Birkenhead, 1973. The eighteen-year-old Paul O’Grady gets ready for a big Saturday night out on the town. New white T-shirt, freshly ironed jeans, looking good. As he bids farewell to his mum, who’s on the phone to his auntie, and wanders off down the street in a cloud of aftershave, he hears her familiar cry: ‘Oh, the devil rides out tonight, Annie. The Devil rides out!’
The further adventures of Paul O’Grady – following on from the million-copy-selling At My Mother’s Knee – are, if anything, even more hilarious and outrageous than what has come before. As Paul struggles to get to grips with unexpected fatherhood and bereavement, he searches high and low for a job that lasts and somehow finds himself getting married in the process. Work takes him from an abattoir to a children’s home, from a hospital to a nightclub, and from penthouse to pavement. Along the way, he takes his first-Savage steps on stage, tastes the exotic delights of Manila and invades Poland . . .
To say that The Devil Rides Out is action-packed is an understatement. Its extraordinary cast of characters includes lords and ladies, the legendary Vera, a serial killer, more prostitutes than you can shake a stick at and drag queens of every shape and size. Wickedly funny, often moving, and searingly honest, Paul’s tales of the unexpected will make your jaw drop and your hair stand on end. And you’ll laugh like a drain.
The Devil Rides Out – one hell of a read!
