Max Boyle was born in Huddersfield, England, and has grown into adult life feeling comfortable. With his attainment of middle age, that feeling is no longer a positive. He craves experience. Deciding not to continue in an uninspiring job in his hometown, he fantasises about leaving the country to teach English, and duly decamps to Tabor, South Bohemia, called there by memories of previous visits to the town and a lovely Czech girlfriend. Arriving a decade after Czechoslovakia's famed coup, the Velvet Revolution, he finds his trials as a novice teacher emerging from the cocoon of a mid-life crisis change his life forever. Written with wit and style, Touching Velvet is an entertaining journey to the heart of a life in transition and the expatriate experience.