That'll be the Day

by Ray Connolly

Jim McClaine is a product of the fifties. When boys were spotty and girls were out of reach. Jim opts out of the academic rat-race and lives out his fantasies working for a holiday camp and a fair. But the humdrum realities of life don't seem to have much to do with James Dean, Marlon Brando or Chuck Berry.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1973

About the author

Ray Connolly grew up in Lancashire, England. After graduating from the London School of Economics he began a career in journalism, and wrote a weekly interview column for the London Evening Standard, concentrating mainly on popular culture and music. Since then he has written for the Sunday Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Observer and the Daily Mail. Many of his interviews with members of the Beatles have been republished in his eBook, The Ray Connolly Beatles Archive.
His first novel, A Girl Who Came To Stay, was published in 1973. Several other novels followed, including Newsdeath, Sunday Morning, Shadows On A Wall and Kill For Love.
Working with producer David Puttnam he wrote the original screenplays for the films That’ll Be the Day and Stardust, and wrote and directed the feature length documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager.
He has also written for television, most notably the series Lytton’s Diary and Perfect Scoundrels, and the TV films Forever Young and Defrosting The Fridge, and worked with Sir George Martin on the documentary trilogy about music The Rhythm of Life.
For BBC radio he wrote Lost Fortnight, about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood, and Unimaginable, which concerned the twenty four hours around the death of John Lennon, whom he was due to see on the day the former Beatle was murdered.
In 2010 he adapted one strand of his novel Love Out Of Season as the radio play God Bless Our Love, while his novella about the Beatles, Sorry, Boys, You Failed The Audition, will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2013.
In 2011 he published his Christmas short story Let Nothing You Dismay as an eBook on Amazon. Others will soon follow.
Currently working on a screenplay for a movie about Dusty Springfield, he is married and lives in London.

Reviews

[Cosmic Dwellings · Rating 5 out of 5]

The early life of a young man who is thoroughly bored with the stranglehold of family life and the educational system in 1958, heads to the seaside in the hope of experiencing life in the fast lane with the ever-increasing temptations of the rock 'n' roll era - Great Read!

[Rob Wiltsher · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who has ever wanted to run away from home to join a funfair.....