Book excerpt: The Man in the Seventh Row tells the deeply affecting story of Roy Batty, a film fan who loves the cinema just a little too much. No matter the movie - The Graduate, Brief Encounter, The Magnificent Seven - Roy finds himself sucked from his seventh-row seat into the heart of the action on the big screen. His life has spiralled into The Purple Rose of Cairo in reverse. A fantasy come true -- or a living nightmare? "A strange and beguiling novel about films and those who love and live them" - Ian Rankin What they're saying... "A most unusual novel, proving emphatically that life is possible both inside and outside the cinema! It's a very nice lend of the real, the fictional and the dream world and I really don't think I've read anything quite like it before." - Barry Norman "...hugely enjoyable. Pacy, sharp and witty - in the proper sense - it is a novel that baby boomers and film buffs will strongly relate to, and all enthusiasts of unusual - of original - fiction will take great pleasure in." - Andrew Marr "Pendreigh's infectious love of cinema and brilliant wordcraft combine to make for a singularly enthralling tale of one man's journey through the hardships of life." - Literally Jen "... a wholly likeable read ... Pendreigh's novel is a pleasing dissection of man's all-too-modern need for escape in darkened auditoriums that posits him somewhere between David Thomson's Suspects and Guy Bellamy's The Secret Lemonade Drinker." - Paul Dale, The List "I loved it... a terrific read, definitely one for fans of film." - Janice Forsyth, Movie Cafe, Radio Scotland From the author... "The book is sub-titled The Movie Lover's Novel with good reason, as it certainly celebrates a love of the movies. You'll doubtless be familiar with many of the classic movies featured but it might also introduce you to one or two less familiar films. "Ultimately, The Man in the Seventh Row it is about childhood and adulthood, about obsession and love, and about loss and the possibility of redemption. "Set in Scotland and California, the book addresses questions we all have: where did we come from, where are we going, how long do we have?"