Carnforth’s Creation

Tim Jeal’s sixth novel, first published in 1983, recreates the frenetic Britain of the 1960s for an enthralling tale of three people bound together by a risky experiment conducted amid the pop-cultural ferment of the era. Paul Carnforth is young, wealthy, titled, and alive to the opportunities of his times. ‘You don’t have to like pop to find it interesting’, he tells his sceptical wife. He decides to fashion a pop star of his own – as a ‘moral swipe’, also proof of his individual brilliance. But the creation soon threatens to outgrow his creator.

‘Pop music, working class heroes, record companies, music publishers and stately homes as settings for orgiastic settings, it’s all here … Mr Jeal writes comedy very well.’ Irish Times

‘In his well-organised narrative Jeal judges wittily the extra touches needed by a novel about our times.’ Birmingham Post