Running Away

Leslie Thomas

Feb 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

Written with the characteristic wit and good humour, Leslie Thomas's novel tells the story of a grown man who runs away from home, and the adventures that befall him in his quest for a new lease of life. His latest love affair discovered (thanks to an observant fifteen-year-old daughter who points out the still-wet suds of expensive soap lingering in his ear), bestselling author Nicholas Boulting sets off amid a torrent of abuse to see what else life can offer. After his fantasy escape to Luxor turns into a nighmarish excursion to Malaga, Nicholas returns hastily to London. He moves into a flat in Little Venice with Sol Solomon, a sex-mad writer of dubious reputation, and sits down to write his next novel, Owls of Desperation. Full of the qualities we have come to expect from his novels, Running Away is Leslie Thomas's eminently readable and enjoyable story of one man's mid-life crisis.

About the author

Leslie Thomas was born in Newport, Wales on March 22, 1931. Both of his parents died around 1943 and he was sent to an orphanage. He flunked out of bricklaying school but did better in a journalism course. At the age of 17, he found a newspaper job in north London, first folding newspapers and then reporting. In 1949, he was drafted and sent to Singapore as a member of the Royal Army Pay Corps. After serving a year, he found work with a news agency, then with The Evening News as a feature writer. He covered the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann. His first book, This Time Next Week: The Autobiography of a Happy Orphan, was published in 1964. His first novel, The Virgin Soldiers, was published in 1966 and was adapted into a movie in 1969. He wrote more than 30 books during his lifetime including Onward Virgin Soldiers and Stand Up Virgin Soldiers, which was also adapted into a movie in 1977. In 2004, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to literature. He died on May 6, 2014 at the age of 83.