#Blogtour review - Welcome to the Heady Heights by David F Ross

Cover design by kid-ethic.com

Welcome to the Heady Heights
David F Ross
Orenda, 21 March 2019
PB, e 264pp

Today I'm joining the blogtour for David F Ross's new book, Welcome to the Heady Heights. I'm grateful to Anne Cater and to Orenda for inviting me onto the tour and providing a free copy of the book for review.

I was especially looking forward to this book, having immensely enjoyed Ross's previous Disco Days trilogy, featuring the lives of a group of young men (and later, as older men) growing up in the 70s in the West of Scotland. Now, he returns to that decade, with something of the same vibe, but the story's largely set in Glasgow and his protagonists are older, the chief among them, Archie Blunt, being in his 50s.

That means looking at the decade through the other end of the telescope, as it were, which is fascinating. In Disco Days there was the joy of discovery, of new things: new music, new life experiences - such a lot to learn. There were some alarming moments but one sensed that youthful optimism must win through - as, by the end of the third book, The Man Who Loved Islands, it kind of had, after many twists and turns.

Heady Heights is darker, more cynical. Archie's lost his wife and lost his job on the buses, his dad is succumbing to dementia, he's a middle aged man defying the demographics just by still being alive in the East End of Glasgow - and that city is being torn apart, razed, as solid tenements are replaced by flimsy tower blocks or new urban highways. Even Glasgow Corporation is giving way to the new Regional Council.

David F Ross

And behind that is a darker theme still as rumours spread about beloved popular entertainers. Rumours nobody takes seriously.(Who'd have thought it?) And homeless young men are going missing. Disappearances nobody takes seriously (who'd have thought it?) except for one young WPC, Barbara Sherman, who's already out of place in an Ashes To Ashes retro style nick with degrading initiation rituals and ingrained sexism.

So there is plenty of the dark side of the 70s here - but Ross also conveys a jauntiness, a zest for life, through his characters which does I think carry over from his earlier books. Yes, there are almost suicidal quantities of drink, of heart-attack inducing food, run-ins with Glasgow gangsters. Archie's got a lot to despair over - indeed more and more as the book goes on - but he's determined throughout, constantly spotting angles, respecting of no-one, scamming and scheming and when opportunity knocks as he accidentally rescues a beloved TV star from a jealous husband, he's ready with a scheme to take a new band to the top. Yes, outwardly Archie's confident almost to the point of arrogance.

Inwardly - well, a man doesn't talk about these things, does he?  And that "almost" is redeemed. Almost. There are plenty here - Establishment figures, wealthy men, entitled men - who abuse their position and who are truly, deeply arrogant. A well known, white haired DJ. A star of light entertainment. A mercurial and self-interested Glasgow ex Labour MP who's set up his own party. Figures living in a world of mahogany and privilege. What will happen when the two worlds collide?

It's a fun, compulsively readable, rollercoaster of a book with a real bite to it and some genuinely sad moments. The extensive use of Glasgow vernacular adds to the atmosphere (and no, this English reader didn't have any problem following it) but really, Archie, Geordie and their pals are just infectiously compelling characters you want to keep reading and reading about. It would have been nice to read more about Barbara Sherman and journalist Gail Proctor - perhaps in another book, Mr Ross? - but with this one I really, really felt it was a shame when the book had to end.

You can buy or preorder Welcome to the Heady Heights variously from your local bookshop, including online via Hive Books, or from Blackwell's, Waterstones or Amazon - and doubtless elsewhere too.

And you should.