User:Atari-artdesign

Stephen O. Boyo is a British-Nigerian novelist, social policy expert and artist. Stephen was born in Islington, London, England in the 1960s of Nigerian parentage, his mother being of mixed Nigerian and Scottish descent.Stephen is best known for the novel The Marionette Adrift published in 2009 ISBN978-1-84923-393-4. The novel portrays a year in the life of American rock star Lars Brunner and is set between November 1974 and January 1976.

Stephen spent his childhood growing up in London where his parents worked and studied.The family returned to Nigeria following the civil war and settled in Lagos. After what he described as an uneventful and regular childhood, Stephen began writing stories in his teens to while away boredom in the eighties. He studied for a law degree in the late eighties and embarked on banking career before returning to the United Kingdom in the mid nineties for post-graduate studies. After graduation, Stephen embarked on various campaigning roles for leading charities such as Age Concern England where he advocated for the welfare and rights of older people to good housing and the Community Development Foundation.

Social policy career

Writing career 2000-2003 In 2001 Stephen wrote 'When a house is not a home; older people and their housing' which sought to highlight the housing concerns of older people and was published by Age Concern England. In 2003, shortly before leaving his role at Age Concern, Stephen's other work The Fear Factor; Older people and the fear of street crime' was published by Age Concern England and edited by Su Ray.

Fiction writing - The Marionette Adrift 2009 The Marionette Adrift's central character is 28 year-old singer Lars Brunner, who is troubled by his rock star status as leader of the X-Cult. While his bandmates enjoy the thrills of celebrity status, Lars is uneasy with sudden fame and exposure. During a plane flight home from touring South America, a lonely Lars is deeply affected by the disappearance of his estranged wife and recollections of his late father’s memoir of life during World War Two as a persecuted European Jew. Returning home to America, Lars fires manager Mikey Slaney for allegedly mishandling the band’s affairs but also (secretly) for his affair with the star’s beautiful wife, Annie.

Sacked film producer Tim Valentino’s lawyer James McFadden advises taking legal action. When Lars finds his wife in Texas, he attempts to revive their relationship but is later arrested for her mysterious murder. Bailed to appear in court, he is advised by his best friend and bandmate, Leif Harlander, to take a break across the border in Acapulco, Mexico.

Lars Brunner - with the help of his best friend Leif Harlander and defence attorney John Philips - embarks on a voyage that leaves him stranded and penniless as stowaway on board the Andromeda and in Las Palmas as a fugitive. There he encounters beautiful Basque art student, Renee De Haro. Guilty about concealing his identity, their relationship deepens first in Barcelona and then in Bilbao, where Lars becomes unwillingly absorbed submerged into the dangerous world of Basque civic pride and militant terrorist activity.

In the Marionette Adrift, Stephen O. Boyo has drawn parallels with real events during the traumatic period in Spanish history in which part of the book is set. Additionally, the novel explores the disturbing yet touching travails of Lars Brunner’s Jewish father Shmuel Brunner, and his experiences of persecution in Eastern Europe (Poland) during the Second World War which is recorded as a memoir in chapter 2 of the novel. The book successfully attempts to mirror Shmuel Brunner's holocaust experience with that of his son, who becomes embroiled in a war of sorts when following the death of the Spanish Dictator Generalissimo Franco,a short-lived fictional declaration of independence by Basque separatists leads to a mini-war of liberation from which the protagonist takes flight(4). Ultimately as with most novels, the author attempts to redeem the book's central character from his travail.

Youwriteon.com/Legend Press

Age Concern England

When A house is not a home, Older people and their housing, by Stephen Boyo, (2001),Age Concern England

The Fear Factor; Older people and the fear of street crime by Stephen Boyo, edited by Su Ray, (2003), Age Concern England

CDF Website