The High Flyer

'The Vision of Elena Silves was almost too precociously good. The High Flyer rolls back the doors of the Shakespearian bunker to reveal the arsenal within. It's a very good novel' - William Boyd

Thomas Wavery is the new Consul General at Abyla on the tip of North Africa. A career diplomat, Wavery was once a high flyer, but an affair with a younger woman has dashed his dreams of ambassadorship. He arrives in Abyla with his wife suing for divorce, his passport stolen by a Gibraltarian ape and precious little enthusiasm for the task ahead.

‘A deeply satisfying book. I feel quite exceptionally inclined to read it all over again’ Literary Review

Thomas Wavery was once destined for the top of the diplomatic service. Expecting a prestigious post in Lisbon, an affair with a younger woman throws his life into uncertainty. With his marriage and his career prospects on the rocks, he is exiled to Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast. There he wrestles with the expectations of his work and his enduring feelings for Catherine, and finds himself entangled in the lives of the memorable cast of characters who inhabit this unusual outpost.

‘He tells a story like an angel… Wonderful’ Observer

‘Shakespeare has completed a richly detailed, remarkably complete imaginary world’ The Times
‘His lyricism is all his own and he raises his lovers to a plateau of passion where Greene never ventured’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Wavery’s story has a lyric simplicity and an emotional subtlety that are moving, involving and beautifully observed’ Independent

‘The Vision of Elena Silves was almost too precociously good. The High Flyer rolls back the doors of the Shakespearian bunker to reveal the arsenal within. It’s a very good novel’ William Boyd