Arriving Where We Started

The powerful conclusion to an acclaimed literary saga spanning four decades of friendship, ambition, love and betrayal.

‘Highly ambitious, always engaging. Powell is a fine writer.’ Edward Rutherfurd

‘Insightful, gripping, quiet but meaningful… could have been written by that other Powell, Anthony.’ Richard Charkin

Nearly thirty years have passed since Tony Gethyn and his friends first set out to change the world. Now, as the twentieth century draws to a close, they must live with the lives they have created.

Some have risen to the heights of politics, finance, journalism and the law. Others carry the scars of broken relationships, abandoned ideals and opportunities lost. As the world enters an age of globalisation, financial speculation and political upheaval, old friendships are tested once again and long-buried emotions return with unexpected force.

At the centre of it all stands Damir Steggles, now a property tycoon whose relentless pursuit of wealth and influence has shaped the fortunes of everyone around him. But even he cannot escape the consequences of the choices that have defined his life.

From New Mexico and New York to London and beyond, Arriving Where We Started brings Jim Powell’s While the Music Lasts to a moving and deeply satisfying conclusion. Wise, funny and emotionally perceptive, it follows one generation as it reckons with the ideals of its youth, the compromises of adulthood and the price of success.

This is the story of what became of a generation when the world changed them instead.

ISBN: 978-1-917837-09-5 (hardback) ISBN: 978-1-917837-02-6 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-917837-03-3 (epub)

WHAT THEY HAVE SAID ABOUT WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS

‘Idly, and with a few minutes to spare, I began reading the pre-publication excerpts of While the Music Lasts. Half an hour later I was still reading – gripped, immersed in Jim Powell’s world. Sharp, funny, unsparing, through the lives of his characters a whole epoch leaps from Powell’s pages.’

Matthew Parris, writes for The Times and The Spectator magazine, and broadcasts for the BBC

‘A whirl of lives – over forty years – with love, money, jobs and friendships riding the horse of change; a rewarding read.’

Kate Adie, former Chief News Correspondent for the BBC, radio presenter and bestselling author

‘Jim Powell was the epitome of my generation of novelists. His books – and this is no exception – are insightful, gripping, quiet but meaningful. This, his final novel, could have been written by that other Powell, Anthony, and there is no greater endorsement than that.’

Richard Charkin, Publisher, author and former President of the International Publishers Association

‘Bestselling author Jim Powell was a fine writer, and his last novel – covering the rich half-century from the 1960s to the new millennium – is highly ambitious. It follows the interacting, somewhat cosmopolitan lives of some fifteen characters, mostly in Britain, France and America. They come from various backgrounds, they think about class – for this is a very English book – they struggle with jobs, marriage, death and survival. They always engage us.

The plot is quiet, the spirit recessional. The structure of the book evokes Eliot’s ‘Four Quartets’. Powell is very good at quiet irony; and, evoking the mood of his times, his dialogue is wonderfully authentic.’

Edward Rutherford, bestselling author of Sarum and New York