany. Beautiful and romantic Tuscany is of course the setting for the book, and an all year round tourist destination. Tuscany is as fascinating as it is diverse, and if you have yet to visit, it is sure to delight and surprise. Most famous as the home of Michelangelo and birthplace of the Renaissance, with rolling hills of vineyards and olive groves, ancient towns and villages going back to Estucean times, but also vibrant nightlife in university cities and glorious beaches along the 'Tuscan riviera.' There is something for everyone in the garden of Italy. You will be staying in picturesque central Tuscany, with Florence and Pisa east and west, and Lucca and Siena north and south, all within easy reach.
You will be able to follow in the footsteps of Isobel, exploring the real places she visits in the novel, as she loses herself in the love affair of her dreams under the hot Tuscan sun.
You will be staying in your own authentic Tuscan apartment, converted from original historic buildings, enjoying stunning views, the luxury of a heated pool, the finest of Tuscan cuisine, just like Isobel.
And this offer is open to singles, couples and families up to six !
To fully enjoy this prize, and to be eligible to enter the competition, you will need to have read the book and be able to answer a quiz about the places in Tuscany that Isobel visits. Pop in and enjoy a glass of Chianti wine in an authentic 'enoteca', and imagine the scene as it was when Isobel found herself being seduced by the man of her dreams. Even take a stroll or ride a horse through the hillside trail where she first succumbed to the burning desire within her!

To be sure you don't miss out, pop your email details onto the contact section on www.tombarrywrites.com , or check back back here regularly if you prefer. 

   Thanks for popping in.

 IN 1945 when the outcome of WW2 was certain, the United States dropped two atom bombs on two undefended cities, killing directly and by slow radiation poisoning over half a million innocent civilians.  The USA has never apologized and still maintains today that killing those half a million innocents was the right thing to do. The men who flew their planes into the twin towers killing over 2,000 innocents, including twelve of my colleagues, also believed it was the right thing to do.

In an often binary world we seem to rationalize right and wrong by motive. We are told who the good guys are and, when they behave like the bad guys, we excuse their actions because the intent is good. Dropping those atom bombs was a necessary warning to the Soviets, and the Japanese people deserved to be punished, so let’s move on.

In my new novel, When the Siren Calls, it would be hard to separate the good guys from the bad guys based only on their actions. The story intertwines a contemporary romance and business thriller around three common threads – seduction, deception and betrayal. No matter whether it is in the boardroom or the bedroom, and no-matter whether the siren call is to the head or the heart, the story takes us into a world where everyone wants something from someone else, and both the principled and the unscrupulous will deceive and manipulate to get what they want.

The restless and neglected heroine, Isobel, is a modern day Lady Chatterley and yearns to escape a stagnant marriage and a workaholic husband. The enigmatic Jay seems to offer the exotic – the romance of her dreams and the opportunity for sexual experimentation. All around them is a band of hapless Brits lured to Tuscany by promises of riches and the siren call of life under the Tuscan sun. Ultimately, both lions and lambs will pay for their sins in a nightmare of deception and betrayal.

In a tense boardroom scene, an indignant Jay justifies his methods to his disillusioned business partner, Andy.

               “In other words, a sort of ‘buy to let’ scam, then? said Andy.

                “No, not a scam at all, as I said, everything was well intended.”

                 “Come off it,” snapped Andy. “You are not telling me the people buying this week are not being partly induced by a guaranteed rental scheme? It’s trumpeted in all the literature. That is deception.”

               “First, none of us want to be in this situation. It has been forced upon us. Second, it is not deception. Yes, it may be manipulation; that I grant you, but manipulation is very different from deception.”
             “Help me understand that, in case I ever need to explain it to a man in a blue uniform.”
              “It is not semantics. Everyone in life is manipulating those around them all the time. Trying to get things done their way. You manipulate Kate and Kate manipulates you. Businesses and newspapers and governments are manipulating people en masse all the time. They just tell you that part of the story that they want you to know. They leave out the stuff that doesn’t fit with their agenda. It’s how things work. Some people are just better at it than others.”
             “Sorry, Jay, I’m not buying it. There is such a thing as integrity. Or at least I thought there was.”

What I have tried to do in When the Siren Calls is let the reader understand motive through the point of view of each character. Even the darkest villain is the hero in his own story, his actions justified to himself by his own view of the world. It’s a technique that makes the novel different from the standard romance or thriller, with their unblemished heroines and dashing heroes, where we are mostly presented with a view of the world through a single or dominant point of view. If you like stories that make you think rather than feed you recipes, When the Siren Callscould be the book for you.

Thanks for popping in and I look forward to seeing you back soon

More sex please, we’re British.

As Prince Harry cavorts naked in a Vegas hotel and Kate Middleton goes topless, is this more evidence that, for the rich and famous, promiscuity is a way of life?

 

Granted, Prince Harry is free and single and entitled to fill his boots from the Vegas Strip to Kabul’s murder mile, but his old man, and I’m talking Charles here, has previous, as they say down the Yard. But maybe we should be admiring Harry for his promiscuity and  Charles for his infidelity? We Brits have after all always been known, admired even, for our sex scandals and our tradition of West End bedroom romps.

Shows like Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle, some might say, only go to prove that everyone is at it. But the trailer-park types that Springer and Kyle seek out and exploit are no less representative than Harry and Charles of the public at large.  So, as far as the rich and famous are concerned, is promiscuity and infidelity a way of life? And if it is, why should we care?

My latest novel, When the Siren Calls, might have you  believe it is, and that we should care. Seduction, deception and betrayal are central themes and there is an unmistakeable undertone suggesting  low morals are indeed the order of the day amongst the rich and powerful.

The good news is that the theme is not the story. The book is a sensual and moving emotional drama around a modern day Lady Chatterley. Yes, it pulls the bedsheets off  the decadent life-style  amongst Britain’s jet-set, but that is not the point of the story. In this fast-paced romantic suspense and business thriller, I take you into a world that is populated by almost universally rich men and beautiful women. The men are mostly predatory adulterers, and the women are all adept at using their sexuality to manipulate the men. From the boardroom to the bedroom, infidelity is pervasive,

 The heroine who is prey amongst the devious and the decadent is the restless and neglected Isobel,  who finds that her cosseted cotton-wool existence leads to a search for the exotic. The exotic in this case being the enigmatic Jay, a powerful and controlling lothario who lures her away from her workaholic husband and into the hot, romantic Tuscan life, where he pushes her to continually go beyond her sexual boundaries. If the story tells us anything, it is that when a woman with high ideals meets a man with low morals, she’d better watch out.

Where Fifty Shades of Grey is about one man’s depravity, my story explores the amoral values of a privileged elite. At a time when we all seem to crave the celebrity life-style, this cutting satire will be seen by some as a warning as to how atavistic and superficial the world of the rich and famous can be and how, like Isobel and Jay, we must all ultimately pay for our sins.

What makes me qualified to hold forth on the morals of the rich and powerful, you might well ask?  I am after all just an unemployed writer of the written word. But that wasn’t always the case, my friends. Before two heart attacks took their toll I earnt my daily crust  amongst city fat-cats and a world of corporate excess, where the demi-monde world of city-player schmooze  was very much a reality. And since I left that world behind me, I have retreated to the suburbs close to a celebrity bubble where it is common-place to bump into a footballer or a rock-star coming out of the local bookie or cappuccino  bar. And i enjoy nothing better than people watching over my mid-morning latte.

My novel of course exaggerates, like all satires, the aspects of life it seeks to put under the spotlight. But if you are fascinated by the world of celebrity, or if you are appalled by it, When the Siren Calls could be the book for you.  

Thanks for popping in, and i look forward to seeing you back here soon.

Thanks for popping in.

Do you know that 40% of Brits would emigrate if they could? Seems so; James Forsyth says as much in the Spectator. According to expats he's spoken to, "the UK is still the corrupt, costly, overtaxed, cold, overcrowded, criminal, scrounger-ridden, unmannerly cesspit they left behind."

The shining light that has brought this shocking state of affairs to my attention is my soon to be best friend, Catherine Bennett of the Guardian. Well I've got a few dodgy statistics to add fuel to the getaway car. Apparently over 3m Brits already own holiday homes abroad. Add to that those that 'own' a timeshare, a 'timeshare interest', a 'fractional investment', an 'overseas property bond', or some other version of old vinegar in a new bottle, and it seems the whole country is itching to live the dream under some foreign flag.

But is the siren call of the expat life all it's cracked up to be? Ms Bennett thinks not. And I would particularly like to thank Catherine for her prescient use of the term 'Siren Call." Yes, it's true, journalists really can read minds and see into the future. Because while Mr Forsyth and Ms Bennett were drawing swords, I was drawing my pen, and scripting the real story, the story of "When the Siren Calls." A story of hope and disappointment, of dreams and nightmares. A story of how a hapless Dad's Army of Brits come to find themselves fighting for survival under the Tuscan sun, amongst a gleeful and machiavellian band of Italians who can't believe their luck.    It's human drama at its finest. A compelling and fast paced romantic suspense novel that reads like a Grisham thriller. But weaved everywhere amongst the steamy passion is the expat tale;  a witty and humorous story, where Fawlty Towers meets Hi-Di-Hi. Will the stoical Brits win the day? Or will the smarmy Italians be forced to retreat (or choose to do so!) That would be telling. You'll just have to read  When the Siren Calls It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and along the way you'll discover a little of the reality of overseas property investment.

Thanks for popping in and look forward to seeing back soon.