Generations

Generations is the final volume in Peter Bowes’ trilogy of essays and stories, the first two being Bloodlines (2013) and Lineage (2015). Bowes continues to entertain, move and surprise us with his subtly acute observations of life in all its manifestations. His writing is often at its most affecting when documenting the lives of those who otherwise come and go as we pass them by with barely a second glance.

Here, we meet the ‘woman by the side of the road’, her home a dilapidated caravan, tormented by nighttime noises and cars pulling up outside to terrorise her while she tries to sleep; Ronnie, the alcoholic ‘been a single bloke all me life’; and an unnamed man turning up for a reunion but finding no ‘special old friend because there was no special young friend forty-five years ago’.

However, the author is no less skilled at making us laugh as well as appreciating the simple joys and satisfactions of friendship and shared experiences: the delivery of dog food to an Italian restaurant causes unforeseen chaos in ‘The Best Food Available’, while in another piece, an overheard conversation about a man with three thumbs takes on a life of its own.

Peter Bowes writes from the heart and in a style that is uniquely his own. Our world gets a little bigger when we read his work, our empathy and understanding a little broader.