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The Former Boy Wonder
The Former Boy Wonder is a bittersweet comedy that takes a sidelong look at first love, fathers, sons, and fidelity. With an irresistible plot and an impeccable sense of place and time, Robert Graham asks if it's ever too late to grow up.
It’s a rainy August in Manchester and music writer Peter Duffy’s life is falling apart. He’s knocking on fifty, his career is flatlining, his marriage is failing, and his teenage son barely speaks to him.
Then a friend from university days invites him to a party at the manor house where he met his first love, the dazzling Sanchia Page. All the old gang are going to be there, and although it's a long shot, maybe she will, too, which wouldn’t be helpful. Or would it?
It’s a rainy August in Manchester and music writer Peter Duffy’s life is falling apart. He’s knocking on fifty, his career is flatlining, his marriage is failing, and his teenage son barely speaks to him.
Then a friend from university days invites him to a party at the manor house where he met his first love, the dazzling Sanchia Page. All the old gang are going to be there, and although it's a long shot, maybe she will, too, which wouldn’t be helpful. Or would it?
316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2022
12 people want to read
About the author
Robert Graham
217 books2 followersLibrarian note:
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 16, 2025
Set in Manchester which was super fun and loved that it has a soundtrack to it. Not quite sure on my verdict. Overall a page turner and very well written but found it hard to be trapped in the mind of a fully grown man that makes such silly, upsetting and unrelenting poor decisions to the detriment of everyone around him. Felt very stressed on his behalf!
April 28, 2022
Peter Duffy is approaching fifty and his half decade is weighing heavily upon him as he reflects on the life he has now, and the imagined life he may have had if only his relationship with his first love, the beautiful Sanchia Page, had gone the way he hoped it would. When an invitation arrives with the possibility of getting together with the old crowd from his uni days, he desperately hopes, and secretly dreads, that Sanchia will be there too.
What then follows is a brisk skip back to the eighties when Peter was a student in Manchester and which incidentally, years late, he still calls home. We meet the uni crowd, understand Peter's fascination for Sanchia, and with considered perception we start to understand the angst which Peter has carried with him ever since he was abandoned as a ten year old in Northern Ireland when his father left him to pursue his own career.
There is much to enjoy in the story, parts of it made me smile, Peter, for all his melancholy moods is actually quite a likeable guy and I warmed to his story as he traversed Manchester, a city I know well. The flashbacks are done well and blend nicely with Peter's experience as he tries to understand where his life is heading. I felt enormous sympathy for Lucy, Peter's wife, who seems to be the only one keeping things afloat as Peter wallows in nostalgia.
The Former Boy Wonder is a fascinating glimpse into the trials and tribulations of growing older, the unhappiness of living with regret, disappointment at fatherhood and not realising what you have until it's gone.
What then follows is a brisk skip back to the eighties when Peter was a student in Manchester and which incidentally, years late, he still calls home. We meet the uni crowd, understand Peter's fascination for Sanchia, and with considered perception we start to understand the angst which Peter has carried with him ever since he was abandoned as a ten year old in Northern Ireland when his father left him to pursue his own career.
There is much to enjoy in the story, parts of it made me smile, Peter, for all his melancholy moods is actually quite a likeable guy and I warmed to his story as he traversed Manchester, a city I know well. The flashbacks are done well and blend nicely with Peter's experience as he tries to understand where his life is heading. I felt enormous sympathy for Lucy, Peter's wife, who seems to be the only one keeping things afloat as Peter wallows in nostalgia.
The Former Boy Wonder is a fascinating glimpse into the trials and tribulations of growing older, the unhappiness of living with regret, disappointment at fatherhood and not realising what you have until it's gone.
March 30, 2022
Who doesn’t harbour a secret fantasy of young love? Robert Graham takes us back to South Manchester in the 1980s and accurately describes how it was. He writes with a deep understanding of human emotions and behaviour, disappointment and loss, yet retains humour and relatable characters in this wonderful story. I throughly enjoyed every page. Highly recommended!
April 30, 2022
I devoured 'The Former Boy Wonder' in just a few days as I was so invested in Peter's life and wondering if he would steer it in a different direction or if he would manage to fix the relationship with his wife and son. Told from a first-person perspective, the story allows to get into Peter's psyche and revisit important moments in his life, from his childhood and all the way to his 50th birthday. The novel is full of nostalgia as Peter obsesses over old photographs and memories of touring with musicians, and visits places from his past which help him to look back on better times, which I think we can all relate to. As one of the quotes from the novel states:
"It's so much easier to romanticise the past than it is to face up to the present"
Furthermore, although the books is funny, there are also elements of sadness as the character of Peter looks back on his unrequited love, but also at the relationship with his father which has had a clear effect on the relationship with his own son. Graham managed to communicate such as plethora of emotions through his writing and I think he managed to make all those emotions build up and balance out in the end which is bound to leave the reader satisfied and full of warmth. I have to admit that I don’t often read books with a first person character who is male as I don’t find that I can relate to them but the character of Peter is extremely well-developed and realistic, and a pleasure to read.
Another aspect of the novel that I enjoyed were the cultural and literature references. The characters of Lucy and Sanchia were shaped by literature references and I think this allows the reader to compare and contrast them. There's also an endless amount of music references which are a vital part of the novel, as Peter is a music lover, and struggling music writer. He is often found associating a song with a person or a time in his life, which I have to say I also find myself doing a lot as a music lover.
Overall, 'The Former Boy Wonder' is a novel worthy of a five star rating as it captures so much of life that everyone can relate to - its struggles but also the positives. Graham is a wonderful writer and I wish I could read the novel again for the first time and experience Peter looking back on hist past whilst rebuilding his present and future again. If you like reading novels which feature a lot of nostalgia, music and love then I would definitely recommend this book to you, and even if you don't, it would be too bad to miss out on this amazing novel!
Full review available at www.silvxr.co.uk
"It's so much easier to romanticise the past than it is to face up to the present"
Furthermore, although the books is funny, there are also elements of sadness as the character of Peter looks back on his unrequited love, but also at the relationship with his father which has had a clear effect on the relationship with his own son. Graham managed to communicate such as plethora of emotions through his writing and I think he managed to make all those emotions build up and balance out in the end which is bound to leave the reader satisfied and full of warmth. I have to admit that I don’t often read books with a first person character who is male as I don’t find that I can relate to them but the character of Peter is extremely well-developed and realistic, and a pleasure to read.
Another aspect of the novel that I enjoyed were the cultural and literature references. The characters of Lucy and Sanchia were shaped by literature references and I think this allows the reader to compare and contrast them. There's also an endless amount of music references which are a vital part of the novel, as Peter is a music lover, and struggling music writer. He is often found associating a song with a person or a time in his life, which I have to say I also find myself doing a lot as a music lover.
Overall, 'The Former Boy Wonder' is a novel worthy of a five star rating as it captures so much of life that everyone can relate to - its struggles but also the positives. Graham is a wonderful writer and I wish I could read the novel again for the first time and experience Peter looking back on hist past whilst rebuilding his present and future again. If you like reading novels which feature a lot of nostalgia, music and love then I would definitely recommend this book to you, and even if you don't, it would be too bad to miss out on this amazing novel!
Full review available at www.silvxr.co.uk
May 18, 2022
Loss, Memory and The Loss of Memory…
Consider the adages: Fifty is the new forty! If you haven’t grown up by the time you’re fifty you don’t need to! Or, my favourite, from David Bowie, “Ageing is the extraordinary process of becoming who you should have been.” Mid-life is the time to regain a positive sense of oneself, explore one’s interests and generally make the most of your remaining innings…. But what if mid-life feels more like hitting a dead wall? When the pillars of marriage, children and career begin to crack and possibly crumble. This is the dilemma facing Peter Duffy, protagonist in Robert Graham’s playful and extraordinarily well-observed ‘coming-of-old-age’ novel, The Former Boy Wonder.
Former music journalist, Peter, is confronting humankind’s fundamental question, that of purpose: “If time is now limited, is this how I want to spend it?” Pushing 50, Pete wonders if his choices so far have been satisfying or sacrificial, courageous or cowardly. If he’d acted differently at key junctures, would he be happier at life’s mid-point? The monsoon of longing that unravels is highly relatable, whatever your age. This is a book with enormous heart, cloaked in wit and wry intertextuality.
For Peter, the re-appearance of his first love, Sanchia Page, triggers a quest – part fairytale, part DC Comics - to re-write his narrative, tear up unworkable plot lines, change the genre of his life from tragedy to romance and start again at the beginning. (Imagine Peter as a middle-aged Billy Fisher, the fantasist who prefers his ‘ imaginary country’ in Billy Liar). To do this, Peter first has to remember everything correctly and that, of course, isn’t easy. Memories are slippery and can morph with time. A look, a gesture, a decision can all be remembered wrongly, even misinterpreted. Peter admits, “I may not be capable of summoning up the true past…I’m looking for truth here.” That truth, about himself and his actions – when finally grasped – might just be the making of Peter Duffy, aged forty nine and three quarters.
Consider the adages: Fifty is the new forty! If you haven’t grown up by the time you’re fifty you don’t need to! Or, my favourite, from David Bowie, “Ageing is the extraordinary process of becoming who you should have been.” Mid-life is the time to regain a positive sense of oneself, explore one’s interests and generally make the most of your remaining innings…. But what if mid-life feels more like hitting a dead wall? When the pillars of marriage, children and career begin to crack and possibly crumble. This is the dilemma facing Peter Duffy, protagonist in Robert Graham’s playful and extraordinarily well-observed ‘coming-of-old-age’ novel, The Former Boy Wonder.
Former music journalist, Peter, is confronting humankind’s fundamental question, that of purpose: “If time is now limited, is this how I want to spend it?” Pushing 50, Pete wonders if his choices so far have been satisfying or sacrificial, courageous or cowardly. If he’d acted differently at key junctures, would he be happier at life’s mid-point? The monsoon of longing that unravels is highly relatable, whatever your age. This is a book with enormous heart, cloaked in wit and wry intertextuality.
For Peter, the re-appearance of his first love, Sanchia Page, triggers a quest – part fairytale, part DC Comics - to re-write his narrative, tear up unworkable plot lines, change the genre of his life from tragedy to romance and start again at the beginning. (Imagine Peter as a middle-aged Billy Fisher, the fantasist who prefers his ‘ imaginary country’ in Billy Liar). To do this, Peter first has to remember everything correctly and that, of course, isn’t easy. Memories are slippery and can morph with time. A look, a gesture, a decision can all be remembered wrongly, even misinterpreted. Peter admits, “I may not be capable of summoning up the true past…I’m looking for truth here.” That truth, about himself and his actions – when finally grasped – might just be the making of Peter Duffy, aged forty nine and three quarters.
March 25, 2022
A fabulously tender tale of unrequited love and of love which stands the tests of time .This book will appeal to both parents of student age offspring and I suspect to the students themselves.I’m in the former group and immediately recognised my own experience of student life in the early 80s when you all split for the holidays and could only keep in contact by lengthy letters or expensive phone calls via parents
The book would appeal to fans of David Nicholls Us /starter for 10 and one Day or Normal people by Sally Rooney and like several of these books would make great tv series
II loved the film based short clips that popped up throughout the book putting the main characters in well known movie scenes
The characters were beautifully described and entirely believable as were their struggles to love and progress on their chosen careers
I loved the difficult relationship the main character has with his father
It is testament to how good this book is and how much I enjoyed it that I managed to read a rather poorly formatted copy I was sent for review which failed to format properly on my kindle and eventually seemed to miss the letter f and l .( particularly taxing as the word film appeared repeatedly .
In summary I loved the book and would recommend it
The book would appeal to fans of David Nicholls Us /starter for 10 and one Day or Normal people by Sally Rooney and like several of these books would make great tv series
II loved the film based short clips that popped up throughout the book putting the main characters in well known movie scenes
The characters were beautifully described and entirely believable as were their struggles to love and progress on their chosen careers
I loved the difficult relationship the main character has with his father
It is testament to how good this book is and how much I enjoyed it that I managed to read a rather poorly formatted copy I was sent for review which failed to format properly on my kindle and eventually seemed to miss the letter f and l .( particularly taxing as the word film appeared repeatedly .
In summary I loved the book and would recommend it
April 19, 2022
I received an E-arc with a request for my honest review.
This book follows Pete, a music writer who is married to Lucy who he met at university.
It starts with Pete looking back at his childhood and his dad’s part in his life.
After a party invitation from a former university friend, he starts to obsess over the what ifs with a previous relationship he had.
What follows is an obsession, but also a time where he needs to work out where his priorities lie.
Will he make the right choice? Will he see his past love again?
This book is narrated completely by Pete himself, as he talks through his life and the feelings he is having. The book is a comedy so there are sometimes that make you laugh with what Pete is saying.
I can’t say that I warmed much to Pete as I didn’t agree with what he was doing, but I still hoped things would work out fine in the end.
I think probably just because I am a woman, I felt more for Pete’s wife Lucy and could kind of understand why she was acting the way she was.
Overall, a light comedy narrating one guys life as he grows from being a son to a dad himself.
This book follows Pete, a music writer who is married to Lucy who he met at university.
It starts with Pete looking back at his childhood and his dad’s part in his life.
After a party invitation from a former university friend, he starts to obsess over the what ifs with a previous relationship he had.
What follows is an obsession, but also a time where he needs to work out where his priorities lie.
Will he make the right choice? Will he see his past love again?
This book is narrated completely by Pete himself, as he talks through his life and the feelings he is having. The book is a comedy so there are sometimes that make you laugh with what Pete is saying.
I can’t say that I warmed much to Pete as I didn’t agree with what he was doing, but I still hoped things would work out fine in the end.
I think probably just because I am a woman, I felt more for Pete’s wife Lucy and could kind of understand why she was acting the way she was.
Overall, a light comedy narrating one guys life as he grows from being a son to a dad himself.
April 5, 2022
A sensitive exploration of love and the complexity of changing relationships.
I really enjoyed this book. It grows stronger as it progresses , and really pulls you along to its denouement.
It explores the complex relationships of Peter Duffy, brought up in Northern Ireland, where his father left home for London, and the rest of the book is viewed through the eyes of the abandoned young boy who then goes on to college in 1980's Manchester and is then later found in the 20teens where his career and marriage have hit stormy waters. Attempts to recapture the remembered excitement of those younger days lead to confusion and remorse.
The characters are well drawn and totally believable; as is the depiction of student Manchester of the 80's and metropolitan Manchester of the 20teens.
This novel is well worth your time -buy it and read it!
I really enjoyed this book. It grows stronger as it progresses , and really pulls you along to its denouement.
It explores the complex relationships of Peter Duffy, brought up in Northern Ireland, where his father left home for London, and the rest of the book is viewed through the eyes of the abandoned young boy who then goes on to college in 1980's Manchester and is then later found in the 20teens where his career and marriage have hit stormy waters. Attempts to recapture the remembered excitement of those younger days lead to confusion and remorse.
The characters are well drawn and totally believable; as is the depiction of student Manchester of the 80's and metropolitan Manchester of the 20teens.
This novel is well worth your time -buy it and read it!
October 30, 2024
I didn't enjoy reading this book. I didn't like any of the characters, at all. In fact, the character I most liked is probably the one you're supposed to like the least.
The book is about a man turning fifty, who's reminiscing about the true love of his life, who he believes he lost to his father. He then gets together with one of his best friends and they live a life together and have a son. So he's living with a woman he loves but seems bored with, a son who's a teenager and supposedly has some big grudge against him but really seemed nothing more than a normal teenager to me. He's heard about an upcoming party that his ex true love might be at. She is, he flirts with her then finds out she didn't cheat on him with his dad, his wife kicks him out over the obvious flirting, he regrets freezing his dad out his life, he regrets that actually he was the cause of the end of his relationship and then he repairs things with his wife and son.
He's an asshole. A self-centred, selfish prick. But I think you're supposed to think that about him. His wife is full and tedious. I don't think you're supposed to think that about her but I found no connection with her character whatsoever. The son is a tool. But he's a teenager. The true love of his life is over dramatic and an intellectual snob. But she's the one I enjoyed the most I think. Does not mean I enjoyed her.
His dad sounded great craic though!
The book is about a man turning fifty, who's reminiscing about the true love of his life, who he believes he lost to his father. He then gets together with one of his best friends and they live a life together and have a son. So he's living with a woman he loves but seems bored with, a son who's a teenager and supposedly has some big grudge against him but really seemed nothing more than a normal teenager to me. He's heard about an upcoming party that his ex true love might be at. She is, he flirts with her then finds out she didn't cheat on him with his dad, his wife kicks him out over the obvious flirting, he regrets freezing his dad out his life, he regrets that actually he was the cause of the end of his relationship and then he repairs things with his wife and son.
He's an asshole. A self-centred, selfish prick. But I think you're supposed to think that about him. His wife is full and tedious. I don't think you're supposed to think that about her but I found no connection with her character whatsoever. The son is a tool. But he's a teenager. The true love of his life is over dramatic and an intellectual snob. But she's the one I enjoyed the most I think. Does not mean I enjoyed her.
His dad sounded great craic though!
June 20, 2023
One of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read.
May 16, 2022
An interesting take on rom-com / chicklit / lighter reads in that it's from a male perspective and male primary narrator. Even approaching-50 year old men can have a mid life crisis, and he describes the women in his life with great insight and understanding. I enjoyed it, characters had depth and there was a good element of 'how will this all turn out' that kept me turnng the pages. Granted, I have a particular interest in student life in 1980's Manchester, and books that stem from NI writers, but notwithstanding my personal bias I thought it was a good read, and a good choice for a guy who doesn't want to be seen reading a Maeve Binchy but actually would enjoy a light read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews