No Precedent

No Precedent is the “poignant, funny, thoughtful and raw” sequel to Where's Sailor Jack?, due for release in July 2020 by novelist John Uttley. The northern grammar school pals Bob Swarbrick and Richard Shackleton are back, now facing the era of Brexit, Momentum, Coronavirus and Donald Trump. For the first time in their lives, Bob and Richard struggle to see the meaning of it all.

The trials and renewals of Where's Sailor Jack? (John Uttley’s debut novel released in 2015) behind them, they find themselves in a world whose faith and politics have moved beyond their sphere of influence and feel increasingly cut off from their roots.

Bob, now settled with Wendy, must reconcile old memories and new children while Richard must save his family from themselves. Along the way, they are adopted by the lascivious Lucy Fishwick and her predatory daughter Maddie, whose lives are as mad and chaotic as the radio play Lucy is trying to write and, indeed, the world itself.

But despite the coming plague, it doesn't look like Armageddon. There is to be an apocalypse, but one of personal dimensions. We don't all go together when we go!

No Precedent gives some clue as to why Brexit happened and why the red wall fell, not that either protagonist wanted the former, nor would have wanted the latter if Harold Wilson were still prime minister. John Uttley knows the towns of the north, the county boroughs as he still calls them, and writes with nostalgia and reflexion on times gone by and times yet to come.