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Trying Times for Sebastian Scattergood
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2012 is a disastrous year for Sebastian Scattergood, a yellow-belly Pooter from the Lincolnshire Wolds, who has recently retired from the Pharmaceutical Industry after thirty-seven happy and uneventful years as a Health and Safety Officer. Despite his eternal optimism, however, each one of the earmarked projects of his newly earned freedom crumbles into dust, and is faithfully recorded, warts and all, in his diary.
On the domestic front, it all starts with a poorly fitted shower unit but soon escalates to problems with a leaking conservatory, a broken big toe, tantrums at the pub Quiz and threatening letters from the Council regarding the recent felling of Silver Birch and Bay trees. But this is only the beginning.
Reviews
A delightful read! There's a kind of comfort in entering Sebastian's world, as he does battle with a relentless barrage of slings and arrows, while retaining a classic middle England optimism, without a hint of self irony. And there's a hidden bonus! Sebastian's Rough Guide to great walks in the Lincolnshire Wolds: the inspiration for so much of the work of Sebastian's literary hero, Tennyson.
Alan Mumby,
Chair of Far Welter'd, East Lincolnshire Dialect Society
“I have just finished reading ‘Trying Times for Sebastian Scattergood’ and really enjoyed how beautifully it all tied together, thanks to the milkman, a data stick and a good friend. I looked up Lincolnshire villages, trails, walks, trees and wildflowers while I read, and checked on films, poems and stories. The relationships were lovely: partner, parents, chums, neighbours and ways of spending time together. And what great illustrations! I liked the important presence of food. I didn't see the end coming, probably a consequence of reading it in spurts. It was lovely to rediscover a pleasure in old Alfred Lord Tennyson, who after a dozen years of my being surrounded by his paper and stuff, had faded in glory.”
Grace Timmins,
Former Collections Officer of the Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln.