A short story collection that swings from comedy to poignancy, then back again, as it explores mankind’s foibles, with a sharp eye.

 This collection of 37 pieces offers readers an intellectual and emotional playground. The only linking theme is the human ego and its frailty. The characters display love, cynicism, generosity and selfishness, hope and despair. Above all there is humour from the gentle to sardonic, with forays into boisterousness. The action takes place in rural and urban Britain, in France, and in the driving cab of a bus and the depths of a coalmine. You will empathise with some and despise others, but you will believe in them all. If God exists, mankind’s presence on this planet is evidence of his sense of humour. This book tells some of his best jokes.

About the Author 

During his career in management development Tom Kilcourse was extensively and frequently published in a variety of management and academic journals. He also had a monograph on ‘Team Problem Analysis’ published. Additionally, as a compulsive writer, he produced many short stories, some of which have been, and are being, published in magazines in the UK. He presently has a collection of 40 short stories selling on Amazon under the title ‘The Human Circus’. That book was published by Lulu.

Since coming to live in France he has had some articles on French life published in magazines, and has done some journalism for French News, an English language monthly published in France for ex-pats.

He is a Mancunian in origin, who started his working life as a coalminer and a bus driver, before gaining a scholarship in his late twenties to read economics and politics for two years at Ruskin College, Oxford. Having gained his diploma he won a State Mature Scholarship, one of only two awarded that year, to read Economics at Hull University. He gained a B.Sc. Econ. Honours.

He has now retired to France with his wife, to live in Norman tranquillity, which is an ideal environment for writing.