All the Materials for a Midnight Feast

By Gary Dexter

Published Dec 2012

A story of love, nuclear terror, the 1980s . . . and Philip Larkin

Born at the very height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Nicholas has lived 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. As the coach rolls through the night, the floodgates of memory open, and Nicholas begins to scrawl episodes from his past into a notebook. From these memories — sometimes poignant, sometimes comic, and often involving Philip Larkin — a picture soon emerges: of a devastating first love, and a fragile mind struggling to stay sane in a world that seems headed for annihilation.

Dexter’s tragi-comic tour de force will be adored by anyone who has ever asked themselves: am I crazy, or is everyone else?

A beautifully crafted work of fiction. Sunday Telegraph