Jack in the Box

"A kaleidoscopic novel full of a twenty-something's internal struggles and profound sense of loss at his mother's death. Questioning, shot full of ideas and imagination and dreams. All bound together in an encyclopaedic knowledge of football - the beautiful game. Above all, how a passionate love for football is woven into the fabric of people's psyches ,lives and friendships all over the World. Referencing Albert Einstein to Dr Feelgood, Pharrell Williams to Vermeer, and much of South-West London, this is witty clever and moving. If you like talking about football, thinking about football and breathing football - you'll very probably like this a lot."

Customer review by Rob Yates

‘Jack could hear the noise from the party, but he didn’t want to go downstairs. He was agitated because he’d been made to feel like both a stranger and a prisoner in his own home. These guests were fundamentalists, absolutists, who believed in the success gene; either you had it, or, in Jack’s case, he didn't.’

25-year-old, football-obsessed Jack Scott is living in his family home in Fulham, London, and is at crisis point in his life. His mother Stella died two years ago and Jack has a fraught relationship with his father Richard. Jack wanted – and narrowly failed – to become a professional footballer, and now wants to revisit a desire to be a writer and stand-up comedian, but since Stella’s death he’s been emotionally and psychologically stuck.

Although Jack supports Chelsea, he loves Barcelona and Lionel Messi. He also idolises Johan Cruijff and is a big fan of Albert Einstein, because of an extraordinary childhood discovery that combined E=mc2 and Jack’s beloved Chelsea F.C. As an only child, he grew up with his teddy bear Edward who, aside from his best friend and godfather, is his closest confidant. Jack broke up with his girlfriend Claudia some time ago, but he hopes that they’ll get back together again. But to do that, he knows that he has to change. Can he, with the help of his real and imaginary friends, and both living and dead parents, as well as footballers past and present, somehow find some inner peace and move his life forward? Because the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about...

Jack In The Box is a humorous novel that will appeal to male readers and fans of football.