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George Pearly Is A Miserable Old Sod
Seventy year-old British ex-pat miserymonger George Pearly lives on the Costa del Sol, all alone except for his ancient, three-legged dog, Ambrose. George hates his life and everybody in it. These feelings are mutual. Everyone hates George too. From this unhappy equilibrium the situation quickly deteriorates. First, George discovers he is dying of a mystery illness. Then his 35 year-old ape-child nephew, Kevin, moves into George's tiny and once tranquil home with a passion for Vimto, Coco Pops and slobbing around in his greying underpants. Worst of all, George's neighbours start to disappear and all accusing fingers point towards George. Pull up a sun lounger, grab yourself a pina colada and enjoy a murder-mystery romp on Spain's sunny southern coast."
292 pages, Paperback
First published March 17, 2015
64 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Steven Primrose-Smith
12 books12 followersSteven Primrose-Smith has written sketches, songs, sitcoms and pantos for London-based NewsRevue, the world's longest-running live satirical comedy show, and The Sitcom Trials, as well as a series of comedy shows he produced in Spain. His writing has also appeared in The Independent, Cycle magazine and The National Student Magazine.
Steven's book "No Place Like Home, Thank God", about his near-death experience and the resulting 22,000-mile bicycle ride around Europe, is an Amazon International bestseller, reaching #1 in Cycling and #3 in both Sport and Travel. He has written four travel follow-ups: "Hungry for Miles" describes his 2015 attempt to cycle across Europe surviving on only £1 a day; "Route Britannia", another Amazon bestseller, explores in two parts his 2016 5,000-mile ride through every county in Britain; "Biking Broken Europe", yet another bestseller, follows his 6,000-mile journey through the more unstable bits of Europe, including the frozen and not-so-frozen conflicts of Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh; and his latest book, "The Quest for the Holy Quail", tells of his 3,000-mile foodie adventure through the whole of Morocco as it closed down around him due to Covid-19.
As well as travel books, Steven writes humorous novels. His first, another Amazon UK bestseller (#1 in Satire), is "George Pearly is a Miserable Old Sod", a murder-mystery involving the most unpopular man on the Costa del Sol. He has recently released his third novel, "How Not to Be a Unicorn", in which a well-meaning New Age mum indulges her young son's wishes to be a unicorn and, while he sleeps, superglues a horn to his head.
Steven also manages EuropeByBicycle.com, a hub of information about cycling in Europe with country guides for over 50 destinations.
For the latest information about Steven and his latest releases and projects, please visit www.primrose-smith.com.
Steven's book "No Place Like Home, Thank God", about his near-death experience and the resulting 22,000-mile bicycle ride around Europe, is an Amazon International bestseller, reaching #1 in Cycling and #3 in both Sport and Travel. He has written four travel follow-ups: "Hungry for Miles" describes his 2015 attempt to cycle across Europe surviving on only £1 a day; "Route Britannia", another Amazon bestseller, explores in two parts his 2016 5,000-mile ride through every county in Britain; "Biking Broken Europe", yet another bestseller, follows his 6,000-mile journey through the more unstable bits of Europe, including the frozen and not-so-frozen conflicts of Transnistria, Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh; and his latest book, "The Quest for the Holy Quail", tells of his 3,000-mile foodie adventure through the whole of Morocco as it closed down around him due to Covid-19.
As well as travel books, Steven writes humorous novels. His first, another Amazon UK bestseller (#1 in Satire), is "George Pearly is a Miserable Old Sod", a murder-mystery involving the most unpopular man on the Costa del Sol. He has recently released his third novel, "How Not to Be a Unicorn", in which a well-meaning New Age mum indulges her young son's wishes to be a unicorn and, while he sleeps, superglues a horn to his head.
Steven also manages EuropeByBicycle.com, a hub of information about cycling in Europe with country guides for over 50 destinations.
For the latest information about Steven and his latest releases and projects, please visit www.primrose-smith.com.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 15, 2017
A good read
slow to get going but eventually became un-putdownable, I'm sure that's a real word? Now it's midnight and I've got to be up for work in six hours. Thanks Steven another night's sleep ruined.
Buy it and read it, it's a bit strange, very clever, funny and ultimately unputdownable, I loved it, off to buy Steven's next one now! How about George Pearly is still a miserable old sod (part 2). I shall miss George!
slow to get going but eventually became un-putdownable, I'm sure that's a real word? Now it's midnight and I've got to be up for work in six hours. Thanks Steven another night's sleep ruined.
Buy it and read it, it's a bit strange, very clever, funny and ultimately unputdownable, I loved it, off to buy Steven's next one now! How about George Pearly is still a miserable old sod (part 2). I shall miss George!
July 29, 2016
Very enjoyable.
I loved this book. Very funny, good characters and an unusual story. A bit far fetched, but all the better for it.
I loved this book. Very funny, good characters and an unusual story. A bit far fetched, but all the better for it.
July 23, 2017
Brilliant, a laugh out loud adventure. Can't wait to pass this book to the hubby so that we can chat about it. First 5* in a long time.
August 16, 2018
gave up after 20 pages , it was just not for me
November 11, 2018
What a tale!
A fantastic read. I struggled to put it down. Full of humour and twists galore. Thank you I look forward to reading some more of your work.
A fantastic read. I struggled to put it down. Full of humour and twists galore. Thank you I look forward to reading some more of your work.
September 3, 2018
Once upon a time there was a good idea for a novel, then the author started writing it and it turned into “George Pearly Is Miserable Old Sod”, which isn’t such a good idea at all. Between the idea and the execution author Steven Primrose-Smith has managed to squeeze most of the humour out of a humorous idea.
So, the idea: George Pearly is a grumpy old man living on the Costa Del Sol, with not much money and no wife. Having persuaded George to move to Spain his wife stayed only six months, went back to England and then divorced him, taking most of his money in the process. His British ex-pat doctor tells him he has only weeks to live but refuses to tell him what is wrong with him on the grounds that it would only worry him. Instead George obsess about his illness, which isn’t unnatural given the circumstances. Think Victor Meldrew living in Spain without the calming influence of Margaret and you won’t be far away.
To cap all that George accidently kills a man (or does he?) and then, through his own greed, has his idiot man-child of a nephew foisted on him by his wealthy sister, who then dies leaving him the nephew as his sole legacy. On TV the part of the nephew would undoubtedly be played by comedian and actor Johnny Vegas.
The plot is all set up for rib tickling fun, but the fun fails to happen.
The difference here is that our sympathies lie with Victor Meldrew. He is grumpy because he is bewildered by the world in which he finds himself and on whom misfortune is inflicted. George Pearly, however, is the architect of his own downfall. He is unlikeable, he is a nasty person who treats other people badly and does stupid things that no sane person would ever consider doing. What happens to him isn’t funny, it’s tragic but, as the reader, I don’t care because it is impossible to like George Pearly.
The standard of writing is fine, providing the reader ignores the occasional poems that George is prone to writing. I think the author thinks that the poems are amusing, but they fall far short of the standards of Spike Milligan, Roger McGough or even Pam Ayers.
There is one moment when I felt sorry for George. I hesitate to describe it in case Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, reads this blog and thinks it’s a good idea. But here goes anyway.
George books a flight home to attend his sister’s funeral. He books with the fictional airline LibraAir, whose pricing policy is based on the combined weight of the passenger and his/her luggage. Passengers are weighed just before they board the aircraft, to work out their fare. For those of you that aren’t into astrology, the star sign of Libra is represented by weighing scales.
George, being a skinflint, does all he can to reduce his weight, even to the point of not eating that day. Inadvertently George ends up with his pockets filled with €99 worth of coins (about 742 gms or 1½ lbs in weight) and also ends up being weighed while carrying the heavy luggage of the young mother who was in the queue in front of him, who is struggling to carry a baby. The result is that he ends up paying twice what he had planned for his air fare.
Hardly the stuff of Oscar Wilde, but one of the few scenes in the book that actually made me smile, probably because I could imagine Ryanair introducing such a pricing system.
The book is littered with minor characters, all of whom are ex-pat Brits who are existing, rather than living, on the Costa Del Sol in the belief that they have a better life than they would back home. The author doesn’t provide a single character that seems to be enjoying life.
About three quarters of the way through the book the author switches the narration to the nephew, Kevin, for large portions of the story. Kevin’s point of view is indicated by a semi-literate style of writing used in certain types of post on Facebook: lacking grammar, punctuation, spelling and confusing words such as to, too and two; there, their and they’re, etc. This might have worked for a couple of paragraphs, but it went on for several pages at a time. I found that I couldn’t be bothered trying to decipher these ramblings, so I started to skip ahead to find something more readable. It is never a good sign for an author when the reader starts to skip pages.
There is also an undercurrent of Xenophobia. The Spanish are depicted as being unable, or unwilling, to speak English, even though anyone who has ever been to the Costas knows full well that many Spanish people speak very good English, especially the younger people. This is particularly relevant when George tries to get a second opinion with regards to his medical condition. He can’t find an English speaking doctor on the whole of the Cost Del Sol, despite the fact that we know there are many who specialise in treating the ex-pat community and the 17.8 million British holiday makers who travel there each year.
The fact that none of the ex-pat Brit characters speak Spanish is accepted as truth, so therefore isn’t funny for that reason.
If you are a Brit who lives on the Costa Del Sol, who speaks Spanish and who is really enjoying your life out there, then I apologise. But please send your e-mail of complaint to Steven Primrose-Smith as I am only the messenger.
The author has written a number of other books, mainly non-fiction works based on a love of cycling. Perhaps he should stick to what he knows best. His biography shows him as being a comedy sketch writer. Perhaps his humour comes over best on stage, but it doesn’t work in this book.
So, the idea: George Pearly is a grumpy old man living on the Costa Del Sol, with not much money and no wife. Having persuaded George to move to Spain his wife stayed only six months, went back to England and then divorced him, taking most of his money in the process. His British ex-pat doctor tells him he has only weeks to live but refuses to tell him what is wrong with him on the grounds that it would only worry him. Instead George obsess about his illness, which isn’t unnatural given the circumstances. Think Victor Meldrew living in Spain without the calming influence of Margaret and you won’t be far away.
To cap all that George accidently kills a man (or does he?) and then, through his own greed, has his idiot man-child of a nephew foisted on him by his wealthy sister, who then dies leaving him the nephew as his sole legacy. On TV the part of the nephew would undoubtedly be played by comedian and actor Johnny Vegas.
The plot is all set up for rib tickling fun, but the fun fails to happen.
The difference here is that our sympathies lie with Victor Meldrew. He is grumpy because he is bewildered by the world in which he finds himself and on whom misfortune is inflicted. George Pearly, however, is the architect of his own downfall. He is unlikeable, he is a nasty person who treats other people badly and does stupid things that no sane person would ever consider doing. What happens to him isn’t funny, it’s tragic but, as the reader, I don’t care because it is impossible to like George Pearly.
The standard of writing is fine, providing the reader ignores the occasional poems that George is prone to writing. I think the author thinks that the poems are amusing, but they fall far short of the standards of Spike Milligan, Roger McGough or even Pam Ayers.
There is one moment when I felt sorry for George. I hesitate to describe it in case Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, reads this blog and thinks it’s a good idea. But here goes anyway.
George books a flight home to attend his sister’s funeral. He books with the fictional airline LibraAir, whose pricing policy is based on the combined weight of the passenger and his/her luggage. Passengers are weighed just before they board the aircraft, to work out their fare. For those of you that aren’t into astrology, the star sign of Libra is represented by weighing scales.
George, being a skinflint, does all he can to reduce his weight, even to the point of not eating that day. Inadvertently George ends up with his pockets filled with €99 worth of coins (about 742 gms or 1½ lbs in weight) and also ends up being weighed while carrying the heavy luggage of the young mother who was in the queue in front of him, who is struggling to carry a baby. The result is that he ends up paying twice what he had planned for his air fare.
Hardly the stuff of Oscar Wilde, but one of the few scenes in the book that actually made me smile, probably because I could imagine Ryanair introducing such a pricing system.
The book is littered with minor characters, all of whom are ex-pat Brits who are existing, rather than living, on the Costa Del Sol in the belief that they have a better life than they would back home. The author doesn’t provide a single character that seems to be enjoying life.
About three quarters of the way through the book the author switches the narration to the nephew, Kevin, for large portions of the story. Kevin’s point of view is indicated by a semi-literate style of writing used in certain types of post on Facebook: lacking grammar, punctuation, spelling and confusing words such as to, too and two; there, their and they’re, etc. This might have worked for a couple of paragraphs, but it went on for several pages at a time. I found that I couldn’t be bothered trying to decipher these ramblings, so I started to skip ahead to find something more readable. It is never a good sign for an author when the reader starts to skip pages.
There is also an undercurrent of Xenophobia. The Spanish are depicted as being unable, or unwilling, to speak English, even though anyone who has ever been to the Costas knows full well that many Spanish people speak very good English, especially the younger people. This is particularly relevant when George tries to get a second opinion with regards to his medical condition. He can’t find an English speaking doctor on the whole of the Cost Del Sol, despite the fact that we know there are many who specialise in treating the ex-pat community and the 17.8 million British holiday makers who travel there each year.
The fact that none of the ex-pat Brit characters speak Spanish is accepted as truth, so therefore isn’t funny for that reason.
If you are a Brit who lives on the Costa Del Sol, who speaks Spanish and who is really enjoying your life out there, then I apologise. But please send your e-mail of complaint to Steven Primrose-Smith as I am only the messenger.
The author has written a number of other books, mainly non-fiction works based on a love of cycling. Perhaps he should stick to what he knows best. His biography shows him as being a comedy sketch writer. Perhaps his humour comes over best on stage, but it doesn’t work in this book.
April 27, 2018
Laugh out loud!!!
This was, undoubtedly, the funniest book I have read in a very long time. The geriatric characters reminded me of some of my own friends. A really good laugh for boys of a certain age and a warning to young bucks what fate has in store for them. Well recommended.
This was, undoubtedly, the funniest book I have read in a very long time. The geriatric characters reminded me of some of my own friends. A really good laugh for boys of a certain age and a warning to young bucks what fate has in store for them. Well recommended.
January 4, 2020
There’s a bit of George in us all,,,
A splendid romp through everyone’s future dotage, George’s tussle with the meandering aspects of his life, and his own personal perspectives, will amuse and entertain enough to keep most people who still possess a sense of humour turning the pages.
A splendid romp through everyone’s future dotage, George’s tussle with the meandering aspects of his life, and his own personal perspectives, will amuse and entertain enough to keep most people who still possess a sense of humour turning the pages.
May 19, 2019
Wasn’t sure when I first started this book if I was going to enjoy it. The book picks up pace all the way through until it left me in a frenzy wanting to know what happened next. Towards the end I had tears of laughter streaming down my face. The book is completely bonkers and I’m really not quite sure why I enjoyed it so much.
December 19, 2018
Bizarre
Bizarre and weird but what a great book. George is a great character and I even grew to like Kevin.
Bizarre and weird but what a great book. George is a great character and I even grew to like Kevin.
January 5, 2019
Found this foolish , started funny but then got very silly, book club #10
February 11, 2019
George pearly is a miserable old sod
Very funny book with some really weird characters but also with a humorous plot and a few twists and turns. Very enjoyable
Very funny book with some really weird characters but also with a humorous plot and a few twists and turns. Very enjoyable
February 2, 2020
Hilarious. Warning choking hazard. Do not read this book whilst eating or drinking. I laughed so hard that I sprayed my wall with soda. Very funny.
July 14, 2019
Couldn’t put it down!!!
A really well written and well thought out story. Extremely funny and clever plot. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
A really well written and well thought out story. Extremely funny and clever plot. Looking forward to reading more from this author.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews