Before the Swallow Dares is a story of two former school friends, Ted Bryant and Jim Fletcher, who meet again by accident after a gap of almost fifty years and decide to renew their friendship. It is only later that Ted realises that his friend is married to Dilys, a girl with whom he had fallen in love when they were both only eighteen and still at school – a vivid flashback shows us, how they first met, how matters developed, and, more importantly, how they lost touch.
Once they meet again, Ted and Dilys recognise that they still have a great deal of interests in common, and still feel a lot of affection for each other, but they both love their current spouses and there is no question of that situation changing. Nor, however, is there any question of their losing touch again, for the two couples get on very well together too.
But there are complications and difficulties to be faced, not least those posed by the maverick behaviour of Ted’s French ex-wife Arlette, but also by the fact that they are no longer in the first flush of youth and they have to cope with the problems which confront all of us when faced with advancing age.
There is much humour and light-heartedness in the story, but much pathos too; but among the novel’s many qualities are that it presents characters of advanced age as people who still enjoy life and generally have a positive attitude. The fact that the author himself was a sprightly 79-year-old when he finished writing it puts him in an ideal position to show us what it’s really like…