Snakes & Ladders

by Ray Connolly, Kieron Connolly

For schoolteacher Jenny her basement in the River House is the perfect home, while for divorced art restorer, Richard, his attic flat is an ideal studio. So, along with the other tenants, they are dismayed when a new landlord plans to redevelop the property, and, ignoring their legal rights, demands that they leave. When they refuse, the electricity is cut off and the locks are changed.

Soon the other tenants give in to the harassing and move out, leaving Jenny and Richard to fight for their homes. But how can they take on a crooked millionaire landlord?

Then one day a conman enters their lives, and an outlandish idea starts to form. Using the conman’s expertise, could they trick the landlord into selling them the River House…using his own money?

Ingenious, charming and funny, Snakes & Ladders is a knowing take on our times.

283 pages, Hardcover

Published February 24, 2025

About the author

Ray Connolly grew up in Lancashire, England. After graduating from the London School of Economics he began a career in journalism, and wrote a weekly interview column for the London Evening Standard, concentrating mainly on popular culture and music. Since then he has written for the Sunday Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer and the Daily Mail. Many of his interviews with members of the Beatles have been republished in his eBook, The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive.
His first novel, A Girl Who Came To Stay, was published in 1973. Several other novels followed, including Newsdeath, Sunday Morning, Shadows On A Wall and Kill For Love.
Working with producer David Puttnam he wrote the original screenplays for the films That’ll Be the Day and Stardust, and wrote and directed the feature length documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager.
He has also written for television, most notably the series Lytton’s Diary and Perfect Scoundrels, and the TV films Forever Young and Defrosting The Fridge, and worked with Sir George Martin on the documentary trilogy about music The Rhythm of Life.
For BBC radio he wrote Lost Fortnight, about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood, and Unimaginable, which concerned the twenty four hours around the death of John Lennon, whom he was due to see on the day the former Beatle was murdered.
In 2010 he adapted one strand of his novel Love Out Of Season as the radio play God Bless Our Love, while his novella about the Beatles, Sorry, Boys, You Failed The Audition, will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
In 2011 he published his Christmas short story Let Nothing You Dismay as an eBook on Amazon. Others will soon follow.
Currently working on a screenplay for a movie about Dusty Springfield, he is married and lives in London.