Palace Pier

In the early 1960s, a golden age for newly-discovered writers, Chris Duffywas something of a nearly man. His debut novel was reasonably successful;his second was turned down as being too like the first. Thanks to procrastinationand heavy drinking, he has published nothing since.Settled now in Brighton, where he ekes out a living running a market bric-a-bracstall, Duffy dreams of the blurred decades that seem to have slipped through hiswhere did it all go wrong? But during one confusing weekend, on theopening days of the Brighton Literary Festival, everything looks set to change.Lurching through the razzmatazz of stilt-walkers, mime artists and unicyclists, Duffylearns of the existence of a long-lost manuscript by a famous novelist, now dead,and resolves to get hold of it, pass it off as his own and thus give his wilted careera kick-start.Unfortunately, little in Duffy's disordered life ever runs smoothly, particularly on thiscrowded weekend...