Running Away

Book excerpt: Written with the characteristic wit and good humour, Leslie Thomas's novel tells the story of a grown man who runs away from home, and the adventures that befall him in his quest for a new lease of life. His latest love affair discovered (thanks to an observant fifteen-year-old daughter who points out the still-wet suds of expensive soap lingering in his ear), bestselling author Nicholas Boulting sets off amid a torrent of abuse to see what else life can offer. After his fantasy escape to Luxor turns into a nighmarish excursion to Malaga, Nicholas returns hastily to London. He moves into a flat in Little Venice with Sol Solomon, a sex-mad writer of dubious reputation, and sits down to write his next novel, Owls of Desperation. Full of the qualities we have come to expect from his novels, Running Away is Leslie Thomas's eminently readable and enjoyable story of one man's mid-life crisis.