Voice of empathy

Tony Parsons reminisces fondly about his formative years as a young music journalist. He recalls the day he came into work to find American pop star Debbie Harry sitting on his desk. He waxes lyrical about joining Irish rockers Thin Lizzie on their tour of the United States.

As far as introductions to writing go, it does not get much better. Parsons joined the New Musical Express (NME) magazine at a time when it sold a quarter of a million copies every week.

Punk music was enjoying an all-time high in terms of popularity and bands such as The Clash, The Jam and The Sex Pistols were playing intimate gigs to tiny, dark rooms of about a dozen people.

"As my life has gone on, I have realised more and more what an incredible time it was," Parsons told Weekend Review. "The NME had a certain power and it could hire new people when music changed. At the time it seemed perfectly natural to go into work in the morning and find Debbie Harry on my desk or be sent to meet [Rolling Stones guitarist] Keith Richards at his drugs trial," he added.

However, Parsons acknowledges there was a downside to all the excess.

"I am not too rosy-eyed about it all, because a lot of people wrecked themselves with drugs. When I was at NME in the late 1970s, it was the high point of rock 'n' roll excess and there were drugs absolutely everywhere. A lot of the closest people in my life died, so there was a dark side to it all," he said.

The 57-year-old has since worked his way through the media spectrum. He had a stint writing for The Daily Telegraph and now writes a column for The Daily Mirror, along with making regular television appearances. But to most people, he is most recognised as the author of the multimillion-copy-selling novel Man and Boy, which focuses on the trials and tribulations facing thirtysomething men.

The novel struck a chord with millions of readers, both male and female, with many people now viewing Parsons as a voice for modern men and the dilemmas they face in the 21st century.

"I was not expecting women to buy the book at all because of the nature of the story; a guy who has a one-night stand with a colleague. But they forgave the character; they saw something that made them understand," Parsons said.

"The book was not received with any great enthusiasm by London's publishing houses but it started selling about 10,000 copies a week and it did not quit; it got word of mouth, which is the greatest thing for any book," he added.

Man and Boy focuses on the life of Harry Silver, a man who has it all — a beautiful wife, a son and a high-paying job. However, a casual one-night stand with a co-worker throws his world into disarray and the novel explores the concept of immature men looking to finally grow up.

The novel's success has spawned two sequels — Man and Wife and Men From the Boys. "Man and Boy is closest to my life. Sometimes as a novelist you cannot improve upon real life; there is nothing in your imagination that can make a scene more compelling," Parsons said.

"My father had been dead a long time when I wrote that book and my mother was dying of cancer. It was her struggle with terminal illness that was the engine of the book; it gave the story emotional clout, tenderness and vulnerability. It came out about six weeks after my mother died and you cannot help but be affected by things that are going on in your life, especially when it is something as big as that," he added.

Parsons' trip to the UAE this year for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will be his first, although his wife's family lived in Abu Dhabi when she was younger. He told Weekend Review that Dubai sounded like Abu Dhabi's wilder, younger brother and that he was looking forward to spending a bit of time in the desert.

At present, he is working on a new novel, Catching the Sun, which is about a British family that gives up on the United Kingdom. The premise involves a man losing his job in "miserable 21st-century Britain" and taking his family to live in Thailand.

He said: "It is about the nature of looking for a home in a foreign field and trying to build a life abroad. My firmly held belief is that you do not leave your home country to be someone else; you leave your country to be who you really are.

"People move abroad because they feel their country is limiting them and stopping them from being themselves. I think a lot of British people, for example, under those grey skies think ‘this is not me, there is another me waiting to get out'. And if they get out to Dubai, Hong Kong or Tokyo they think ‘that will really be me'."

Tony Parsons will be in Dubai for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, held from March 8 to March 12, at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City and the Cultural and Scientific Association, Al Mamzar.