Product Description

A book about growing up and being young, about sex and love and rock and roll, about the dreams of youth colliding head-on with the grown-up world. Sometimes you can grow up in just one night! It is 16th August 1977 -- the day that Elvis dies -- and Terry is back from Berlin, basking in the light of his friendship with legendary rock star Dag Wood. But when Dag arrives in London he sets his sights on a mysterious young photographer called Misty, the girl that Terry loves. Will the love of Terry's life survive this hot summer's night? Ray is the only writer on the inky music weekly The Paper who refuses to cut his hair and stop wearing flares. On the eve of being sacked, Ray finds comfort in the arms of an older woman called Mrs Brown. But John Lennon is in town for just one night and Ray believes that if he can interview the reclusive Beatle, he can save his job. Can John Lennon and the love of an older woman really save a young man's soul? Leon is on the run from a gang called the Dagenham Dogs who have taken exception to one of his bitchy reviews. Hiding out in a disco called The Goldmine, Leon meets Ruby -- the dancing queen of his dreams. But will true love or the Dagenham Dogs find Leon before the night is over? Tony Parsons goes back to his roots for this deeply personal book -- the story he has been waiting to tell.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19965 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
Acclaim for for Tony Parsons: 'Funny, serious, tender and honest!Tony Parsons is writing about the genuine dilemmas of modern life' Sunday Express 'He takes as his specialist subject contemporary emotional issues which almost every other male writer has ignored' Guardian 'Memorable and poignant -- nobody squeezes more genuine emotion from a scene than Tony Parsons' Spectator

From the Publisher
STORIES WE COULD TELL is a book about growing up and being young, about sex and love and rock and roll, about the dreams of youth colliding head-on with the grown-up world. Tony Parsons goes back to his roots for this deeply personal book - the story he has been waiting to tell.

About the Author
Tony Parsons is the author of Man and Boy , winner of the Book of the Year prize. His subsequent novels -- One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way, Stories We Could Tell and My Favourite Wife -- were all bestsellers. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Geat Nostalgia
The novel is set during the punk era, and significantly and symbolically at the time when Elvis dies. It follows three young writers working for a music paper (the NME!) at the most exciting music era since Beatlemania. Great music references for those of you around in the 70's. - A book about self discovery by looking at your past.

Tabloid voice...and, er, tabloid mind?
I approached this from the camp of a confirmed fan, having read his other stuff. However, I got this sinking feeling a few pages in - the realisation that I'd have to finish it, since it would be compulsive in a trashy, pulp fiction type way, but that I would not ultimately feel edified by the experience. I read a quote (on the cover I think) about TP having a "broadsheet mind and a tabloid voice". The more I ploughed on through this, though, the more I felt that it was the latter that came to the fore. As a child of punk, I could relate to all the cultural references here, but it just seemed to unfold in an oh-so-obvious narrative that was short on the unexpected, short on character depth and short on any genuine insigth. The sense of transience is a constant theme throughout this novel, but you feel that it's rather beaten into you with the subtelty of a steam hammer; "lightness of touch" isn't really a phrase that lends itself readily to The Stories We Could Tell. All in all, then, my least favourite TP novel - and all the more shame since, from its subject matter, it promised to be the most enjoyable.

a disappointment
Having enjoyed the previous "Man and ..." books, I had high expectations which unfortunately were not met.
The various 'adventures' of the 3 characters were so similiar that I lost track of who was who. Thinking back now, it's all a bit of a blur.
The author had lightly sprinkled the earlier books with a number of references to the music and clothing of the time (usually 1980's) which I had all but forgotten and found pleasantly nostalgic. This book however tried to make up for a poor story with an overdose of nostalgia and didn't do it for me.