Before the Swallow Dares is a story of two former school friends, Ted Bryant and Jim Fletcher, who meet again by accident after a gap of almost fifty years and decide to renew their friendship. It is only later that Ted realises that his friend is married to Dilys, a girl with whom he had fallen in love when they were both only eighteen and still at school - a vivid flashback shows us, how they first met, how matters developed, and, more importantly, how they lost touch.Once they meet again, Ted and Dilys recognise that they still have a great deal of interests in common, and still feel a lot of affection for each other, but they both love their current spouses and there is no question of that situation changing. Nor, however, is there any question of their losing touch again, for the two couples get on very well together too.But there are complications and difficulties to be faced, not least those posed by the maverick behaviour of Ted's French ex-wife Arlette, but also by the fact that they are no longer in the first flush of youth and they have to cope with the problems which confront all of us when faced with advancing age.There is much humour and light-heartedness in the story, but much pathos too; but among the novel's many qualities are that it presents characters of advanced age as people who still enjoy life and generally have a positive attitude. The fact that the author himself was a sprightly 79-year-old when he finished writing it puts him in an ideal position to show us what it's really like...
Tony Whelpton (or Robert Anthony Whelpton, to give him his full name), was born in Nottingham, England on 27 January 1933. After studying at the universities of London and Lille, he spent 8 years teaching French in Grammar Schools, then 17 as a university lecturer. In 1982 he left teaching to concentrate on writing and examining: as an examiner he was Chief Examiner in French at O and A Levels, then at GCSE for over 25 years; as a writer he published over 30 language textbooks for schools and colleges. After retiring from examining he carried on writing, publishing two books on cricket, and a history of the Cheltenham Bach Choir, of which he has been a singing member for 30 years, and editing Perspectives, the quarterly newsletter of the Cheltenham Arts Council, for 11 years. After retiring from that editorship he began writing fiction, and Before The Swallow Dares is his first novel. Another novel, a racy story of political wheeler-dealing in a small town in southern France, and entitled The Heat of the Kitchen, is well under way. There are few aspects of life which do not interest him, and he objects as a matter of principle to what he regards as false distinctions which oppose, for instance, classical music to jazz, sport to culture, arts to science. If pushed, however, he would choose Bach and Mozart over Duke Ellington, cricket over football or rugby, and ballet over pantomime - all the time insisting that there is no reason why he should be made to choose. By the same token he rejects conventional views of old age, and is determined to carry on enjoying life for as long as it lasts: one of his favourite quotations comes from the French cellist Paul Tortelier: 'Everyone should die young - but as late in life as possible.' The French language has been such a big part of his life that, although he has never actually lived in France he regards himself as being at least in part French, claiming indeed that when he thinks, speaks and writes in French, the ideas that come to him are quite different from those that come if he is thinking in English. In 1990 he represented Great Britain in the annual French Spelling Championships (Championnats d'Orthographe), and came second in the European Final in Vienna. In 2009 he appeared on Mastermind, answering questions on the French novelist Balzac.
