Tycoonery A Novel

Stuck in a loveless marriage with the local grocer in small-town Kent, Maureen Harding's life is drab and uneventful. Uneventful, that is, until property tycoon David Adler, working-class boy made good, descends on the local community with ambitions to buy up and knock down the town center, intending to construct a modern shopping mall in its place. Among the buildings Adler wants is the grocer's-and he also wants Maureen. As big businessman comes up against local tradesman, a man more concerned to hold onto his shop than his wife, events hasten towards an explosive denouement. Seen through the eyes of David Adler's old school friend, the cynical, donnish George Timmins, Tycoonery is awry, ironic novel of financial and amorous desire in 1970s England.

Roger Smith is a renowned scriptwriter and theatre director. A revolutionary figure in the development of British television, he was one of the pioneers of The Wednesday Play, working with Ken Loach and Dennis Potter at the beginning of their careers, and on landmark productions such as Cathy Come Home and Up the Junction. He has worked as a script editor with Ken Loach for the last fifteen years. He lives in London.