Description
Fiction. Satire. Dark Comedy. Victor Andrews cannot decide whether thinking is a good thing or not. He has managed to escape it till now, too occupied with his career and the pursuit of his romantic and carnal ambitions. A heart operation and an inheritance suddenly change all that. He has time on his hands and new ambitions to invent for himself. If he starts thinking, will it take him forwards or backwards? he wonders. Will it lead him out of the confused labyrinth of his life and give it some new meaning before it's too late? Or push him to join the company of the crazy people who chase endlessly the tails of their obsessions? His newly-acquired African grey parrot has, for the moment, one word alone to say about these and indeed all other questions on Victor's mind: "Bollocks." But Victor intends to change all that once he has conceived the parrot's educational program. In the meantime, he finds himself increasingly attached to the great Emerson's truth: "Life consists in what a man is thinking all day." Yes, perhaps Victor too should start thinking and see what happens to his life? This black comedy recounts his adventure... (Previously published under the title Homo Conscius).
"The book is a real blast! Very enjoyable."—Tariq Goddard
"Laced with acidic wit, delivered in stunningly elegant prose ... a great novel."—newlondonwriters.com
"... fitfully funny ..."—Kirkus Reviews
"As a book which introduces a novel way of thinking about thinking, this book is perfect."—James Gault, The Voice of Literature
Author Bio
Born in 1954 in London of mixed Scottish and English parentage, Timothy Balding grew up and was educated on a British military base in Germany. He left school and his family at the age of sixteen to return alone to the United Kingdom, where he was hired as a reporter on local newspapers in Reading in the county of Berkshire. For the ensuing decade, he worked on local and regional titles and then at Press Association, the national news agency, covering politics in Westminster, the British Parliament. He exiled himself to Paris, France, in 1980, and spent the next thirty years working for international, non- governmental organizations. For twenty-five of these, he was Chief Executive Officer of the World Association of Newspapers, the representative global group of media publishers and editors, established after World War II to defend the freedom and independence of the press worldwide. A Knight (First Class) in the Order of the White Rose of Finland—an honor accorded him by Nobel Peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish President—Timothy Balding currently lives in France and devotes himself to writing. He is the author of THE ZUCCHINI CONSPIRACY: A NOVEL OF ALTERNATIVE FACTS (Upper West Side Pilosphers, 2019), THE IMPOSTERS: A NOVEL (Upper West Side Pilosphers, 2019), and THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP THINKING (Upper West Side Pilosphers, 2019).
Author City: Biarritz FRA