Paul Torday

Books by Paul Torday

Girl On The Landing

“You think you know someone - but you never really do.”

Michael is wealthy, decent, boring and locked into the routine of working as Secretary to his gentleman’s club in Mayfair, or else stalking deer on his estate in Perthshire: someone whose idea of an adrenalin rush is playing bridge after dinner.

Elizabeth his wife has married him – not exactly for his money, but not exactly for love, either. Their marriage is passionless and monotonous: on their honeymoon night, Michael’s first thought is to hang his trousers in a trouser press and make sure his shoes have shoe trees in them. Dreary weeks are spent in the dank and gloomy house in a Scottish glen that Michael inherited from his parents.

Then, on a visit to friends in Ireland, something appears to trigger a change in Michael’s behaviour. On the way back, Elizabeth tells herself: ‘There was something different about Michael’. And there is: life with Michael suddenly becomes so much more fun….and Elizabeth sees glimpses of a man she could finally fall in love with.

But who – or what - is changing Michael? Who is the girl on the landing? And what does she want …

World Rights: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Rights Sold: Italy (Elliot Edizioni)
Publication date: February 2009

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
Rights Sold: US (Harcourt), Germany (Berlin Verlag), France (Lattes), Japan (Hakusui Sha), Italy (Elliot Edizioni)

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), Turkey (Arkabahce Yayincilik), Iceland (Edda), Greece (Minoas), Russia (AST), Japan (Hakusui Sha), Czech Republic (Jota), Croatia (Naklada Ljevak), Poland (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Hungary (Jaffa), Romania (EDITURA LEDA), China (Owl Publishing), Brazil (Editora Record), Netherlands (Arena), Slovenia (Modrijan)

http://www.salmonfishingintheyemen.com