The Laughing Clowns: A tale of finding love again by going home

Description

When a developer asks Peter to assess a prime piece of Queensland real estate the Pickersgill Peninsula Showgrounds he jumps at the chance. It will give him time out from having to be with the family he loves. And it will take him back to his childhood home; to his parents, his twin sister, Pearl, and his brother, Gary, the TV weatherman. Over these few days, he will come to realise that sometimes when you go back to where you came from you find out how much you actually have, and how much you could lose. He just has to make his mind up, and listen to the advice that s given by, of all people the King of Hot Dogs. But will he?

William McInnes is one of Australia's most popular writers, delighting readers with his memoirs A Man's Got to Have a Hobby and That'd Be Right, his novel Cricket Kings, and his insight into Australian life since the 1940s, The Making of Modern Australia. In 2011, with his wife Sarah Watt he co-wrote Worse Things Happen At Sea, their celebration of family life in words and pictures. In 2006, A Man's Got to Have a Hobby was selected as one of the Books Alive 50 Great Reads and William was named Australian Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs). In 2007, Cricket Kings was shortlisted in the Australian General Fiction Book of the Year category at the ABIAs. Worse Things Happen at Sea was named best non-fiction title in the ABIAs and the Indie Awards 2012.

For a novel that has so few pretensions, this is a skilfully constructed story that manages to be insightful, understated and very funny simultaneously. - Sydney Morning Herald William McInnes is insightful, thoughtful and funny. He has a flair for fiction as much as memoirs and non-fiction, as THE LAUGHING CLOWNS will attest. - Daily Telegraph