Curriedflavouredflipproductions

The bottom line is:

Every man has a poem in his heart.
Mike Gayle



I love reading. I have read all the James Clavell "Shogun" series. All the Tom Clancy "Ryan" series. All the John Grisham "Client/lawyer" series and all of the Dan Brown series. There are more authors that I could mention. Sometimes there are periods in your life when your favourite authors have not published anything.
It was through one spell of drought, late 90s, I was on one of my monthly searches in the book shops for new material to read. Along came 'Mr Commitment' written by Mike Gayle. I was immediately attracted to the colour of the cover. I was apprehensive at first. I overcame my fear and purchased the book. That was 11 years ago. Since then you do not know how many times I have bought personal copies of the same book for some of my commitment phobic friends.

Allow me to introduce you to Mike Gayle if you do not already know him.



According to www.Wikipedia.org, Mike is a British author and freelance journalist contributing to a variety of magazines including FHM and Sunday Times Style. He was an agony aunt for Just Seventeen and Bliss before he wrote books.

This is his website:

http://www.mikegayle.co.uk/ (please copy and paste address into your URL toolbar)

This is his list of books:

My Legendary Girlfriend (1998), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71816-1
Mr. Commitment (1999), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71825-0
Turning Thirty (2000), Flame, ISBN 0-340-76794-4
Dinner for Two (2002), Flame, ISBN 0-340-82342-9
His 'n' Hers (2004)
Brand New Friend (2005), ISBN 0-340-82539-1
Wish You Were Here (2007)
The Life & Soul of the Party (2008)
The Importance of Being a Bachelor (2010)
His ninth book is a non-fiction novel called The To Do List, about his own efforts to complete a 1277-item To Do List.

Let me tell you, if you were born in the 70s in England (in the midlands, like I was), here is a gentleman that takes you on a nostalgic journey through time. More importantly, his books navigate through the unsaid dramas of relationships.

If you work with 'Screenagers' like I do, his material is a fantastic foundation to build upon. He has a way of describing the highs and the lows and even the scary dilemmas. For instance one of his books describes a young couples argument in IKEA. I am sure we can all relate to this.

Another book describes the story of a young man, who goes on holiday, starts a holiday romance, only to break it at the end of the holiday. A good few years later, the same young guy is married but unfortunately his wife is unable to conceive. Then out of the blue a young girl who is his daughter (from the holiday romance) gets in touch with the same guy. He did not know he had a young pretty daughter. The dilemma was, should he tell his wife? Secretly he was ecstatic to know that he had a doting young daughter that he can relate to because the said guy wrote for a popular teenage magazine. That is how the girl found him. What would you do?



One more I must share, how many of us have best friends who are of the opposite sex? How does your husband/wife or partner feel about this? He has written a book on that topic too! I tell you for the last 11 years my family have been sharing his dramatic style of writing. Once I start one of his books, all you can hear is the frequent giggles.



I am sure one day he is going to explore the area of social networking sites. According to one research, having a Blackberry adds 10 extra working days a year. Or he may look into if Technology has taken its toll on relationships by leapfrogging the whole blind date thing.

(see http://blogs.abcnews.com/aheadofthecurve/2010/03/is-technology-taking-its-toll-on-our-relationships.html)

(Mikes kind of writing would make good mini-series TV dramas. Something else I would add to my ever growing TV channel)

You know, good books and good music are a couple of ingredients that prevent you from becoming depressed.
Thanks Mike (another one) for things we are too afraid to talk about.

Example of my back in the days raving diet, Lauryn Hill That Thing: