Starting Over

This is the story of how we grow old – how we give up the dreams of youth for something better – and how many chances we have to get it right.

George Bailey has been given the gift we all dream of – the chance to live his life again.
After suffering a heart attack at the age of 42, George is given the heart of a 19-year-old – and suddenly everything changes…

He is a friend to his teenage son and daughter – and not a stern Home Secretary, monitoring their every move.

He makes love to his wife all night long – instead of from midnight until about five past. And suddenly he wants to change the world, just as soon as he shakes off his hangover.

But George Bailey discovers that being young again is not all it is cracked up to be – and what he actually wants more than anything in the universe is to have his old life back.

Reviews

Praise for Starting Over:

‘Funny and touching’ Woman and Home

‘One of the many great things about a Tony Parsons novel is that they always make you feel not just alive, but even more aware of how precious life is … Another modern classic’ Mirror

'Returning to familiar themes of relationships and fatherhood … Tony Parsons has written his most engaging novel to date.' GQ

'From the author of Man and Boy comes this honest and funny story of a man whose life is transformed when he's given a 19-year-old's heart.' Heat

Praise for Tony Parsons:

'A funny, sad love story' Spectator

'Tony Parsons is the master of the bittersweet love story' Red

'Parsons has created a much bigger and more compelling book. It's a major achievement' Mirror

‘Funny, serious, tender and honest…Tony Parsons is writing about the genuine dilemmas of modern life’
Sunday Express

‘He takes as his specialist subject contemporary emotional issues which almost every other male writer has ignored’ Guardian

‘Memorable and poignant – nobody squeezes more genuine emotion from a scene than Tony Parsons’ Spectator

About the author

Tony Parsons is the author of Man and Boy , winner of the Book of the Year prize. His subsequent novels – One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way, Stories We Could Tell and My Favourite Wife – were all bestsellers. He lives in London.