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Ash on an Old Man's Sleeve
A novel set in Castro's Cuba focusing on a seventy year old English man who becomes involved in a drug case whilst on holiday. A young policeman whom he forms a friendship with disappears on a visit to a mountain village to witness an apparition of the Virgin Mary. From the author of THE ONE AND ONLY.
- GenresAdult Fiction
208 pages, ebook
First published August 1, 2000
About the author
Francis King
78 books25 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 16, 2024
4.5, rounded up.
Another winning work, again read in less than a day, my 11th in my King deep dive, and his 26th novel from 1996. This one concerns Elliot Baker, an elderly retired English civil servant's sojourn in Castro's Cuba, and his growing infatuation with Eneas, a young policeman. There are subtle nods to both Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and E. M. Forster; a subplot about a religious vision of the Virgin Mary inside a rural cave an obvious homage to A Passage to India.
The title is something of a euphemism - the 'ash' alluded to actually being cocaine that Baker first experiences his first night in Havana, that makes an unexpected recurrence at the denouement. This is such an accomplished and pleasurable read, it's disheartening that mine is the first review of it here on GR.
Another winning work, again read in less than a day, my 11th in my King deep dive, and his 26th novel from 1996. This one concerns Elliot Baker, an elderly retired English civil servant's sojourn in Castro's Cuba, and his growing infatuation with Eneas, a young policeman. There are subtle nods to both Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and E. M. Forster; a subplot about a religious vision of the Virgin Mary inside a rural cave an obvious homage to A Passage to India.
The title is something of a euphemism - the 'ash' alluded to actually being cocaine that Baker first experiences his first night in Havana, that makes an unexpected recurrence at the denouement. This is such an accomplished and pleasurable read, it's disheartening that mine is the first review of it here on GR.
April 20, 2024
Well written, sad to see how money or even soap can buy people when a country is in poverty
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews