King of Summer: A story about second chances

Harry King is an accident-prone third-rate actor, second rate musician and first rate bluffer. He is also in a lot of trouble. Barclaycard are issuing death threats, his (married) girlfriend Amanda is making his life intolerable and his long-suffering agent has decided he’s a total liability. So when his friend Katriona offers him a fresh start as Leisure Manager at a holiday village in the South of France, he jumps at the opportunity.Any illusions he holds about lying low, getting a decent sun tan and perfecting his water-skiing while his problems cool down in England are shattered the minute he arrives at the site. Construction of the entertainment complex is hopelessly behind schedule, the staff is totally demoralised and Len Jefferies, the general manager appears blithely unconcerned by the crisis. In fact, Jefferies is in the pay of European Travel, a rival tour operator, who are determined to take over the village by fair means or foul, and Len's strategy is to ensure it isn’t ready to open by engineering a series of mysterious delays and setbacks. Harry realises if he wants to have a job for the rest of the summer he may actually have to do some work. In spite of his nemesis’ machinations and the distractions of a beautiful travel rep called Ciaran and the occasional disruptive visits of Amanda, Harry still manages to get the complex built before the season begins. But the village is taken over and Len makes sure Harry is sacked by the new owners. Two weeks into the season and Len’s incompetent bumbling has resulted in near mutiny by the staff and customer dissatisfaction. The new owner is unable to get rid of Len because of a watertight agreement, but he decides to get Harry back. He finds him in Juan-les-Pins working as a water-ski instructor. To Len’s horror, Harry returns, and warns the general manager he intends to even the score with him.In spite of having to deal with an errant choreographer, a compere who’s constantly playing practical jokes on him and sports instructors more intent on bedding every female client than teaching windsurfing, Harry manages to survive Len’s attempts to get rid of him. Faced with a gap in the entertainment schedule he and some colleagues form a rock band that attracts a large following in the area. In the meantime his personal life gets more convoluted as Amanda betrays him and a children’s nanny ties him up. A growing mutual attraction with a beautiful French music student, Elise, who is involved with one of his friends, adds to the complications.His acting career is unexpectedly resurrected when a film crew comes down to shoot a promotional video and TV advertisement for the following season. The director offers him a part in an upcoming film and an ambitious member of the crew introduces him to a record company executive.But in Harry’s life nothing ever runs smoothly. Just when everything seems to be going well, Len seizes an opportunity to get rid of Harry but the staff and clients expose the general manager’s deceit and the roles are reversed. Still unable to sack Len because of their agreement, European Travel’s managing director sends him off to run the company’s equipment warehouse in Marseilles and brings in Harry’s friend Katriona to run the village. Ciaran finally leaves her boyfriend and moves in with Harry.Over in Marseilles, Len plots revenge on the company, and on Harry. He puts his plan into operation on the last day of the season. Will he succeed, or does Harry manage to survive once more?Whether he manages to extract himself is revealed in the sequel, ‘A Winter’s Tale’, which charts Harry King’s misadventures during the following winter on a film set in Israel and during a ski season in Switzerland.