A Moment With…Brendan James

I am pleased to be welcoming Brendan James to Novel Kicks. He’s here with the blog tour for his novel, Gerard Philey’s Euro-Diary: Quest for a Life.

‘Could there be a world of interest and adventure beyond the Midlands? A world of confidence, sex and excitement? A better life – a better me?’ These are the questions Gerard Philey grapples with over New Year, 1995.

Sitting in his rented Black Country room, reflecting on his thankless teaching job and miserable love life, he courageously decides to abandon his humdrum existence and embark on a quest for Euro-fulfilment, fun and fitness on the Continent.

After a shaky start in Brussels, events manoeuvre him to Amsterdam where chance encounters shift his world well and truly into fifth gear. He samples the trials and tribulations of new relationships, alongside managing a sex shop in the city’s Red Light Area – on top of the challenges of fat-free living and international travel!

Through his bittersweet diary, we see how Gerard steers a laugh-out-loud course through farcical episodes and fanciful characters…and how entanglements from past and present draw him unwittingly into a criminal underworld where events ultimately take their toll.

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To talk about why he decided to write Gerard Philey’s Euro-Diary: Quest for a Life in a diary format, it’s over to Brendan. 

Several people have asked me why I chose the diary format for the novel.  The truth is that I’ve always been fascinated by diaries, both real and fictional.

I fell in love with Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole diaries in my youth, and have re-read these many times since.

I was also always fascinated by the real life diaries of people as diverse as Kenneth Williams, Jo Orton and Alan Bennett, to name but a few.  What is it about diaries that I find so interesting? I supposed it’s partly the confessional element.

People record their innermost thoughts and feelings as a way to make sense of what’s happening in their lives, and often do this in a way that is frank, deeply personal and sometimes agonising.  And of course, sometimes hilarious to outsiders! Although most diarists keep a journal for their own private purposes, I think some also have a sense of displaying what they divulge to an imaginary audience, and almost revel in what could be seen as a form of exhibitionism – so there’s a strange and slightly contradictory tension between the private and the public, and this dual aspect of diaries I find compelling.

On top of that, diaries are often a detailed record of the mundane – the day-to-day aspects of life that we all deal with, recorded as they happen, in part simply for the record, and partly because certain events have occupied and exercised us at certain moments in our life.

I personally find reading people’s ‘ordinary’ ruminations on day-to-day matters both comforting and engrossing – the people chatted to at bus-stops, the things we’ve watched on television, and so on.

And between all the minutiae of the daily routine, we gradually see the bigger picture fleshed out – the relationships that matter to us, the worries that bother us, the activities that interest us, and ultimately, the things that make us the people we are.

I’ve tried to bring all these elements together in Gerard’s diary.  So on the one hand, we see the struggles many of us face: trying to work out our place in the world; dealing with work pressures; struggling to make relationships work; and all the doubts many of us grapple with about our self-worth, our body image, and where our lives are going.

Alongside these matters, we see the day-to-day records of things that happen at work (in the sex shop, in Gerard’s case!) and outside of work, as he tries to lead a more fulfilled and interesting social life.

On top of all this, his diary reveals how he gradually becomes enmeshed in wider activities and networks that will eventually unsettle and disrupt the very life he thinks he’s beginning to build – so there’s a gradual exposure of his naivety as he becomes complicit in his own downfall in a sense.

At the same time, however, I hope the diary shows that despite the disruptions and setbacks he faces, Gerard is not defeated; he is learning to deal with ‘the fragile nature of the world’ – the fact that things we take for granted in life frequently go wrong – and is learning that life is about trying, hoping and moving forward in the face of internal and external challenges, in whichever form they come.

About Brendan James:

Brendan James is the author of the new comedy novel, “Gerard Philey’s Euro-Diary: Quest for a Life”.

Though this is his first novel, he has a large number of non-fiction publications (under the name Brendan Bartram) as a former university lecturer and researcher.

A passionate linguist and Europhile, he spent a number of years working in the Netherlands, France and Germany. He lives in the West Midlands with his husband.

Say hello to Brendan via Goodreads, LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Click to buy Gerard Philey’s Euro-Diary: Quest for a Life on Amazon UK. 

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Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.