The Rise & Fall of the Miraculous Vespas

When a young Ayrshire band miraculously hits the big time with the smash hit record of 1984, international stardom beckons. That's despite having a delusional teenage manager propelled by a dark, malign voice in his head. Can Max Mojo's band of talented social misfits repeat the success and pay back the mounting debts accrued from an increasingly agitated cartel of local gangsters? Or will they have to kidnap Boy George and hope for the best?

Featuring much-loved characters from the international bestseller, THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, this is an absurdly funny, riotously ambitious and deeply human story of small town rivalries, music, confused adolescence and, above all, hope, from one of Scotland's finest new voices.

“"Ross dedicates the book to 'Bobby, who inadvertently planted the seed,' and on the Orenda Books website one can find a recording of The Miraculous Vespas' hit single, written especially by Robert Hodgens, aka Bobby Bluebell, whose band, The Bluebells, had a massive hit in 1984, just like the Vespas. This little bonus treat is typical of the care and effort Ross is putting into his Kilmarnock Trilogy, and if the final book is up to the same standard he will have carved out an enduring place for himself among contemporary Scottish novelists." --”

'Crucially Ross's novel succeeds in balancing light and dark, in that it can leap smoothly from brutal social realism to laugh-out-loud humour within a few sentences. It is a triumphant debut novel, which announces a real new talent on the Scottish literary scene' Press and Journal "More than just a nostalgic recreation of the author's youth, it's a compassionate, affecting story of a family in crisis at a time of upheaval and transformation, when disco wasn't the only thing whose days were numbered' Herald Scotland 'By turn hilarious and heart-breaking, more than anything Ross creates beautifully rounded characters full of humanity and perhaps most of all, hope. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It s rude, keenly observed and candidly down to earth' The Scotsman * 'If you lived through the early Eighties this book is essential. If you didn't it's simply a brilliant debut novel' John Niven

David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and has lived in Kilmarnock for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, an architect by day, and a hilarious social media commentator, author and enabler by night. His most prized possession is a signed Joe Strummer LP. Since the publication of his debut novel The Last Days of Disco, he's become something of a media celebrity in Scotland, with a signed copy of his book going for 500 at auction.

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