It is the summer of 1996 and Anthony Parker is on an all day Bank Holiday bender, a session fuelled by alcohol, drugs and girls. As the tag-line says, things are bout to get messy.
I very much enjoyed Barker's earlier stories (The Electric, Dead Leaves) so I was looking forward to this. I wasn't disappointed.
Parker, the lead character of this story isn't a particularly likable person but he tells an interesting story. Other than going from pub to pub, drinking Red Stripe, dropping tabs and a random sexual encounter in the pub toilets not a lot happens. But what the author does do is give a more or less perfect snapshot of the time. I remember 1996 well and Bank Holiday All-Dayer absolutely nails it.
Another plus is the 'soundtrack'. As Porter goes through his parade of excesses there is an accompaniment of music mentioned either in tunes played by bands in the pub or tracks on the Jukebox, tunes that take you back to the crazy, hazy summer of 96 - and every one is a corker. A well curated choice indeed.
The minus side - at only 32 pages it is over too soon (although, paradoxically, it is just the right length). I would have loved to have spent more time with these characters, but that has always been the case with Andrew David Barker's books.
A very enjoyable 4/5* read
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