Authors OnLine -

I have just indulged myself in a rare treat. I have just finished reading a fine piece of comic writing. You know the type, the one that has your partner telling you to shut-up because you are laughing out loud. The type that gives you a smile on your face and, like any good page turner, you can't wait to know what happens next.

I don't quite know what it was that drew my attention to this one. The time and trouble it took the production department to get the cover right was certainly a contributing factor, but it was probably the title that grabbed the attention more than anything else. The title intrigued me, I just had to investigate.

The first thing that struck me about The Friendly Bob was the unconventional layout, insisted upon by the author, which I have to say immediately offended my sensibilities. And now having read it I still don't understand quite where the author's intent lies, but during this superb read it was something with which I learnt to live. By breaking many of the basic rules of composition, often writing in the manner of everyday speech there are some interesting instances regarding the misuse of grammar and punctuation. And yet it works, quite brilliantly, quickly giving a depth to the characters that allows you to understand their thoughts and emotions perfectly. From beginning to end, Martin Salway has you empathising with all his main characters. He moves the story along crisply, and you soon find yourself willing these basic losers to become winners against all odds.

The story centers around two married men with young families, Chris Finch and Vinny Swift, who have been friends from childhood and are still living in Slough, a light industrial town west of London in the M4 corridor that has perhaps seen better days. Chris is a hardworking, moderately successful car mechanic with his own business ably run by his childhood sweetheart, wife Christine. Vinny, married to wonderfully tolerant Jules, on the other hand is not much good at anything other than getting into trouble, and driving cars. He has a long, checkered and often comic career of brushes with the law dating back to his early teenage days. Despite being complete opposites Chris and Vinny share a love of 'Banger' racing. However Chris' life is shattered when his wife suddenly up sticks and bewilderingly moves in with a man Chris and most of his mates have despised since their school days. After the usual round of feeling sorry for himself and plummeting to lowly depths of despair with drink and Prozac, culminating in a drunken night on the front lawn, destroying the front porch and feeding the dog with laxative chocolate, the two of them, attracted by the prize money,decide to enter their beloved car, 'The Friendly Bomb' into a banger race in Belfast. Unbeknown to them of course it is run by the local Loyalist paramilitary group with its own completely different agenda. And taking a car to Northern Ireland with the name 'Bomb' stuck on the side is perhaps not the wisest move on the planet!

As with all good yarns 'The Friendly Bomb' is rich with secondary characters such as the marvelously named TCP, an elderly hard man, with a heart of gold who still strikes fear into all those who cross him; Bob Strong, Vinny's disgustingly mannered boss and expert on Big Macs who becomes their sponsor; Captain, Bob's Tai step-son and side-kick, a legacy from a brief marriage long since over; Julio, the gay ex-jockey, desperate to get away from his psychopathic, cocaine snorting boyfriend and make amends for his involvement in the kidnapping of a famous racehorse some year previous; a host of Irish gangsters; and of course the beautiful and beguiling Russian girl, Anastasia.

If you want to curl up, in more ways than one, with a good side splitting yarn then Martin Salway's 'The Friendly Bomb' is more than recommended. - Ed