Paul Darling has lost his short term memory. He remembers everything about himself except where he is now, how he got there and why there is a dead body in the next room that looks like him. He flashes back to his mundane childhood in boring Bournemouth, which he seeks to escape from by becoming a skillful liar and fantasist. At sixteen, his life changes dramatically when he has a serious bicycle accident and, a few months later, his father lapses into a vegetative state. He starts work as a trainee journalist on the local newspaper and, fortuitously, breaks a dramatic story which hits the national press. This success is short-lived and he remains stuck in Bournemouth until a meeting with an old friend lands him a job and a move to London. Once there, his rise is rapid. He soon has friends in high places, an aristocratic girlfriend and a job at the Daily Mail. And then everything starts to go wrong.
Stephen Goldenberg Author 