Motorbird is a rock and roll novel. It takes the reader on a long and colourful trip through London in the later years of the Swinging Sixties, that unique and iconic epoch of the twentieth century.

It tells the story of an English teenager called Nigel Green, who leaves his strict boarding school in the summer of 1967 determined that all he wants to do with his life is play rock ’n’ roll. He gets a band together with his best friend Phil and a couple of local musicians, they play a few gigs, write a few songs, and then decide to move up to London to take a shot at the big time.

London was a very exciting place to be in the late 1960s. It was going through seismic changes as the Baby Boomers came of age, riding the new economic boom and driving the city to evolve from a grey and gloomy old post-war bomb site into a bright new technicolour epicentre of fashion, style and music. A cultural explosion was happening. This new generation wanted to have some fun, and were going about doing so, with their wild new art and their crazy new music, and all the fashionable, mind-altering drugs that were weaving their way through all levels of society. The sexual revolution was well underway too, thanks to the sudden and widespread availability of the birth control pill.

This was the Permissive Society that was waiting for Nigel and the boys when they moved up to town at the beginning of ’68, and they jumped in headfirst and hungry, eager to sample all the delights it had to offer.

They started to get quite good, too — kept on gigging, went on tour, and began to make some moves in the business.

But you’ll have to read the book if you want to know what happened next.

— everything I like in a book: wonderful description, so that you’re right there using all your senses; a bit of intrigue; some very playful and unusual sex scenes, camaraderie – which musicians are so good at; big lows and highs. . . and just a feel good ending —

— Jan Stirling, Victoria BC.

 — great writing and really believable characters —

— Terry Morrison, Nanton AB.

 — it held my interest right from the beginning. . . the descriptions of clothing, domiciles, pubs are great. I also like all the musical references and descriptions of music-making (and writing), as well as the interplay of audience and performer —

— Annie Weeks, Victoria BC.

— you capture the underbelly side of 60s London very well. . . moves & flows very well. . . a storyline that keeps one engaged —

— Liz Wells, Langford BC.

 — your book put me back into the late ‘60s and early ‘70s completely. I felt like I was having flashbacks. LOL —

— Wayne Kozak, Duncan BC.

— what a roller coaster of a ride! I read the last half last night, couldn’t stop! That’s quite the story. . . I enjoyed every minute of it!

— Frances Westerman, Genoa Bay, BC.

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Born and raised in England, Jeremy Sagar has called western Canada home since emigrating at the age of twenty-one. He currently lives on Vancouver Island with his wife Renske. They have two grown children, Josie and Peter, and a large brown dog called Nina.

Jeremy has worked as a professional musician for many years, playing extensively across the western provinces in a variety of bands, with brief stints in Europe and California.

Then when the kids came along, he took up audio engineering, working in recording studios, location film sets, and for seventeen years at Access Television in Alberta, all the time continuing to play music with weekend bands. While working at Access he also  composed incidental music for numerous in-house productions and promotions.

Motorbird is his first real foray into creative writing. A sequel is currently under consideration.

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Images from the day…