After twenty years in London an internationally
famous and somewhat notorious New Zealand artist, known only as ‘Julius’,
returns home when his life falls apart as a result of fraud, death and
depression. The Artist as an Old Man (Self Portrait) is a personal
hour-by-hour journal of the day of the artist’s first New Zealand exhibition.
Having always been busy, in London and around
the world, and then having spent a year working on his New Zealand exhibition,
the restless artist — eccentric, irritable and ageing — suddenly has nothing to
do until the exhibition’s evening opening. For the first time in years he has
time to think. And worry. And so we follow him and his random and sometimes
angry and unreasonable thoughts, including his lingering doubts about his own
work, through the long day.
Having experienced financial relief before the
exhibition, an unpleasant encounter at the exhibition, and sadness after it, he
returns home at the end of the day ready to escape to his new life, alone and
lonely, in Dunedin.
The Artist as an Old Man (Self Portrait) will be available soon from my website and from Amazon and Kindle.
Yes! The Boltons of The Little Boltons is now an Amazon #1 Best Seller in 'London Travel'. For those who don't know about this book here's the cover blurb:
This is the story of the few months the author and his wife
spent working together as servants for a wealthy old couple in their large home
of faded glory in The Little Boltons, one of the most desirable addresses in
the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It begins by documenting their leap from the comfort and security of their New
Zealand home into the bizarre world of domestic service in London. They secured
a live-in position, he as the cook and she as the lady's maid, and the engaging
narrative describes their duties and how they did their best to provide their
eccentric employers with the quality of old-fashioned service and dining to
which they were accustomed. In the process they met an odd assortment of
people, somehow connected to the running of the house, whose lives were
governed by the unwritten rules of the English class system. It was, as the author says, a sad and somewhat surreal and shabby end of an
era, unmarked by history; a metaphor for the demise of what was once the
capital of the world's most powerful empire. And yet it's such a charming little story.
It's taken more than a year but my new novel is finished. It's called IT'S WHAT EDDIE DID. Available now from Amazon and Kindle.
Here's the cover image and synopsis.
From an
Auckland slum to the heights of a New York boardroom and, eventually, an
obscure and unhappy old age, It’s What Eddie Did records the rise and
fall of Eddie Purvis, a rich and successful New Zealand advertising man, and his
relationship with one of the world’s great international airlines and its New
York advertising agency. However, obsessed with his own mid-life success, Eddie
later discovers the importance of family, and that wealth can’t protect him and
them from life’s troubles and disappointments.
"The acting persons [the characters] are very lively and you feel with them. This is not just a made-up story but could have happened several times - for the Maori in New Zealand and everywhere in the world."
Book review: The Boys and Men of Auckland's Mickey Rooney Gang
2 minutes to read
Whanganui Midweek
The Boys and Men of Auckland's Mickey Rooney Gang By Robert Philip Bolton Reviewed by Albert Sword
There is so much 'knowingness' in this exceptional novel, a knowingness bred of the author's deep wisdom, a common-sense knowingness of the surety of relationships and entanglements.
To say the characters are finely drawn is an understatement, for, from page one, each character is etched into the reader's consciousness; they become persons we knew growing up, or persons we know now, with hindsight helping form the connections.
Crudely put, we fall in love with Bolton's characters, who take us on a well-constructed romp through the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.
My baby-boomer birth date of 1950 meant a catch-up of a few years to join these characters, but everything mentioned in this superbly researched book is strong in my memories of the time, vivid and meaningful.
Robert Bolton doesn't put a foot wrong in his narrative, I am there with him, all the way, and anyone growing up in working-class/middle class 60s/70s New Zealand will also be with the author. The ease of the everyday vernacular, and laid-back syntax instantly draws the reader into the narrative, also into trusting the writer.
There are no off putting gaps in the narrative, or in the way. Bolton stitches together the nine separate main characters, their families, friends and significant relationships. To bring together all these varied stories into one cogent and powerful novel is nothing short of magical.
Robert Philip Bolton is a consummate, and prolific, storyteller. In all his books, he creates interesting characters, hones them to perfection, then lets them tell their stories, just like a brilliant symphonic conductor can set parameters for the orchestra, then get out of the way of the musicians who are then left free to create their own realities. Wonderful stuff!
I enjoyed every word of The Boys and Men of Auckland's Mickey Rooney Gang. Robert Philip Bolton is an independent New Zealand writer.
Like many dedicated and professional writers, he found it impossible to break into the small New Zealand publishing establishment.
"Thus," he says, "I happily publish my own books on Amazon and Kindle and sell them to loyal and satisfied readers around the world."
Yes. The Fable of Flitcroft Point will be available soonis available now in New Zealand paperback and internationally from Amazon and Kindle. Set in the distamt future, it's like nothing else I've ever written.
HERE IS THE COVER BLURB:
Early in the twenty-first
century a series of viruses killed eighty percent of the world’s population. Famine
loomed.
In New Zealand there was
plenty of food but too few people to process it. The surviving city folk therefore
fled to the countryside where they provided labour to the remaining farmers in
return for a share of the food they helped produce. As a result the country’s
towns and cities were abandoned.
Into this vacuum came the invading
Vandiers, so numerous and wealthy they dominated the small Kiwiland population
whose traditions, culture, religion and language they despised.
The Fable of Flitcroft
Point is set in a typical Kiwiland
village where, in 2177, the land-grabbing Vandier government has taken village land
for its own purposes. The Kiwilanders, angry and frustrated, want their land back.
But can their feeble protest succeed against the overwhelming power of central
government?
Almost a year after the publication of 'Jacko' my new novel is finished. (Lockdown helped.) It is now in the final stages of preparation for publication. It's called 'The Fable of Flitcroft Point'. There's no cover yet but the cover blurb is written and ready to go.
The Fable of Flitcroft
Point
Early in the twenty-first
century a series of viruses killed eighty percent of the world’s population. Famine
loomed.
In New Zealand there was
plenty of food but too few people to process it. The surviving city folk therefore
fled to the countryside where they provided labour to the remaining farmers in
return for a share of the food they produced. As a result the country’s towns and
cities were abandoned.
Into this vacuum, in 2076,
came the Vandiers, so numerous and wealthy they dominated the small Kiwiland
population whose traditions, culture, religion and language they despised.
The Fable of Flitcroft
Point is set in a typical Kiwiland
village where the Vandier government has taken village land for its own
purposes. The Kiwilanders decide they want their land back. But can their
feeble protest succeed against the overwhelming power of central government?
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