Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty

The achingly funny and moving story of the dizzying highs and lows of growing up in the North of England at the height of New Wave. 1980: The pits are closed and the Yorkshire Ripper has emptied the streets. Kid Glover, recently returned from a recuperative break, finds the young folk of the old town waiting for the opportunities the new decade might offer. Knocking around with Si, Ovo and Deeb, tragi-comic malcontents the lot of them, he falls under the spell of Ziggy Hero, a David Bowie impersonator planning a gig. He will prove that some things really are worth waiting for. The achingly funny and moving story of the dizzying highs and lows of growing up in the North of England at the height of New Wave. 1980: Billy ‘Kid’ Glover is seeing things in triplicate and the doc prescribes a rest cure. When he returns to Yorkshire, ‘Vienna’ is on the radio and, although subtle, there have been some changes. The seventies have given way to a new decade and the young folk of the old town are waiting in the cold for the opportunities that might come with it. The change is slow and not always welcome. The pits are being closed and the police can’t catch the Ripper. But Ziggy Hero, David Bowie impersonator and ghost rider is planning a gig. He will prove that some things really are worth waiting for. Sex, drugs and ropey pubs: Harland Miller’s unconventional rites-of-passage novel.