Having been fortunate and popular all his life Gilvert rarely paid attention to his financial affairs - a decade later, much to his great surprise, he finds himself out of money with nowhere live. 'On his forty-second birthday, Gilver Memmer woke up and realised he had slept for over ten years.' He does not know the name of the girl in his bed, he is broke and not many people remember that he used to be a celebrated painter. He is ready to change his life and redeem mistakes of his youth, but will this egocentric artist and dissolute womaniser be able to change? Will his friends stick around when he has no money and his fame is forgotten? Will he find a love that will conquer his promiscuous habits?
The Edge of Pleasure is Phillipa Stockley's debut novel and was first published in 2002. Stockley, a Londoner and painter herself, sets her intriguing change-of-fortune and change-of-life plot in the capital over the eighties and nineties.
Reminiscent of a young Beryl Bainbridge or Muriel Spark, The Edge of Pleasure is a stylish first novel from a wonderful writing talent.