Four Short Stories is Tom Jobling’s latest book. In it, he has moved a little way from his usual nautical fiction but still delivers a character-driven book of cringe-worthy humour balanced by tales perhaps too close to be comfortable.
From the port of Larne on County Antrim’s east coast, Tom has long been associated with sailing at East Antrim Boat Club, but since retiring from business, he has turned his hand to writing novels, to date, all of which have had a maritime flavour.
Four Short Stories is different, with only one of the tales having a nautical theme. Leap of Faith sees the author opening the floodgates on nostalgia and reliving bygone days in his hometown - the harbour, the lough, the Islandmagee ferry ... and teenage romance.
First Timer, the opening story, is the tale of naive teenager Darren stumbling through the hurdles of his first office party and his reaction to being refused a dance.
Incident at Twisted Elbow is the anchor piece of this collection in which two of the main characters, Abernathy and Shawcross, together with Danielle Dewhurst, must demonstrate their ability to overcome adversity as a race to the finish builds in not only a rally hill-climb but in life and love.
Finishing with a story set on foreign shores, A Not So Tender Trap is as dark and twisted as that earlier hill-climb course. Set on the Costa del Sol, it is a semi-sarcastic tale of how a downtrodden wife finally deals with her philandering husband.
Jobling’s debut book, Chasing Shadows, was published in 2014 and succeeded in the international nautical world; he has not looked back since. The others were Arthur’s Dead and A Letter to a Lucky Man, all having a nautical twist.
Four Short Stories is available as both an e-book and paperback. Described by the author as “a compact little number”, it has been sized as a unique jacket pocket travel read. The quirky cover illustrations are Tom’s, too, with colour by Latharna Press. The 128-page paperback is available for retail purchase at all online stores, including Amazon.
