STEPPING OUT

A gripping tale of one respectable man's journey to the underbelly of life

Harold Cummings, retired mechanical engineer, has everything he wants: a house, a devoted wife, Millie, and two children, whom he barely sees, but it's everything he has wanted and as his friend Chippie says, ‘Hey, lighten up. You've got Millie. Kids, a grandson. A few shekels in the bank. You got your rewards'. A distant friend dies and Harold is asked to give a Eulogy at the funeral that triggers his realisation of his boredom at his life. When Millie leaves town to care for her ill sister, Harold's behaviour begins to spiral downwards. He gets involved in theft and other crime, he has a tattoo done and begins drinking heavily, he experiments with drugs, meets a prostitute named Rose and falls foul of her pimp. Steven Boykey Sidley has meandered through careers as an animator, chief technology officer for a Fortune 500 company, jazz musician, software developer, video game designer, private equity investor and high technology entrepreneur. He currently lives in Johannesburg with his wife and two children. Stepping Out is Boykey's second novel after Entanglement released in 2012.