An aspiring writer from the Southside of Glasgow, Wendy is in a rut. She tries to brighten her call-centre job by shoehorning as many long words as possible into conversations with customers. But her manager isn’t amused by that and, after a public dressing-down, Wendy walks out.
Jobless and depressed, she finds consolation in a surprise friendship with another disgruntled ex-colleague, wild-child painter Cat, who encourages her to live more dangerously. It’s just what Wendy needs and it’s also brilliant for her creative juices. But a black cloud is about to overshadow this new-found liberation, as well as to put Wendy on the wrong side of the law.
Fresh, insightful and funny, as well as unflinchingly honest about the tougher side of life, Kenny Boyle’s debut novel takes us deep into the psyche of a likeable misfit who treads a fine line between reality and fantasy – and just wants the world to see her true self.
Boyle was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. He trained as an actor at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
He is the star, alongside Natalie Clark, of Ryan Hendrick's multi-award winning short film Perfect Strangers (2015) and of the same director's feature-film version Lost at Christmas (2020). He plays the role of Detective Marvin Starke in BBC Scotland comedy sitcom Scot Squad (2022). His plays include Eerie Isles, Playthrough and An Isolated Incident, and in 2021 he received a New Playwrights Award from the Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. His debut radio play Knock of The Ban-Sithe was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2022 and made BBC Sounds drama of the week on the 19th Aug 2022. On the 7th February 2023 Boyle, for his writing on Knock of The Ban-Sithe, was named a finalist for the Imison Award as part of the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2023, and shortlisted for the Celtic Media Festival’s award for Drama (Sound) on the 17th of March 2023
In 2021 he was nominated in the Scottish Emerging Theatre Awards under the following categories: The Flourish Award, The New Writing Award, The Digital Award, and Artist of The Year
His debut novel The Tick and the Tock of the Crocodile Clock, about an aspiring writer from the Southside of Glasgow, was published by Lightning Books in May 2022. Inspired by Peter Pan, the novel was written during the COVID-19 pandemic after Boyle was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. He has said of it: 'The book is about not wanting to grow up into what society hopes for adults to be and having that conflict of interest between your younger self and the adult you’re growing up to be.'
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