Review: Twists, sardonic smiles and laugh-out-loud fun
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2013
I started Loved and Lost in Lewisham, and read it almost in one go because the style was so easy, calm and relaxing and the characters in these short stories were so delightfully engaging. Unrequited love, bad timings and sheer dreadful unhappy fortune seem to shackle poor Tom in the first story until you think (and hope) that things are on the up for him. The second story 'Mike and Beth a modern romance', is just as pleasurable, and we follow the fortunes of another love story - but does it have a happy ending? You'll have to read it to find out. The other stories vary in length but all have a punchy quality, are full of fun and have happy twists and surprises. 'The Mystery of the pink panties' isn't as erotic as you might expect, but it's very funny. 'Thank you for flying' was sublime in its surprising and highly original humour and twists, and especially, for me, the unexpected ending.Peter Davey's stories reminded me very much of Alexander McCall Smiths's 'Scotland Road' stories, or perhaps they're closer to the Corduroy Mansions stories: tales of single, fairly young people, with their problems of love and money, their lives, loves and aspirations, with a good sprinkling of the absurd.  All Peter Davey's stories are good, easy reads, that are fun, with likeable characters, lots of humour and unexpected twists.To sum up, these stories are great fun, the characters feel like friends, and you care about what happens to them.  Easy light reading that leaves you with a warm happy glow.