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The Companion Contract

A. Baker

 FormatISBN Price  
This Book is Available Paperback (6x9)9781434320834 $ 14.10  
About the Book

The Companion Contract

          Lawyer – Robert Avery, who calculates the hours of his misery in six-minute units, loses his dignity, wife and beloved daughter in the mess of an untidy divorce. Jennifer Lewis, having just survived a disastrous childhood stares out at a dismal future. Chance and an inventive hairdresser bring their fates into collision by means of The Companion Contract.

This intelligent debut novel delivers a quirky fast paced story, focused on characters who are never quite at the centre of their own lives.

 

Reviews

‘A rewardingly subverted tragic-comic romance, thankfully not based on two unfeasibly attractive people.’ C. T. Bruce

 

‘Towards the end I was chewing the pages…’ Kate Headworth

 

‘I believed in it, the lovers’ blandness sparkled.’ S. Woodhouse

 

‘This darkly humorous, sexy, offbeat novel is worth the paper it’s written on.’ Jo Butler

 

Amanda describes her novel as a ‘dysfunctional romance’. Enjoy the read.

About the Author
 

Professional writing started with Fourth Wall Community Theatre Company. The co-operative was established with friends in 1986 after a move to Newcastle to gain a B.A Honours Degree in English Literature & European History. 

 

In May 1988 Amanda was elected first black woman councilor in the City of Newcastle. 

 

A stint as Arts Development Officer in SW Durham allowed Amanda to engage with large arts organisations including the RSC. 

 

Northumbria University was revisited in 1996, this time to study law. A rare view of damaged lives from her time as a family lawyer, informs Amanda’s adult work.

 

In 2001 Amanda's apocalyptic story The Last Child was short-listed in the bi-annual Virginia Wolfe story-writing competition

 

Amanda's sitcom House Normal was selected from 4,500 entries in the BBC T.V. sitcom competition 2004. 

 

Amanda has completed two full-length adult novels – Eating the Vinyl, which is being re-drafted and The Companion Contract.

   

As a 2005 summer project Amanda completed, Legend One - Eleanor and The Dragons of Death first in a children's triology. 

 

Free Preview

The Companion Contract

by A. Baker

 

 

 

PART 1

 

 chpt 1.

 

No V.A.T.

 

‘I sold my accidentally preserved virginity at seventeen to senior equity partner Robert Avery.  The arrangement was made by my disabled neighbour’s divorced daughter’s gay hair stylist’s boss - Richard Le Bon; Ricki to his mates.  Even in Ricki’s indiscriminate world, there were no other young female heterosexuals in the market for such a deal.  His flat fee for arranging the transaction was a mere £700.  If you work out the hours he’d spent developing the idea, co-ordinating meetings and sorting things out, it was a lot less per hour than solicitor’s fees. There was no V.A.T.’

 

That was the way Jennifer remembered it. Though she had no initial involvement in the Companion Contract, it marked a pivotal point of her existence. After entering into the agreement, Jennifer Lewis stopped being a voyeur of her own life and began to live it.

*

Ricki, the jeans-splitting hair-magician to the financially constrained and erstwhile employer of Jennifer Lewis met with Jennifer’s next-door neighbour, Kath.  Kath passed for Jennifer’s friend in those days, but in reality she was a part of the drifting human debris that adhered to Jennifer’s life.  Like everyone else, the good, bad and indifferent, Kath floated close to Jennifer and then, without warning, drifted away. 

  

Jennifer’s life was a bad fit.  When that happens as it regularly does, some folk sink, others spiral off into space.  Jennifer remained precariously oxygenated, until she stumbled into the life meant for her: a life with love in it. 

Other Books By This Author
 
Eating the Vinyl

Your Voice in Print