My Little Armalite

(Paperback)

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Description

Set in the world that he has made his own - that of middle-class Englishmen struggling with the mortgage, low self-esteem and dreams of sash windows - this is Hawes at his sharpest and funniest. John Goode is a leftie lecturer who just wants to give his beloved wife and kids a normal life. You know- north London, good schools, nice neighbours, sash windows... yes, you know. But who can afford that kind of normal these days Goode can only daydream of becoming a television academic, or else of a bloody great economic crash that would make his job worth something again. So when he stumbles on a long-buried assault rifle whilst planting plum-trees for his children, he soon begins to wonder if this might be just the tool to seriously renegociate his family's future...

Reviews

Hawes has developed into a prolifically inventive and increasingly subtle satirist. Though the current novel features all his regular trademarks - black humour, sharp dialogue and a plot that goes off with all guns blazing in every respect - one senses that this book is also Hawes's homage to one of the great academic satires of the last century, Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man * Guardian *
Very witty... Both laddish and slyly intelligent, Hawes has his cake and eats it * Daily Telegraph *
Terrific black satire -- Toby Clements * Daily Telegraph *
Hawes scatters pellets of satirical wit on the twitchy paranoia of the ageing liberal * Arena *

Author Bio

James Hawes is the author of six novels, including White Powder, Green Light and Speak for England. He lives in Cardiff.