Paul Torday
Paul Torday was born in 1946 and read English Literature at Pembroke College, Oxford. He is married with two sons by a previous marriage and two stepsons. He lives in Northumberland.
He spent much of his life in industry, but in the last 3 years has found the time to write. For the last fifteen years he has also been a keen salmon fisherman, and as he lives close to the River North Tyne, he has been able to indulge in this enthusiasm.
They say you should write about what you know, and as he’s often been to the Middle East and likes salmon fishing, the subject of ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ seemed like the way forward.
Books by Paul Torday
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
A witty and moving satire on ‘new / spin’ government, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is also an examination of faith. When Dr Alfred Jones is asked to look into the possibility of introducing salmon into the Yemen, he concludes that it is – quite obviously – a venture doomed to failure. Biologically, it can’t work.
But forced to pursue it, by those that wield power in the corridors of Whitehall, his meetings with the wealthy Yemeni sheikh behind the idea, force him to re-evaluate the project, and his life in general.
World Rights: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Rights Sold: US (Harcourt), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Spain (Ediciones Salamandra), Sweden (Brombergs), Israel (Kinneret), Italy (Rizzoli), France (Editions J C Lattes), Norway (Gyldendal Norsk), Portugal (ASA)
The irresistible inheritance of Wilberforce
‘Wilberforce’s eyes went up to the ceiling, so that he did not seem to know how his glass went up full to his mouth and came down empty.’
W.M.Thackeray from Vanity Fair
Wilberforce’s life is coming to an early end; in the late stages of a terminal (and hugely expensive) addiction to fine wines (especially vintage Bordeaux from the grandest and most expensive chateaux), he is diagnosed as suffering from Wernicke’s encephalopathy, a condition found in extreme cases of alcoholism. A major symptom of this illness is false memory, caused by a chemical side effect in the liver as excessive alcohol starts to shut down its functions. And so it is, that one moment Wilberforce is enjoying a glass in a plush London eaterie… and the next he is in Bogota, being pursued by something unspeakable…
Bordeaux is a story about addiction - the outer symptom of an inner emptiness.
World Rights: Weidenfeld & Nicolson