Born at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the very moment 'when the world looked most as if it were going to blow itself up', Nicholas has spent his life in terror of atomic meltdown. Now, on the eve of his 48th birthday, he is on an overnight coach ride to join an anti-nuclear rally at Faslane in Scotland. His fellow travellers remind him of his younger self at Hull University in the 1980s ? a time he spent under the twin clouds of unrequited love and apocalyptic terror. As the coach rumbles through the night, the floodgates of memory open, and Nicholas begins to scrawl episodes from his past into a notebook. At first these memories ? sometimes poignant, sometimes comic, and often involving Philip Larkin ? appear almost random. But in time a picture emerges: of a thwarted first love, and a fragile mind struggling to keep hold of sanity in a world headed for annihilation. This delightful, eccentric novel and its tragi-comic hero will be relished by mavericks and misfits, rebels and renegades the world over. AUTHOR: All the Materials for a Midnight Feast is Gary Dexter's first novel. He is the author of numerous works of non-fiction, including Why not Catch -21?, as well as the Holmesian parody The Oxford Despoiler. He lives in Norfolk. REVIEWS: 'Dexter's gift is not only to uncover the stories behind the titles, but actually to shed light on the mysteries of literary creation' - Guardian on Why not Catch 21? 'Sheer comic genius' - Michael Bywater on The Oxford Despoiler 'Wonderfully accomplished ? the whole thing is a delight' - Sunday Telegraph on The Oxford Despoiler
