The Dove Is Dead

For fans of We Were Rich and We Didn’t Know it by Tom Phelan, A 1950s Childhood by Paul Feeney and All Points North by Simon Armitage

A bitter-sweet tale of life, death and a changing world.

“We’re out of time,” said Dad, with a resigned grimace.

“Yep, it’s not just our Lancashire that’s gone. The whole country is another place. Manufacturing, our religion, even what a man should be, and I do mean man this time, Amy,” Bob added.

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The Northern grammar school pals, Bob Swarbrick and Richard Shackleton, are now well into their seventies. While Richard’s daughter, the ‘delightful mistake’ Amy, is preparing for her Finals at Oxford, they’re more concerned with the viva they’ll be facing soon with the almighty. Everything is changing; their native Lancashire is barely recognisable and the industries they grew up with have vanished Early boomer men and woke Gen Z girl tread a path together through a world of western cultural decline and collapse of faith, in a searingly sad but still joyful celebration of life and death.. While Bob and Richard grapple with the shifting cultural landscape, Richard’s daughter, Amy, is preparing for her final exams at Oxford.

About the Author:

John Uttley was born in Lancashire just as the war was ending. He was educated at a grammar school before reading Physics at Oxford. He then embarked on a long career with the CEGB and National Grid Group.

John was Finance Director at the time of the miners’ strike, the Sizewell Inquiry and privatisation, receiving on OBE in 1991. Shortly afterwards, he suffered his fifteen minutes of fame when he publicly gave a dividend to charity in the middle of the fat cat furore. Following this, he took an external London degree in Divinity while acting as chairman of numerous smaller companies, both UK and US based. He is married to Janet and lives just north of London. This is his third novel, based on the characters of his first, the much-loved and critically acclaimed Where’s Sailor Jack?