Mum & Dad: Remembrance and Revenge

by Andrew Vincent

Only after his father’s death does Andrew learn his effing and blinding father had a secret, forcing him to re-evaluate their relationship. His mother, meanwhile, was haunted by her own father's last words to her shortly before he was killed; “I hope I never see you again.” Ford and Sylvia are misfiring parents, weighed down with emotional baggage.

Andrew tries to make sense of a strange childhood which made him a dysfunctional adult;‘Mum and Dad; a remembrance and a revenge’ celebrates parents who were muddling through and berates a couple so wrapped up in their own ‘stuff’ that they can’t see the impact it is having on their son.

This chaotic upbringing happens against a backdrop of social change through the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. There is a rolling cast of rude mechanicals; free 99s are used to mask an affair with the ice cream man, Baroness Rosina von Kuhne runs a nursery with guns on the walls, there’s Stan the Flasher and Jane Fonda providing sex education.

The story explores the tragedies, feuds, ambitions and disappointments of a family. The author reaches back to trace the events which shape us before we even take the stage and explores what happens when a revelation changes everything you thought you knew.

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 22, 2023