Off the Mark

Mark Barker leaves an all boys' Grammar School in 1965, having absolutely no experience of girls nor the world as a whole.
The scene is set in the first chapter by his amusing recollections of the time he spent at school where the staff were a curious mixture of sadists and perverts. We also get an insight into life in the sixties for a working class family in a small Norfolk town.
Later, Mark's first day in his first job is fraught with uncomfortable experiences. Every mistake is taken to heart, but he is a quick learner and soon establishes himself. The story reminds us of life before computers, calculators and modern photocopiers. Mark had a reputation at school as being a bit of a joker and he seeks to establish a similar reputation at work; so the story is littered with comical incidents.
He loves 60's soul music and enjoys playing football. He is also a very shy youth who lacks confidence in his ability to attract girls and ends up forming attractions to all the wrong girls for all the wrong reasons.
His unusual encounter with the mini-skirted Blodwyn forces him to question his own sexuality and desires. He meets the lovely Pauline, whom he considers to be the most beautiful girl he has ever met, yet he falls for the plain and waspish Karen who breaks his heart by her total lack of compassion.
He tries to look beyond Karen to find a girlfriend, but every time he gets close to getting a date, something goes wrong and his thoughts return to Karen. Unsuccessful blind dates only serve to exacerbate the loneliness of this sensitive teenager as he scrapes through to manhood and attempts to get Off the Mark.

Will Stebbings is rapidly gaining critical acclaim for his insightful novels, encapsulating nostalgia for the sixties and seventies, whilst adding a fair smattering of humour. His first novel 'Off the Mark' received so many plaudits that he felt compelled to write 'Further Off the Mark' which continues the rites of passage for its main character, Mark Barker, who left an all-boys' school with no experience of girls or the adult world in general. 'Completely Off the Mark' is about Mark's further exploits in the early 1970s, while 'Mark's Out of Eleven' takes us back to 1960 and his days at an all boys' Grammar School, when educational institutions were as much about discipline as they were education.
'Tess of the Dormobiles' is a comedy thriller and is not part of the Mark Barker quadrilogy, being set firmly in the 21st century and featuring a female lead character.
Will's love of soul music features heavily in his work, where he often used sixties and seventies soul records as the chapter titles.
All of Will's novels are set predominately in Norfolk, which is where he was born and raised.