The High Flyer

Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Also by Nicholas Shakespeare

Dedication

Title Page

Epigraph

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Part Two

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Part Three

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Part Four

Chapter Twelve

Part Five

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Author’s Note

Copyright

About the Book

Thomas Wavery is the new Consul General at Abyla on the tip of North Africa. A career diplomat, Wavery was once a high flyer, but an affair with a younger woman has dashed his dreams of ambassadorship. He arrives in Abyla with his wife suing for divorce, his passport stolen by a Gibraltarian ape and precious little enthusiasm for the task ahead. His one hope of redemption is a visit from his new love.

About the Author

Nicholas Shakespeare is the author of Snowleg, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004, The Vision of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask awards, and The Dancer Upstairs, selected by the American Libraries Association as the best novel of 1997 and adapted for the film of the same title directed by John Malkovich. He is also the author of an acclaimed biography of Bruce Chatwin.

ALSO BY NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE

The Men Who Would Be King

Londoners

The Vision of Elena Silves

The Dancer Upstairs

Snowleg

Bruce Chatwin

To Barbara, with love

Nicholas Shakespeare

The High Flyer

There is no going back in the matter of sensation.

Ernest Hemingway: Death in the Afternoon, 1932

PART ONE

Chapter One

ONE AFTERNOON IN the African War a rogue mortar bomb spiralled into the bell tower of Santa Maria, damaging the clock. The bell continued to announce the time casually, after a pattern of its own. It was faithful to the quarter hour and often enthusiastic about Mass; otherwise, it might strike two at six o’clock, six at one o’clock or midnight at half past seven.

An engineer was once sent for from across the Straits. He was told how both the bell and the clock had been prised from a Jesuit chapel in the jungle of another continent. He returned to the mainland after less than a week, defeated by the unfamiliar system of springs and pulleys.

Over the years Abylans had learned to ignore the hours sounded out by Santa Maria de Africa. The chimes were a reminder, nothing more, for them to consult their watches. This was the reason many in Abyla knew the precise moment they became aware of the accident at sea. A thick cloud of smoke blotted out the sun as the clock struck five. It was shortly before midday.

The smoke unfurled off the sea, masking the city. It had an acrid, tarry, spiteful smell. Captain Panteco smelled it in Las Rosales as he worked on the file of the drug-smuggler known as El Callado. He was entering the name “Joseph Silkleigh” under the heading “Suspects”, when a thought occurred to him. The Basques in D-wing had set fire to the prison! He covered his face with a lilac handkerchief and charged out of his office.