This is a tender yet heart-breaking story about love and friendship and how far you would go for your friends.

This is Jimmy’s story about his friendship with Tully who took him into his family after his parents abandoned him. The first half of the novel is about the growth and depth of their relationship at a pivotal point when they travel with a group of friends from Glasgow to Manchester for a weekend of music, drugs, drinking and everything else in between. The second half fast forwards thirty years ahead when Tully rings Jimmy and breaks devastating news and asks for help.

The novel is filled with humour even in the darkest of moments. It is also a telling portrayal of life during the Thatcher years where each boy’s political views are shaped by the economic woes forced on them and their families by the collapse of the coal mines. Music is their escape and for one weekend they lose themselves in youthful exuberance.

Even though I read the novel, I could hear the Scottish lilt in the dialogue. The writing is beautiful and particularly evocative of the era of 1986. Yet the author also captured the same boys as men and where they’d landed. Jimmy and Tully chose the path they wanted on that weekend seeking a better life and for the most part achieved that. Foremost, their relationship never weakened by the years and only grew stronger.

Revealing the request Tully makes would be a spoiler but let’s just say the mood changes markedly dealing with a distressing yet important topic. The reader is faced with contemplating the uncomfortable dilemma Jimmy is put into and wondering how they would respond.

Give this one a go but be warned it’s a heavy topic.