The Last Summer of the Water Strider

Book excerpt: A captivating 1970s-set novel that is both a coming-of-age and an End-of-an-Age story: about love, the lure of idealism, innocence and decadence. Adam is seventeen, the only son of straitlaced, cautious Ray and Evie.Life is slow, unbearably routine, in their low-rise council block in the London suburbs, until tragedy strikes, leaving Adam unhinged with grief. Rejecting any consolation at home, Adam is sent to spend the long hot 1970s summer with Ray's unlikely brother, the enigmatic Dr Henry Templeton - guru and spiritual teacher. With few possessions and even fewer ambitions for his future, Adam arrives at his uncle's houseboat in the West Country. Henry is charismatic, unfamiliar, full of eccentric ideas and projects. As the summer unspools, Adam meets first Strawberry, an ethereal American girl living in a shack in the woods; and then Ashley, whose father, the local vicar, is locked in conflict with Henry and his circle's 'alternative' way of life. While Adam falls under the spell of pretty, knowing Ashley, Henry, set on pursuing his personal vision unbendingly, seals the shocking fate of Strawberry, Adam and ultimately himself. 'I was very moved by The Last Summer of the Water Strider, which is both exquisitely specific to time and place and universal in its examination of humanity, grief and the bizarre prisons that people build for themselves - and one another. Funny, fascinating, mysterious and provocative' Sadie Jones, author of The Outcast 'Great storytelling and superb characterisation. Very few writers can evoke quintessential Englishness in its myriad forms like Tim Lott. I loved it' Irvine Welsh