Free Love

Roger is a retired Professor of history. Once famous and admired as an academic star and a lifelong advocate for the rights of women, he has grown fat and self-indulgent, and is currently living in exile in Provence. A very public scandal of betrayal precipitated his fall from grace. His only hope of restoring his reputation is a memoir, or preferably a detached biography. He convinces his oldest friend, Clive, another retired academic, to write it. Roger's personal reflections take us back to the 1960s, where we learn of a life devoted compulsively to sexual adventure with countless women, mostly young feminists drawn to this charismatic man of principle fighting their cause. Clive is inclined to ignore these escapades. He is to write a professional biography, not indulge in prurient gossip. But when he discovers that Roger's adventures bring betrayal into his own family, he cannot separate the personal from the political. Lives are shattered as truths are revealed. Tony Garnett was born in Birmingham, England and attended university in London, where he has been ever since, with the exception of a few years spent working in the motion picture industry in Hollywood. Now retired after a career as a prolific screenwriter, his work in the movies and at the BBC has taken him all over the UK and to many other countries as well. Although still residing in London, he remains close to his family in Birmingham and closely follows his boyhood soccer team, Aston Villa. Free Love is his third novel. Publisher's website: http://sbpra.com/TonyGarnett