A Boy in Summer [Paperback]

‘startling and often surreal’

‘some of the tautest, tenderest, shearest and most beguilingly distinctive poetry to have appeared in this country… ‘ (poetry)

'There is a rare and precious stasis,
a sense of otherness, and the gift of insinuation ... Ghosts invisible; ever present.'

Price presents a ... subtle view: a little cloudy drizzle and an illuminating blast of sunshine

A Scottish Raymond Carver, Richard Price is a huge new voice in Scottish fiction. Here he captures lost childhood, and evokes the passing of the Scottish village, as the train line to Glasgow closes, and new housing estates and light industry encroach. Scenes from a Scottish rural childhood are evoked...stream fishing for brown trout, 'kidnapping' Kenneth - an unpopular local boy; the arrival of his dad's first Capri...raspberry picking for his mum. Icons of Renfewshire are celebrated - IBM, Linwood, the fruit orchard at Craigends House, the Hydro Hotel, the Hillman Imp...And as a teenager, in a place where everyone knows everyone, nights in high summer are remembered, as voices drift on the breeze, and mates cram into a friend's dad's BMW and measures are taken to avoid the police. Price conveys the inevitable move from Scotland to London for work.

Richard Price grew up in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire - about 20 miles south-west of Glasgow. He has published two volumes of poetry. Richard now lives in Staines, Middlesex and works as a curator at the British Library. He is married with two children.