John van de Ruit

It is 2003 – ten years since ‘Spud’ Milton’s class of 93 finished school. Despite their unbreakable bond, the Crazy Eight have lost touch. An invitation to their ten-year reunion weekend at the school triggers an unsettling tumult of emotions for Spud. He’s sure he won’t go, hardened by the prospect of revealing a decade of spectacular non-achievement to his former, privileged classmates. At twenty-eight, Spud is stuck in a one-third life crisis: his glittering theatre career has stalled before it’s even begun, he still doesn’t have a girlfriend, and circumstances have forced him to move back in with his parents and his senile grandmother, Wombat, whose walks never end where they begin. But powerful machinations are already at work. A bombardment of messages and darkly threatening phone calls from unknown numbers sees his resistance begin to crumble and his curiosity piqued. It’s just a weekend, after all . . . what else could possibly go wron? he Crazy Eight are back. From John van de Ruit, Spud: The Reunion is a riotous trip down memory lane ten years in the making. Featuring all the signature wit and "catastrophic nostalgia" of the original series, this is the hilarious, adult chapter Spud’s fans have been waiting for.

It is 2003 – ten years since Spud Milton’s class of 93 matriculated and the boys went their separate ways. Despite their seemingly unbreakable bond, the Crazy Eight have not kept in touch. Or at least, not as far as Spud knows. When he receives an invitation from the school to attend the ten-year reunion weekend, Spud is determined to avoid the event at all costs, but he hasn’t reckoned with the bombardment of intrusive messages and threatening phone calls from his former dorm mates. No one is going to bend his arm, not this time; he is immune to peer pressure and wise to Rambo’s devious manipulation techniques. Spud has moved on. And, anyway, he has enough to worry about on the home front.At twenty-eight Spud is stuck in a one-third life crisis. Reflecting on a decade of spectacular non-achievement, at a point where he’s coming to realise that his glittering stage career might have stalled before it’s even begun, casts him into deep gloom. For the former scholarship kid, the prospect of once again having to measure up to his blue-blooded school friends – and be found wanting – has him riddled with anxiety. Not only that. Spud still doesn’t have a serious girlfriend, which has seen him resort to a questionable international bath-sexting relationship with an old flame. Not to mention that circumstances have forced him to move back in with his parents and his senile grandmother, Wombat, whose walks never end where they began.After a wildly unsuccessful fishing trip with his father, as well as a return to his old way of figuring things out – writing in his diary – to his own surprise, Spud finds his reunion resistance crumbling. Curiosity and courage win the day. It’s just a weekend, after all . . . what could possibly go wrong?From the bestselling author John van de Ruit. Spud: The Reuinion revisits well loved characters in this nostalgic reunion ten years after graduation.