Not Tonight Neil by Ian Gregson

Debut novel from prize winning poet and critic

A literary thriller-cum-dark-satire set on a late 60s northern council estate

When 42 year old satirical cartoonist,  Dennis Pugh, publishes his cartoon narrative, Noises Through the Wall, the story of a teenager on a 60s council estate in Manchester who goes through puberty only a thin wall away from his sexually exuberant neighbours, Neil and Helen, the psycho-thriller of the real events on which his book is based emerge again.

Set in 1969 on a council estate in north Manchester this thriller-cum-dark-satire centres on Dennis’s adolescent travails, including his longings for both Helen and a teenager, Lorraine Lever); on what he hears through the wall and the puzzle of who commits the central murder.

In a tone that is not so much social realism as dark comedy, a mode that’s appropriate to Dennis’s adult profession, Not Tonight Neil, deftly handles not only coming of age, but the struggles of people living in close proximity to carve out their own identities. Brimming with sharply observed characters, Not Tonight Neil is at once hilarious and poignant, witty and humane.

Ian Gregson is an award-winning poet whose latest book of poems is How We Met (Salt, 2008); Call Centre Love Song (Salt, 2006) was shortlisted for a Forward prize. He reviews poetry for several magazines and has published five books of criticism on contemporary writing, including Character and Satire in Postwar Fiction (Continuum, 2004) and Postmodern Literature (Hodder Arnold, 2006),  a reappraisal of postmodernism which indicates the presence of realist writings, and concerns about Nature in postmodernism. He teaches literature and creative writing in the English Department at Bangor University; is the editor of Salt Wales and recently judged Wales Book of the Year 2010.

Not Tonight Neil is his first novel.