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Drayton and Mackenzie

'Will have you hooked' The Times Best Summer Books

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Drayton and Mackenzie

By: Alexander Starritt
Narrated by: Ciaran Saward
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About this listen

 'A big, bustling novel about love, friendship, money, ambition and the 21st century, packed with humour and intelligent observations ... I finished it tear-stained' Sunday Times

'Will have you hooked ... an ode to the enduring power of male friendship' The Times Best Summer Books

For the first time since university, James and Roland's paths through life - one drawn in straight lines, the other squiggled and meandering - began to cross...

James Drayton has always found things too easy. By the time he leaves university, he's still searching for a challenge worthy of his ambitions, one that will fulfil the destiny he thinks awaits him.

Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive risk-taker, a charismatic drifter with boundless enthusiasm but a knack for derailing his own attempts to get started in life.

When a chance encounter in a pub reunites these old acquaintances, it sets them on an unpredictable course through the upheavals of the 21st century, and triggers an unlikely alliance. Against the backdrop of the financial crash and its aftermath, they strive to create something that outlasts them, something that will matter.

Drayton and Mackenzie is a stunningly ambitious, immediately engaging and ultimately deeply moving novel both about trying to make your mark on the world, and about how a friendship might be the most important thing in life.

THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED NOVEL FROM AN AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR

CAN FRIENDSHIPS CHANGE THE WORLD?©2025 Alexander Starritt Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Friendship
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An unlikely love story that works despite the context. Narrator is excellent. By the end I was very sorry to bid farewell to these characters

Beautiful and human

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Simply fantastic. Although some of the story beats are pretty out there, the thing that makes this book is its characters. They’re incredibly real and their relationship is, at times, very relatable. Everyone will find something in Roland and James they can relate to. A strong recommend.

Drayton & Mackenzie

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Absolutely loved this book. A joy from start to finish and best book I have read this year.

Outstanding Read

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Wonderful story, not a business book but more an excellent novel in modern Britain. Great narration

Excellent story

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This author captures life at Oxford, life at McKinsey, the inner worlds of two very different British blokes, and occasional vignettes featuring world leaders and a Kiwi backpacker in Japan. An extraordinary range, matched by real empathy.

Special mention goes to the narrator, who delivers accents—from Indian and Danish to Welsh and several regional Scottish ones—with decent precision.

Touching and insightful tale of two unlikely friends in business

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