F. Scott, Ernest and Me by Tony Davis

The unpublished novelist arrived in Paris fully aware that if he was going to be one of the giants of 20th-century literature he didn't have much time '

So begins a simple tale of a man throwing in his job, moving somewhere exotic and attempting to fulfil his life's ambition of writing a Great Work. In the service of an outrageous clich , Davis moved to the world's premier city of art and literature to look for a down-and-out garret (ideally with a view of several towers, arches, domes and flying buttresses) in the city where Ernest Hemingway found his true voice, F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on Tender is the Night, Eric Blair transformed into George Orwell and Henry Miller nearly starved while creating the first of his stunning Tropic novels.

Davis also had a few other modest aims: to learn French, to finally read and understand James Joyce's Ulysses, to come to terms with the loss of a friend and to divine the very meaning of life. But above all, he was determined to write something as beautiful, profound and critically acclaimed as anything F. Scott Fitzgerald or Ernest Hemingway produced in the City of Light.

Paris had other plans. The ghosts of the city, mysterious women and a cavalcade of eccentrics began to distract the would-be novelist from his perfectly conceived, success-guaranteed literary opus. As bombs exploded across Paris and strikes and political turmoil brought it to a standstill, the Great Work was catapulted in the most unlikely direction imaginable.

More than a fast-paced and often hilarious look at the writing process and the shadows cast by literary greats, 'F. Scott, Ernest And Me' is an inspiring story of how big dreams and sheer tenacity can overcome everything. Well, almost everything.