Released on = June 17, 2006, 10:47 am

Press Release Author = Edward Victor

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = Tom Conti stars in the play Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, set
in the Soho pub, \"The Coach and Horses\" which is to sell \"The Dream of the Decade -
The London Novels\", by award-winning writer, Afshin Rattansi.

Press Release Body = Like many writers and artists who frequented Soho's The Groucho
Club and The Coach and Horses, Afshin Rattansi first met Jeffrey Bernard in the
1980s. A revival of the Keith Waterhouse play starring Tom Conti in which Bernard is
the lead character, talking about life at the Coach has just opened in London's West
End, coinciding with the announcement that Rattansi's novel "The Dream of the
Decade" will be on sale at the bar.

The play is named after the line that often appeared in the UK's Spectator magazine
where Bernard's column, "Low Life" would have appeared had Bernard not imbibed too
much to complete his piece. Rattansi recalls Bernard explaining to him that he only
drank to stay the pain of diabetes. "But on a particularly sunny Saturday morning in
Groucho's, I asked why he wanted a Vodka Tonic as there was sugar in the Tonic. He
told me that sugar in tonic was okay."

The Dream of the Decade includes vignettes of characters that frequented Soho in the
1980s and is a quartet in one volume. It was Norman Balon the famous owner of the
Coach and Horses up until a few weeks before the revival of the play who said the
novel should be sold from behind the bar of the infamous tavern. The new owners of
the rapidly changing pub say they will carry on the tradition. "The Dream of the
Decade - The London Novels", which is officially to launch in the UK in the winter,
is thus available at a special price in the most famous public house in London.

The play, often remembered as a one-man show but in fact packed with characters
performed by a versatile suporting cast of four, was a highly successful vehicle for
its original star Peter O\'Toole, who appeared in the original run at the Apollo
Theatre and in a later revival at the Old Vic. \'For the next three months, I\'m going
to be playing a smoker, a drinker, a womaniser and a gambler - all the good things
in life,\' says Tom Conti, who at 64 is a year younger than Bernard was when he died.

Waterhouse\'s Bernard is a feckless, irresponsible and self-indulgent drunk, who
lurches from one pointless bohemian distraction to another without a care in the
world. He is also charming, loyal to his friends, generous of spirit, enormously
witty, without malice or shallow media cynicism. The play is a hymn to a beautiful
loser, a free spirit, enslaved by the spirits you pay for.

In the "Dream of the Decade" characters are the same even if thematically there are
deeper historical resonances with changing British and U.S. culture. The London of
"Dream" is far more inclusive that Waterhouse's Bernard's London.

The Dream of the Decade is published in the U.S. by Amazon.com and is available at
the Coach and Horses as well as online.

Tom Conti is starring in the revival of the play "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell", set in
the Coach and Horses, at the Garrick Theatre in London.

Web Site = http://www.zen13743.zen.co.uk/

Contact Details = The Dream of the Decade -The London Novels by Afshin Rattansi -
ISBN: 1-4196-1686-2 BookSurge.com 5341 Dorchester Road, Suite 16, North Charleston,
SC 29418 Toll Free: 1-866-308-6235 info@booksurge.com