Not Exactly Friends

Ageing actor, Charlie Wallace is jolted back to a post-war past to find lost loves and friendships from his tough and brutal schooldays and a summer spent at Connaught Hall – whose consequences follow him today. Protected by his schoolboy hero, Christopher Mountjoy, Charlie’s infatuation with Christopher’s sister, Isobel leads to the discovery that brother and sister have a darker side. Friendships can be fickle in a world of make-believe, where fact and fiction blur.

A passionate encounter with the girl has consequences too, when the actor is forced to abandon the stage. Past and present again collide and more events from long ago return with implications of their own. Can Charlie keep his memories safe and will he ever be reconciled to what took place at Connaught Hall that summer?

“Peter Fanning’s pleasure in language, literature and the theatre shines through this gentle, sometimes dramatic, story of growing up and falling in love in the 1940s. A sympathetic study of the agonies of self-discovery, it has romance, charm and a glorious English setting."

- Heather Neil, writer and critic, Literary Editor Times Educational Supplement.