This impressive debut novel is set in Seville in Spain during the mid-Seventies, just after the end of the repressive Franco regime, a period of great change. Focusing on the intertwined relationships of six young people of various nationalities and sexual persuasions, "Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet" is a romantic novel about love, frustration and betrayal. At once engrossing, comic and ultimately, infinitely touching this is a story of life in a newly liberal culture.

In this second book in his Seville Trilogy – which began with Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet and concludes with Woodcock Flight – Anthony McDonald takes the reader on a zigzag journey through the skies of Europe – and deep into the hidden corridors of the theatre world. Following a near-collision over Morocco, grounded airline pilot Borja exchanges his uniform for the black garb of a stagehand at the theatre where his partner James works as manager. Here he finds drama, off-stage as well as on, to match anything he has encountered in the air – drama which can only heighten when young stage-hand Nick – suddenly homeless – comes to live with the two men.

Five friends who first met in Seville when in their twenties are reunited thirty years later in the same city to honour the memory of the sixth member of their set, who has died in the aftermath of a plane crash. But it’s not the arrival in life-affirming Seville that is the main thing - it’s the journey of life that brings them back there. Woodcock Flight deals with mid-life loss - be it of a partner, a job, a career or religious faith - in a spirit of humour, fortitude and optimism: it's an up-beat book. Its cast of characters have previously appeared in Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, and Along The Stars.