Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound is a debut novel from filmwriter Richard Smith.

It's all about rock 'n' roll music, the life choices that we all make and the dream we have.

Meet George, our protagonist. George is 79 and has recently become a widower. Back in the day, the heady 1960s, George had nearly, but not quite, managed to find success as a rock star.

And George is not a happy person. His house is now providing refuge to Tara, his teenager of a granddaughter. Wearied by the constant sniping and arguing between her parents, she left home to live with George.

However, there's the additional problem of Toby, George's son-in-law. He wants to see George stashed away in a care home. 

However, although they all think they know all there is to know about George, they don't. Because George has some pretty interesting secrets.

For example, they don't really know why George's musical career didn't take off. And only George knows how much this sense of failure still gnaws at his guts all these decades later.

Age is no obstacle to ambition and George dearly wants to take one more chance at actually making it as a star.

Unexpectedly the chance to redeem his long moribund musical career comes along, but at the price of the involvement of a long vanished distant relative, who has reappeared in his life. 

And what about Tara? She has ambitions of a musical career of her own. However, the clashes between different generations have caught her unawares and how will she cope with her granddad's dreams and memories and his collection of old vinyl records?

At first the start of their relationship (as people sharing a house) gets off to a less than stellar beginning, but they start to gel together and Tara is soon to face the exact same dilemma that George had to face 50-odd years ago.

What can Tara do? Who can she turn to? Her parents? George? Who? And who, exactly, can she really trust?

It's a vivid and very readable book and will have cross-generational appeal. Although it's a feelgood novel, it does not shy away from the unpleasant aspects of life and is all the more readable for that.

It's published by Matador at £10.99.