The Great Pretender

A Catalogue of Chaos and Creativity

Nick Perry author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Birlinn General

Published:9th May '19

Should be back in stock very soon

The Great Pretender cover

‘Give me three years and we’ll be millionaires,’ Nick challenged his long-suffering family in 1980, when cash was king. ‘I’ve got an idea that’s going to take us to the top.’

Tinkering with alchemy in an old stable he shared with a Shire horse, Nick discovered how to create the most convincing antique replicas ever made. He started by selling a few of his netsukes on a market stall at the Birmingham Rag Market and met extraordinary and eccentric people, the risk-taking gamblers with fast tongues. Each had their own money-spinning ideas; you name it, he replicated it for the wheeler-dealers chasing the dream. When Nick and his crew reached the rarefied circles of the London art world he realised he could be dangerously out of his depth.

This is the unlikely and often hilarious story of where nothing but enthusiasm and self-belief can take you.

'The true story of the charming indefatigable Nick Perry and his attempt to go from rags to riches. A joyous tone infuses his escapades – with the wisdom of hindsight, of course. … Colourful and eccentric characters inject comedy and humour throughout the story. Think silver-tongued gamblers and risk-takers, all with an eye on the main chance. … Something to enjoy on the beach this summer'

* Dundee Courier *

'The saying, ‘You couldn’t write the script’ could have been coined for the wild life of zany entrepreneur-turned-author Nick Perry'

* Sunday Po

ISBN: 9781846974700

Dimensions: 195mm x 130mm x 20mm

Weight: 282g

256 pages