Come Back, Paddy Riley

Striking ... Relentlessly honest, this is an open-ended cautionary tale about the allure of chaos (TLS)

Birch is utterly compelling at evoking the agonies of adolescent love ... entirely convincing (THE TIMES)

Carol Birch is a wonderful portrayer of character ... An absorbing story that echoes some of the themes in Angela Carter's fiction (INDEPENDENT)

Carol Birch's sixth novel, Come Back, Paddy Riley is a strange hybrid. It is both a sentimental and nostalgic romance, dulled by a tendency to cliché and gossipy exchanges, and a powerful and clever psychological study of adultery between vivid and convi (Cherry Smyth, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW)

Anita's mother was the mermaid in the Belle Vue Fair Freak Show. Into their lives came Paddy Riley, a young Irish lad whose motto was 'the only crime in life is not to take up a good opportunity'. The opportunity was Anita's mother - hungry for love and romance. Their secret is safe until young Anita, their go-between, spins a jealous lie that tragically catches them all. Now grown with children of her own, Anita has found a kind of peace with a sweet husband, and the past is past. Until that is, a man not unlike Paddy Riley comes to their town. It's an 'opportunity' that Anita cannot, for the life of her, seem to resist.