Cambridge writer Ian Siragher branches out into comedy for his latest novel, ‘The Three Wives of Charlie Mellon: In Search of Lost Soles’

Cambridge author Ian Siragher has penned a number of books – one of which was previously published – but The Three Wives of Charlie Mellon: In Search of Lost Soles marks his first foray into comedy writing.

This comic novel, “the story of one man’s determined – and sometimes hilarious – attempt to keep his life from falling apart”, follows Charlie Mellon.

Charlie is “a self-made man who doesn’t always have the plans the right way up” and faces challenges ranging from financial woes and tricky relationships to a precarious housing situation.

“There are bits and pieces that are semi-autobiographical,” explains Ian, whose first published effort, The Boy Behind the Glass Screen, was “almost on the edge of science fiction”.

He continues: “Charlie gets an overdraft through the bank and he has a bank manager and… I’ve been involved in two ways really.

“Firstly, I was a bank manager a long time ago, so I met him, if you like, from the other side of the counter. I’ve also been an entrepreneur, set up my own business and I’m also running a small ceramics business now.

“So I have a feeling for what it’s like when you’re trying to get those sales and you’re trying to make things work and they’re not going forward properly – so certainly there’s a bit of Charlie in me.”

Ian, who worked for Lloyds Bank for 25 years, sets some of the book in Cambridge, where he grew up before living in Yorkshire.

“I decided after 25 years at the bank, in a reasonably senior role, that if I finished my life there I would have been a bit disappointed,” he recalls.

“And at the same time, one of my customers, a start-up science business, was getting a bit overwhelmed by the business side, as opposed to the science side.

“So I was in an unusual role within the bank at the time, where I had only 20 customers but I met with them monthly and talked through their business issues. I acted as a business coach, to a degree.

“And they asked me to join them full-time, so I was there for five years and we were developing a new drug-making technology, a new way of making the powder that you use in different sorts of drugs.”

Ian ended up taking over the business and ran it for another “10 or 11 years”, before selling it on to an investment company, which has taken it from strength to strength.

“The careers of the people there have been far better than I ever would have given them,” he says modestly, “so it was right to do, and I’m really proud of the fact that it’s still operating – and in a niche area and doing really well.”

After selling the company, Ian ‘retired’ and now works as an author and ceramicist. He has already started work on the next Charlie Mellon novel.

“I know Charlie pretty well now,” he notes, “so when I’m writing him, it flows quite nicely – it’s the editing and the re-editing that takes more time than the initial writing.”

Ian adds: “I just like him [Charlie] so much! I mean this next one is 24 Hours meets Final Destination, and basically it’s 24 hours in the life of Charlie, when he makes a promise on hour one that he’ll definitely be there for the birth of his child, and he wakes up after 24 hours in A&E with no memory of what’s happened over the last 24 hours – and his wife’s looking at him, holding the baby.

“And the story will be what happened to get him from ‘Yes, I’ll definitely be there, you can rely on me’ to ‘Oh my God, what happened?’.

On the intriguing title, The Three Wives of Charlie Mellon: In Search of Lost Soles, Ian says: “The ‘soles’ are he imported 1,000 left-foot Adidas trainers at the start of the story.

“And he did this on the basis that he reckoned that the other 1,000 [right-foot trainers] had been manufactured and would at some time turn up at Felixstowe dock and would then be sold off cheap, because he got the first lot cheap…

“That idea just came up as a throwaway line to begin with; I was just describing Charlie in very general terms and I said something about him importing a load of Rubik’s Cubes where all the sides were the same colour…”

Sounds a bit of a Del Boy!

“Absolutely, he’s a bit like that. He does house clearances, he runs a market stall in Bury St Edmunds and in Cambridge, selling CDs, he’s got a field where he grows Christmas trees and sells them each year.

“He wants to live his life on his terms. He’s got a soft heart though, ultimately.”

The Three Wives of Charlie Mellon: In Search of Lost Soles, which comes complete with a femme fatale named Marianne who has “elements” of Dorien from classic sitcom Birds of a Feather, will be published by The Book Guild on 28 April.