Dive

“A dark and gritty debut novel that promises more outstanding works to come…”
- Hollis George, editor and anthologist

“English authors from Graham Green to Colin Wilson have captured the existentialist noir of disenfranchised Limeys. But Brad Middleton speaks up with a voice all his own in this outstanding first novel.”
- Edward Squires, editor of Not Quite Novels

Jack is in a rut and has been for some time but ultimately it is a rut he has grown used too, even fond of. Aged thirty-nine he lives in a small room in a nice area of southeast London. We meet him on a Saturday and things seem to be going just fine until that it he tries to go out to the pub. It is then it all starts getting weird; alien abductions and attacks on public buildings but most bizarrely of all a woman who finds Jack sexually attractive. Clare changes his life forever and suddenly Jack’s life is moving. Within three weeks they decide to go to Brighton and everything seems to be just perfect for the first time in a long time with the realisation that Clare and Lisa share everything including him. It is however at his fortieth birthday party when Kerry, his only friend at work, falls for Lisa that his live begins to unravel.

Bradford Middleton was born in London in 1971 and knew he had to escape his suburban existence as soon as he saw the bright lights of Soho. He never made it that far north until he left London in 2005 when he lived in the depths of the Staffordshire countryside for a year. He returned south and went further than ever before, making it as far as Brighton. It was here he started writing as he knew no one and had no job. In 2011 he started submitting his material to small-time publishers to seek publication and the list of who has now published his work has reached nearly fifty who have published nearly 150 unique poems or stories. This is his debut novel.