The Mating Call of the Racket-Tailed Drongo
Mating Call: a device for attracting the female.
Racket-Tailed Drongo: a devious bird – not always what it seems.
The August and Venerable Golf Club of St Magnus is in trouble. In an ancient deed the Secretary discovers that clubhouse and land will revert to Janet, the fishmonger’s daughter, if, on her eighteenth birthday, she’s still a virgin. The birthday is imminent, and the Secretary decides to take matters into his own hands...
Also in trouble is Stephen Pottle, a lowly lecturer. With landlord, barmaid and Principal of the University on his tail, he seeks refuge in the embrace of his only friend, Monty, his pet python. Alas, there is only so much a python can do...
Questions pop up like sprinklers on a golf course or vowels in the Vedas. Will the A&R be ruined? Will Pottle prove that golf began in India? Will Hamish win the Open? Will Hardcastle uncover Monty? Who will get the girl? What is love, and what’s a drongo got to do with it anyway?
Shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize 2007
Janet (and her virginity)
The August and Venerable
Golf Club of St Magnus
Archie (the official seducer)
Delilah (the voluptuous barmaid)
Hardcastle (the landlord)
Hamish (the Open hopeful)
Alastair (the Secretary who spills the beans)
Not to mention, the Kama Sutra, fish,
snakes, tsunamis, Sanskrit,
female firebrands, Japanese reporters,
the halls of Harmonia
And, of course, Pottle (and all his woes)