The Author

Neil Boss is a British author who best describes himself as an,’ excellent cook, decent writer, average fly fisher and bad guitarist. Born in Harrow a leafy suburb of London that sits at the heart of the commuter belt that feeds the fiercely competitive financial corporate district of London, simply known as, ‘The City or Square Mile.’ Neil Boss entered this rat race world as he turned forty. Despite been brought up in a middle-class area he would say he was a working-class kid. An only child, his father was a fireman and his mother a personnel officer.

Growing up in London as a teenager in the seventies where life was starting to become less inhibited with the bars, clubs and all that went with the nightlife backdrop in those somewhat liberated days especially the rock and punk music bands that where emerging on the scene, was to some degree Neil’s piece de resistance. 

Despite the allures of ‘London Life,’ Neil had a different angle to him, seeing himself in those early days as a budding Marine Biologist having been enamoured by the French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his underwater expeditions that were brough to life through the early colour TV sets that sat in the corner of all our so-called lounges. Neil enrolled at Bangor University in North Wales as an undergraduate to study Marine Biology. The location was of course stunning, being on the doorstep of one of the most breath-taking scenic areas within the UK. However, the social scene in North Wales compared to the city lights of London was in his words,’ lacking excitement and behind the times.’ He returned to London University to complete his B Sc degree in Marine Biology.

Neil’s interest in writing started at school. His English teacher wrote in his school report, ‘has the potential to be a very good creative writer.’ This continued into further education where he was the editor of his college magazine which won a Guardian Student Journalism Award, and he was a regular contributor to ‘London Student.’

A career in the world of natural science didn’t quite sparkle enough for Neil so having undertaken an MBA at Henley Management College, he immersed himself into the cut-throat brutal world of corporate finance. The world of mergers, takeovers and acquisitions took Neil all over the world advising clients on how best to strike those multimillion/billion deals. He worked for companies like Ernst & Young and Deloitte’s. Did Neil enjoy this fiercely competitive culture, I would say yes. Did he make a buck or two en-route, most likely.

For Neil, now a divorced person with two grown up children, has moved away from the financial sector and decided to follow another passion of his, books, not just reading them but actually writing them. His retirement at the end of 2019 coincided with the start of the pandemic in 2020 and he set about writing this first novel. He soon realised like many authors with their debut books having a story and bringing it to the public domain is a whole new ball game which requires a lot of intervention and feedback from others in the industry. For me the decision he took to change career in 2019 was about time certainly not,’ Maybe it’s about time.’

Check out our video chat here!

https://youtu.be/xn2DXLU5l9g

The Book

This Debut book, ‘Maybe it’s About Time,’ for me has been cleverly written, in fact I’ d go as far as describing it as a masterpiece in creative writing. When you look at the storyline and the main character Marcus Barlow, you’ll see many parallel similarities to Neil’s own life and background, particularly around cooking and the type of music Neil talks about. Marcus, is a high-powered partner in a large professional services firm in the Square Mile of London. He and his team and other associate partners are in the midst of putting a corporate package together for a client, Espina, who are in stage two of Project Spearmint. However, ‘The Firm,’ as Marcus refers to his employers,