The Unravelling of Michael Gilchrist

by S C Ashton

A novel which takes you on a roller-coaster ride inside the mind of its eponymous hero.

A story both contemporary (set in the 2010’s) and nostalgic, funny, quirky and sometimes tragic.

A sensitive hero, beneath his ‘blokey’ exterior, and his attempts to find ‘true’ happiness.

With just twelve weeks to go before his wedding to ophthalmic surgeon, Jo, thirty year old drug rep, Michael, is panicking. If only he’d found the courage to tell Jo he hadn’t proposed when she believed he had, but Jo’s a determined woman, and besides, the truth would have made her unhappy, and making others unhappy is something Michael has tried to avoid for as long as he can remember.

Michael is only too aware that this approach to life hasn’t brought him much happiness, earning him to date not only a wedding he’s dreading, but an unwanted career, ghosts that haunt his past and present, and just lately, recurring nightmares featuring characters from Star Wars (the original trilogy of course).

Add to this his future mother-in-law’s farcical wedding preparations, an aunt who’s mad as a box of frogs, a wannabe cowboy for a father, a sister who’s slowly reducing the wildlife population of Australia, the realisation that he doesn’t love his fiancée enough to marry her, and the indefinite detention of the woman he really does love (for stabbing her partner before eating microwaved paella), it’s hardly surprising that Michael is teetering on the brink.

When his only hope of survival requires making a lot of people (plus one determined ghost) very unhappy, what’s he going to do?

Author news

Book launched on Sunday 23rd September at Weston Park, Staffordshire. A great day and sold out of copies!

Promotion evening at Newport Library, Shropshire. Thursday 15th November. 6.30 pm

Some great reviews so far ...

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About the Author

S C Ashton

Sharon Ashton lives in Staffordshire. She studied Classical Studies & Latin at Reading university and graduated in 1978. After training as a health service manager, she studied nursing at St Thomas', London and went on to specialise in practice nursing. In 2005 she began studying part-time for a degree in Creative Writing at Birmingham university. Since graduating with first class honours , she has established herself as a published and performance poet. Her debut novel, 'The Unravelling of Michael Gilchrist' draws on her experiences of working in the NHS.

To read more of her writing visit : http://www.sharonashtonpoetry.com