Jon Elkon – the Truth
Past and Present
I was born in Apartheid South Africa and came to the UK as a refugee. After a period of homelessness I did an HND in Marketing and worked in that lying business for years (timber, pop music, hotels and Wall St Journal). Eventually, bored to frustration, I returned to my lifelong obsession: writing, and produced a satirical novel about growing up in Apartheid South Africa. My first novel, Umfaan’s Heroes is a lying satirical autobiography about growing up in Apartheid South Africa. It had great reviews – Hilary Mantel, Margaret Forster, amongst many others. I had plenty of press and radio fame, so I left Marketing and became a teacher. My second novel, Laszlo’s Millions, was published two years later.
Umfaan’s Heroes and Laszlo’s Millions are available in paperback and Kindle, at all good online bookshops. Laszlo’s Millions has been thoroughly revised and I think it’s one of the best books I have ever written. London in 1970: drugs! Spies! Psychopaths! Intense joy, catastrophic sorrow.
A few years later I was bored again. I kind of knew how to do lesson plans, schemes of work and the tormenting bureaucracy a teacher has to do. Silly people gave me a Teaching Award. But boredom breeds a novel. I wrote Sally’s Road. It was a response to losing my favourite aunt to a horrible cancer. Full of lots of wry humour: Sally vs Cancer, Sally wins. Unlike Aunt, whose dying hand I held as she whimpered and chittered with pain. I self-published. It is about a woman who steals, kills and rapes in her battle against cancer. Wouldn’t you?
‘Sally’s Road’ was followed by ‘Soho Warrior’ which is a sexy gay thriller, only available in Kindle at the moment due to a dispute with the Publisher. Grrr.
My latest novel which exploded out of me like a multicoloured accident at a fireworks factory, Ragazzo is about a psychopathic castrato in the world of Baroque Opera in the late 19th Century and early 20th century. Narrated by the ghost of Handel, without the umlaut. So far it has outsold other titles produced last year by my wonderful new publisher who is at least as iconoclastic as I am.…. If you enjoyed Susskind’s ‘Perfume’ you’ll love it
NEWS
I have finally completed the sequel to the sequel. Making a trilogy. Umfaan’s Heroes, Laszlo’s Millions and now: Celine. Bearing in mind that the first two were published years ago, we have decided to combine all three into a doorstopper of a volume to be called AZANIA FAREWELL. Publishing date probably mid December.
Tom’s adventures in the first two books lurch to a climax. In hiding in Geneva, Tom has fallen in love with a croupier who may or may be the love of his life. Or possibly, the love of many others’ lives too. Meanwhile in South Africa Mandela dies, and the country falls into civil war. It’s not long before Tom finds himself back there, up to his neck in madness.
The novel I’m working on is a sequel to Ragazzo. Working title is Diva – that won’t be the actual title so I’m open to suggestions. Guido has escaped to Zurich. (Hmmmm I wonder if there’s any resemblance to the Celine plot. No there isn’t.) My objective is to break every rule and still end up with a delightful, infuriating, hysterical novel in which the only certainty is that there are no certainties. A bonfire of the formulas. Formulae. Fuckits.
Meanwhile check for new short stories, poetry, writing hints and tips and writing competitions on this website. I promise never to bore you.