Drifter

 Ben has not been lucky in love or life in the decade since he left university.

Not only has his glamorous girlfriend left him, but his promising career prospects have been thwarted respectively by Brexit, Covid, and Vladimir Putin. He is reduced to abandoning his London lifestyle and retreating in despair to find refuge with his retired parents in Cornwall. The only work he can find is driving a Minibus at a Wellness Centre, but this unlikely scenario introduces him to Zelah.

With her, he rediscovers his appetite for life and commitment to a cause. Joining her in battle against unscrupulous property developers, Ben finds not only love but purpose: a drifter no more.

As in his two previous novels Happenstance and Stringer, Melville Jones takes a gently humorous look at life in West Cornwall whilst touching on some of the real issues not featured in the glossy holiday brochures.