Well, the first review of my new book is out. It was featured in today’s Wairarapa Times Age.


The Diary of a Dating Site Bachelor
By Allan Kirk
Reviewed by Heather March

ALLAN Kirk used to sit in front of me in fiction-writing class wearing shirts suggesting he'd taken a wrong turn on the way to Flamenco 101.

I knew he'd made good, of course - one of his books got me off a speeding ticket 20 years later (not that I had been speeding, but that's several other stories).

This book is a selection of entries in Kirk's on-line diary - he e-mailed them to friends throughout the world, who begged him to publish them so others could enjoy them.

The portrait of the author on the cover is highly misleading - with its doleful countenance and "cuddle me" hound puppy pathos - because the book paints an extremely amusing picture of a not-so-solitary bachelor's exploits in Masterton and hereabouts.

Obviously in the prime of his 50s, we are treated to descriptions of his intimate anatomy and love life that make this a rather unsuitable gift for a maiden aunt.

I must confess that at one point I had to put the book down and walk around the room hooting with laughter. Other bits had a familiar ring - is this where all those Internet jokes come from?

Kirk publishes his own books, which saves him from ever having to write a rejection letter to himself - not that he couldn't.

I think he also edits them himself, but his personality and humour shine through the clouds of extraneous apostrophes like a spotlight through sandflies.

Reading this book is like sitting next to a very funny man at a rather indecorous party - you'll go on grinning for a couple of days and have some risque new jokes to try out on unsuspecting colleagues.

Capital Letters Publishing,
paperback, 232 pages, $17.95

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Of course, you know me, I couldn’t resist it.

I’ve just sent the following Letter To The Editor to the Wairarapa Times Age:

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‘In her (rather nice) review of my book “The Diary Of A Dating Site Bachelor, Heather Marsh says that she sat behind me during writing class and that I wore shirts suggesting I’d taken a wrong turn on the way to Flamenco 101.

And then she had the cheek to complain about my use of apostrophes in the book.

Listen, any guy who has had Heather Marsh sitting behind him in writing class with her eyes caressing his upper body is not going to have learnt much about apostrophes!’

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Should I leave town or just hide under the bed?

--
Allan