"The moving conclusion of a family saga trilogy that explores post-war Britain through the experiences of two seventy-something old school friends "
This third novel in John Uttley’s The Unholy Trinity family saga trilogy picks up with long-time friends Bob and Richard well into their seventies. As in the previous novels, the characters grapple with seismic shifts in Britain’s socio-political and cultural landscape, alongside an increasing awareness of their own mortality, with their stories and concerns delivered through lucid dialogue and focussed scenes.
As a whole, the trilogy presents a history of post-war Britain through the lens of the working class and aspiring middle class in the author’s native northern England, with Richard’s daughter Amy, on the brink of sitting her finals at Oxford, representing Generation Z. Indeed, it’s Amy who undertakes narrative duties here, breaking the fourth wall to inform readers that, “I’m provisionally titling what I’m writing and you’re reading as The Dove is Dead. It’s deliberately written as the third and final book of an extended family saga, which I’m pretentiously describing to myself as The Unholy Trilogy.”
Through the family and their generational differences, this addresses many recently pertinent topics in ways that might resonate with a range of readers – COVID restrictions and fears; “snowflakes”; the overthrowing of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol; protests to remove the Cecil Rhodes statue from Oxford’s Oriel College; the young blaming the old for voting for Brexit, and for voting in Boris Johnson.
| Primary Genre | Sagas |
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