Book Review: Love For Sale: Diaries of an International Dating Agency by Ken Shaw

Description

An axe murderer and a suave fraudster keeping one step ahead of the police, a mad professor with a great line in put-downs, and a brush with the Miami Mafia, a beautiful young girl rescued from a secret Japanese sect and a blind date with the wrong girl on a rain soaked Columbian mountain, a very confused gin-soaked matchmaker, and a spooky clairvoyant who prophesied the whole crazy mess!

These are just a few of the amazing scenes in this true story as the author, a lonely single himself, really does create an international dating agency from scratch in England during the recession-hit 90s, and runs it on a shoe-string budget from a small house badly in need of structural repairs!

Never less than compelling, it’s all put together seamlessly to make at once a moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate true story as the outcomes of the author’s continually frustrated plans veer from the tragic to the hilarious, from the heart-warming and back to the terrifying!

But bring a box of tissues because amongst all the fun there are lots of genuine lonely singles finding true love right across the world – and believe it or not, it’s all true!

Review

This is a well written, witty account of life running an international dating agency from 1991-1996 before the Internet boom. I found myself laughing at the exploits of the many entertaining characters mentioned. Ken Shaw knows how to spin a good yarn, as the Americans would say.

After his bitter divorce and dubious experience of dating agencies, he decides to take the plunge and start his own international dating agency with new flame Sally. One thing I would say comes to mind while reading this book is that I kept picturing scenes from the mid 70s and 80s as I found Ken’s attitude towards women a little antiquated for the mid 90s but an entertaining read nonetheless.

Love for Sale; Diaries of an International Dating Agency Amazon UK

Amazon US