Ian D. Smith's Storefront

Ian D. Smith celebrates difference in his writing, having an outsider’s attitude that’s provocative and disruptive. He was born in Manchester and went to university in Sheffield. He has worked as a drain inspector, a car park designer, and a writer of computer guides. He holds an MA in Creative and Life Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London. The second edition of his successful debut novel, Tony Blair: The Wilderness Years, is out now in Lulu in pocket book format. He has many publishing credits. Check out his stories in internet magazines: Eclectica, Surprising Stories and Verbsap. His stories, The North Is So Much Better For Youngsters Today, and Nobody Knows a Damned Thing are available in Transmission magazine, Manchester's new independent literary voice.

Tony “Bono” Blair is a bit confused. He believes he is the famed British Prime Minister of the same name, deposed after winning a third term. Things begin to look up for Tony when a letter arrives offering a position with McCreedie construction. Thinking he is taking over as CEO of a powerful NASDAQ company, Tony accepts the offer and travels to Scotland, hoping to meet the people, regain their trust, and use his new career as a springboard back into high office. The new career isn’t all Tony had hoped, and he finds himself building a cement runway at Ardrossan International Airport. Hilarity ensues as Tony’s career in manual labor gets off to a rocky start. But Tony’s strength is his determination. He stumbles upon drums of hazardous chemicals and discovers that they contain additives that weaken the concrete and save McCreedie lots of money. Tony aims to blow the whistle on the weak concrete and be a hero, but his employer has other ideas. This scathingly funny novel is equal parts political satire and comic thriller, complete with an unforgettable protagonist. Readers are drawn in by Smith’s clean, understated prose as Tony descends into danger and his own delusions. The novel weaves its way through laughter and intrigue, culminating in a harrowing climax on the runway at Ardrossan. Will Tony be able to blow the whistle in time to avert disaster and earn the trust of his people? Will the distractions of the lovely Connie Delaney prove fatal to his mission? Will his dastardly employers get the upper hand? These questions and more are answered in Ian Duncan Smith’s Tony Blair: The Wilderness Years, a novel that is both wickedly entertaining and culturally relevant.

You know, I might as well have committed some sort of hideous, unjustified crime. I might as well have launched my suitcase at somebody. I might as well have stood on my head, because every single dude was staring at me, Tony ‘Bono’ Blair, and I didn’t know what I could possibly have done differently. I pressed the stop button on my brand new Dictaphone (Walkabout edition). I squashed my face against the train window, pushing my trendy new baseball cap back. People, wet and shiny against the platform, slid into view. I was in a place called Carstairs, in an awful little country called Scotland, where I’d once struggled to escape humble beginnings, where it rained slowly all the time, and I wasn’t allowed to speak my mind into my brand new Dictaphone within earshot of other people who were offended by the freedom train I was riding.