Books by Eleanor Berry

The amusing and extraordinary adventures of Ephraim Rendon are catalogued in this humorous book. He is a weird but loveable boy and a fantastic show-off. His late father was a wacky doctor at the Hammersmith Hospital. His mother, Juliet, was a talented, controversial writer, almost as crazy as her common-law husband. The book starts with a fire. Ephraim is orphaned when Juliet dies after breaking through a cordon of astounded firemen, to retrieve her latest manuscript. Ephraim is cared for by his aunt Miranda, Juliet"s sister, who is married to a surly Harley Street dentist, neither proficient at his trade, nor his commitments between the sheets. Blind drunk, even when wielding his air rotor drill, which often penetrates tongues instead of cavities, he staggers home and finds Miranda fornicating with Juliet"s sex-bomb publisher, Ian Rosen. Dentist and publisher brawl like Rottweilers on the marital bed, while Ephraim jumps up and down, singing The Dentist and the Printer Should Be Friends. The dentist comes to a pretty bad end and Rosen marries Miranda. Rosen is the hero of this book. He is strong, vibrant and sexy. This irresistible hunk and selfless saint saturates Juliet"s insecure, difficult son with unreserved love and restores his happiness. Both man and boy have had sadness in their lives. They are fiercely bonded by a loathing for religion and the denial of a deity. Later on, comes a jolting and unexpected twist. Rosen is given staggering information about Ephraim and his attitude towards the boy changes dramatically. Even so, the story is a barrel of laughs, throughout, despite its less jocular and powerfully moving ending.