The Lovers on Asphodel Way

It's the summer of 1972 and the outside world is in ferment. There's a street battle in Derry and the Duke of Windsor has died. It's destined to be a summer of strikes and fights, and there's the first ever Gay Pride march. The world is in ferment.

But in West Yorkshire there are homes to be built, and love is in the air.

Synopsis:

Paddy Lanagan looks after the hut at the heart of the building site in Yorkshire, where Barney Rathbone, the gaffer, is trying  to meet his deadline and complete the estate -  the Asphodels.  

Only a few streets are completed and there are some inhabitants. These people are enmeshed in theirs loves and fears, their desires and hopes, and when they need help, they tend to come and chat to Paddy.

Paddy is longing for a big win on the horses, so he can visit his daughter in America; there's Gordon, fighting for good health; carrying the hods and laying bricks, there's Sime, eternally in love, and pursued by a pregnant girlfriend, and  longing to know Mrs Denise Dinchop a lot better. Everyone tells someone their story.

The workers pray for rain so that they can have a day in the Club. But the foreman, Barney, is on a deadline for the last ten homes to be completed. In the Club, student Cynthia is adored by Andy, another student, with a summer job; Murgatroyd, local character, tells everyone his tales

The troubles of the world have to be kept at bay, and the little comforts of life must be brought to them. The place heaves with restlessness and discontent, and Paddy and Barney hold it together.

Will the last houses be completed by the end of August? Will the wars of the sexes never cease? Will England ever know true peace? Will there be peace in the world?  And if a certain horse wins a big race, Paddy will retire and live in California. 

We see all this through many eyes ,from the romantically attached, to the profoundly confused, and there is the most challenging problem of them all: will there be happiness? What is needed is a bit of advice from older and wiser men. But for Andy, the only real obstacle in his way to happiness is the fear of turning out like the suburban dwellers. He wants a new life, as well as Cynthia. But Paddy is more and more finding roots in THE HUT.