BOOKS
The Responsibility of Love
A witty, sexy, intelligent and moving novel, The Responsibility of Love is set against the foreground of a short-listed writer’s bizarre dash across London to attend a literary prize-giving ceremony. However, going behind the scenes to myriad complex relationships taking place across decades, across London and across America, this novel asks the question – are we forever responsible for those we have tamed?
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'The work of a master storyteller at the top of his game - witty, wise and profound.' Iain Maloney, author of The Waves Burn Bright and The Only Gaijin in the Village
A Woman of Integrity
Arriving on the wrong side of fifty for a female film star, Laura Scott's career is on the slide. She has an opportunity to reverse this downward spiral when she is offered the starring role in a one-woman play about the life and loves of Hollywood silent screen actress turned pioneering pilot, Georgie Hepburn. But as Laura discovers more about Georgie, she realises there is always a price to pay for integrity - in her own life as well as Georgie's.
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'A wonderfully readable, well-researched and at times humorous exploration of two women's lives.' Lisa Ballantyne, author of The Guilty One and Redemption Road
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An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful
An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful is a sweeping novel of East and West, love and war, truth and delusion. With richly drawn characters and a narrative that perfectly builds the tension up to the explosive climax, this outstanding novel has all the hallmarks of a modern classic.
'A beautifully written love story that combines political impetus, questions about art and truth and calls to mind the best of William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks.' Lesley McDowell, literary critic and author of Unfashioned Creatures and Between the Sheets.
The Land Agent
Palestine, 1920s. Working as a land agent for one of the richest men in the world, Polish-Jewish immigrant Lev Sela finds himself swept into a relationship with Celia Kahn, a mesmerising Scottish pioneer, after stumbling upon a strategic area of land that doesn't exist on any map.
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'An historical novel big on romance and contemporary relevance.' Michael Goldfarb, journalist and author of Emancipation
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'Simons has the swift fluency of a master storyteller.' Ian Stephen, Northwords Now
The Liberation of Celia Kahn
With rent strikes, anti-war sentiment, Cat and Mouse wrangling in London and a revolution brewing in Russia, a young Jewish woman in Glasgow discovers a taste for protest and the empowerment made possible by birth control. Her political sensibilities are fired up even further by a personal trauma. How will Celia respond to the difficult choices posed by a passionate new love affair?
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'Informative, entertaining and uplifting. Highly recommended.' Janet Williamson, Historical Novel Society Review
The Credit Draper
This beautiful and original debut novel by J. David Simons is more than just an immigrant's story about the search for identity in an alien land: it is also a book about whisky, football and waterproof clothing.
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'An odyssey of cultural confusion and survival. Full of hope, honour and sadness.' McKitterick Prize judges
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'A rare evocation of the immigrant novel, with a welcome Scottish addition.' Clive Sinclair, The Jewish Chronicle
A Woman of Integrity
"The desire to be true to yourself and to an unshakeable set of values lies at the heart of this precisely crafted novel in which Simons delicately plaits the fortunes of two women"
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The Herald
An Exquisite Sense of What is Beautiful
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"It is obvious that Simons is a master of the written word, his engagement with the English and Japanese language is shaped with delicacy and intricacy. The very title of the novel raises the reader’s expectations and Simons does not disappoint"
Publishthings.com
The Credit Draper
“There is so much to admire in this story. Set in a period of social and political turmoil, it examines the difficulties of maintaining religious traditions while attempting to blend into a strange environment. This novel has a ring of truth while bravely tackling themes that have uncomfortable echoes today."
The Scots Magazine