The Still, Sad Music Of Humanity: The Colours By Juliet Bates
Juliet Bates does not privilege the terrain, over which her dramatis personae roll like wraiths in a sea fret, with certain provenance. The Colours is set somewhere on the North East coast of England, but we do not draw an instinctive association between the fictive landscape and any real counterpart except by suggestion; nor do we take comfort in the parallel certainties of places as we might in, for example, Hardy’s Dorset. A mélange of geographical glimpses, shifted for wider…
Review: Ordesa - Manuel Vilas
When writing, authors decide how much of their own personality they wish to convey to the reader. Sometimes they remain elusive, sometimes their fictional characters echo their own personal traits and when writing autobiography, one does wonder what aspects a writer chooses to leave out, wishing to avoid censure from readers. I believe it takes a brave writer to treat the genre of autobiography as a confessional, setting out plainly every aspect of the self, warts and all. Ordesa, the…
Last One At The Party By Bethany Clift: A Review
Bethany Clift’s prescient debut novel was likely never intended to depict what has become reality for the world of 2021. Its publication now is both apt and uncanny, given its subject matter, however, despite the unnerving similarity to our present circumstances, it does offer light relief. Because, when facing a real worldwide pandemic that is ruining the lives of so many, a touch of dark humour can most certainly be welcome.
Last One at the Party is the diary transcript of…
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka: The Multiple Meanings Of A Sparkling Gem!
Fiction’s capacity for polysemic richness can invite a dizzying, heterogenous cornucopia of hermeneutic approaches as readers and critics alike hunt for the possible meaning cocooned within a book’s intriguing pages. Each interpretive response is hypothetically valid, unless rooted in flawed assumptions or fanciful extrapolation. As with beauty, interpretation is in the eye of the beholder and therefore subjective, even when purporting to be objective! Our perceptions are filtered through a diaphanous mental membrane, shaping what we see and architecting our…
Poem Of The Week: 'Paddy Dies' By Stewart Parker (1941-1988)
Paddy Dies
Paddy dies: you never knew him.
A deaf hunchback in a home for the old.
Deafness drew the blind of his soul.
Nobody knew him. Nobody knew him.
A wild animal in him reared
Up one night, I saw his eyes
And for three days he disappeared
They found him sleeping in a pig-sty.
I wonder if sixty years ago
He slept tender in a girl’s breasts?
He seems to sleep hard now.
His bony umbrella collapsed at last.
Edward Lucie-Smith described the work of Belfast poet Stewart Parker, as raw,…
Author Interview: Carolyn Hobdey:All The Tw*ts I Met Along The Way
For decades, Carolyn Hobdey's personal life didn't quite match up to the success of her professional life. A senior and respected business leader in HR, she regularly smashed career goals, while her personal life consisted of love triangles, divorce (albeit amicable) following the discovery her husband of 15 years was gay, car crashes and a controlling and abusive partner.
Carolyn's first book, All The Tw*ts I Met Along The Way, is a memoir about what happens when you so deeply…
Review: Expectation by Anna Hope
I was full of expectation (pun intended) when I picked up this novel, the third by Anna Hope. I so enjoyed The Ballroom, which I reviewed for the Yorkshire Times, and looked forward to reading her next opus.
Unlike her first two novels, which were both set in the early twentieth century, this one is much more modern, opening in 2004. Give it time, it begins slowly: make sure you have a good long period free to get to grips with…
'There Is No Such Thing As Fate, Because There Is Nobody In Control': My Name Is Monster By Katie Hale
The debut novel from award-wining poet and writer, Katie Hale, is a compelling page-turner; a story told from the dual narrative of the two protagonists, both named Monster. The first we meet is almost thirty and alone in a deserted world, and she considers what is the price of survival but also asks the more important question: if you are the sole survivor, “Then what?”.
This story explores what it might be like if you found yourself alone in a post-apocalyptic…
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother: The Comic Short Stories Of Anton Chekhov
Perhaps when we consider Chekhov, our first thoughts may not gaily run to whimsy, frolicsome mirth or indeed lighthearted, playful satire. Conversely, we might recall The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters or Lady with the Dog. Chekhov’s (1860-1904) works mirror Russian life authentically, warts and all. His gloomy, gritty realism seen as an intellectually intimidating, semi-permeable reflective prism between the observed and the observer. His work an unflinching, but dextrously modulated exploration of dank humanistic truths only…
The Architecture Of Sky: Two Tongues - Claudine Toutoungi
The moment you reach the sharp edge of an escarpment and are clobbered by a sudden gust that momentarily takes your breath away is unexpected and exhilarating; you cannot speak for the scintillating shock. Words are briefly lost to the wind.
Claudine Toutoungi’s poems are a blistering hail of words, a ravening, gathering storm of sound and meaning that insinuate themselves into every receptor, like rain’s discovery of an ingress in ‘impermeable’ clothing. The wealth of invention, of suggestion, in her…
Poem Of The Week: 'A Parable Of Sorts' By Malika Booker
A Parable of Sorts
We danced to rancorous tunes on spiked ground and
our knees sang with each puncture, so that several
agouti colonies, melanic in our russet strengths,
learned as wild rats to scurry or guard ourselves from
skin-spite. Immune from nocturnal drowsiness
we strong-bellied creatures assembled, campaigned;
gyrated to blowed trumpets and cradled songs, but,
us black rats with our rogue swagger that spoke
of foreign ports, pranced our survival shuffle in
night’s murky dance halls. Each step our single
prayer, each jab our benediction. This tart sermon
containered our…
Interview With Frances Quinn - Author Of The Smallest Man
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Regular readers will know that I recently reviewed Frances Quinn’s debut novel The Smallest Man. Historical fiction can be as dusty as the facts that scaffold its narratives, desiccated contrivances sometimes bereft of the humanity precipitating their events. Some impressively erudite authors, dry-eyed from hours spent in the quiet sanctuary of a research library, amass facts like mince meat to be stuffed into the sausage of their story. Reading works of this character may not leave a mouth unpleasantly coated…
Review: Troubled Blood By Robert Galbraith
Troubled Blood is the fifth novel in the Strike series by Robert Galbraith – aka J.K. Rowling – and it is the first cold case that the protagonists have investigated, looking into the disappearance of a GP forty years previously. The previous books in the series have been solid, if not top rank, whodunnit mysteries, with an element of danger and a sparky, will-they-wont-they relationship between the two main characters, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Such an incendiary conjunction of…
'Numbers Rule The Universe': Q By Christina Dalcher
Q is the second novel of bestselling author Christina Dalcher, a Georgetown-based doctor of theoretical linguistics. Not only is Q a welcome addition to the genre of dystopian fiction, I suspect it is also going to be an important one, as more readers come to discover its pages.
Dalcher’s is a future of alternate ethics and morals – an elitist and inegalitarian society in which “some … are [definitely] more equal than others”, to paraphrase Orwell. The only universal aspect…
'A Hero Of Our Time!': The Smallest Man By Frances Quinn
Mikhail Lermontov exploited the fractured prism of his anti-hero Grigory Pechorin to eviscerate his society from the perspective of a disillusioned 19th century aristocrat. Tall, debonair and privileged Pechorin has it all and yet his ennui and soul-sick malevolence is all he can offer the world. A callous disregard for the feelings and fate of others characterises Pechorin’s every cruel action. He is quite simply monstrous, the freakish by-product of a diseased society and cold heart. Step forth Nat Davy,…
Review: Death In The Cotswolds By Rebecca Tope
So, Christmas has been different this year for many of us, me included. Not allowed to visit grandchildren in Scotland, or Mum in her care home, the 25th was a quiet one. However, trying to be positive, Christmas has been good for long walks and curling up with a good book. A friend who reads my articles chose to give me a book by an author I have previously favourably reviewed and the lack of festive fun and frivolity has…
Interview: Thomas McMullan, Author Of The Last Good Man
Thomas McMullan is a writer, critic and journalist, based in London, whose debut novel, The Last Good Man, was published in November by Bloomsbury. The book is a disquieting and sinister story and a unique take on the modern zeitgeist; I was keen to find out more about the author, what inspired the novel and what his literary next steps might be.
Thomas has had articles published in the Guardian, on BBC News and in the New Statesman amongst others, covering…
Review: The Last Good Man By Thomas McMullan
The Last Good Man is a uniquely disquieting and sinister debut novel from the writer, critic and journalist Thomas McMullan.
It is set in an unspecified era which is just one of the many unanswered questions posed by the narrative. Despite the apparent simplicity of the scenario, the reader soon becomes aware of the subtle themes the author is exploring. Some themes are clearer, others linger in the subconscious to be mused upon after the final page has been turned. This…
Musical Memories: The Prosaics
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The Prosaics, aka A.G. Williams, is one man with a machine, who through his songs offers both romance and disappointment and is a solution to the vacuous pop that seems to dominate the airwaves. His songs are wry, scornful and cripplingly English. ‘Frown’ the debut single from this uniquely clever and obscure music artist, is out now. We caught up with A.G. and asked what song always makes you...
Smile
‘Frown’ by The Prosaics
It’s just really well made.
That and…
Musical Memories: Jack Wesley of .wavrunner
.wavrunner are Jack Wesley, younger brother JJ and Griff. Jack and Griff met as second graders in Cleveland, USA after realizing they were kindred, mischievous spirits. They first bonded over their shared passion for choice four letter words…. A decade later, Jack and Griff are just as fun-loving and cheeky in their roles as co-lyricists for .wavrunner with Jack handling lead vocals, Griff as co-vocalist and JJ who creates the beats and arrangements. The boys age from 18 to 20…
State Of The Union: Rachel To The Rescue By Elinor Lipman
Donald J. Trump’s failure to accept the outcome of the most fairly and judiciously executed election in US history might one day be his albatross – his resolute deafness to the clamour of probity is the indignation of a spoilt child who is overfond of wearing the emperor’s new clothes.
A perfect foil for political commentators and satirists, the POTUS would be laughable were he not so dangerously charismatic, especially for the stodgy and credulous millions who have little to…
Poem Of The Week: 'And Yet' By Jonathan Humble
And Yet
Curtains remain drawn, as the day comes with rain
like a returning memory. In darkness, early moments
rest on heavy eyes, closed to a wave of sickness.
In the residue of cracked ashtrays and stale alcohol,
sit diary entries of dissolute nights with succubae;
a debt of bad shillings that smothers and oppresses.
With a switch click of artificial light, a three-quarter
circular tea stain on the old and damaged veneer
of a bedside table screams normality.
But the…
Interview With Nikki Smith - Author Of All In Her Head
Hunter S. Thompson once said, ‘There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment’. A sentiment hardly brimming with incandescent comfort! If we seek light at the end of this metaphorical psychological tunnel, Freud is unlikely to provide it – ‘the paranoid is never entirely mistaken’. Nikki Smith’s debut novel, All In Her Head takes these truths and weaves them into a suspense thriller par excellence, its pages as gripping as they are…
'I Don't Know Who I Am Anymore': All In Her Head By Nikki Smith
‘The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong oneself’. Michel de Montaigne might not have cut it as a psychiatrist, if these words were meant to comfort tortured souls dislocated from their own frail sense of self by dint of psychogenic or post-partum psychosis. Nikki Smith’s debut is no more comforting; however, it is a deftly rendered psychological suspense thriller and a delightfully disturbing gem.
From the prologue’s sinister first sentence to the novel’s shocking final line,…
Musical Memories: AJ Wander
AJ Wander, the son of a pianist father, had music in his genes from an early age. Varying instruments were scattered around his childhood home in the suburbs of south-east London; a musical landscape that inspired a young AJ to sing, play and eventually to write. He grew up listening to his parent’s favourites and was influenced by some of the greatest songwriters of all-time including The Eagles, Elton John, Carole King and The Beatles. With his new single, Time…
Poem Of The Week: 'The Magi' By W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)
The Magi
Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.
There is an uncertainty to Yeats’ strange poem of the Nativity which is…
‘I’m Conscious Of Being Part Of A Literary Culture Thriving In The North’: Liam Bishop In Conversation With Naomi Booth
Paloma Varga Weisz’s exhibition, Bumped Body, was showing at the Henry Moore Institute before the gallery closed in the lockdown again. As I load up Zoom for my conversation with the novelist Naomi Booth, I think of Weisz’s Wilde Leute (‘wild people’). It wasn’t the fantastical exploration of the body in the small terracotta figures that struck me (although, along with Weisz’s other sculptures, they did make me think of Booth’s pre-dystopian nightmare, Sealed, where - ahem - a virus…
Hannah Tovey: An Interview
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Hannah Tovey is the author of The Education of Ivy Edwards, published earlier this year. Originally from South Wales, she spent her childhood in Hong Kong and now lives in London. Her debut novel explores the importance of family relationships, especially when life as we know it goes off the rails, and has been hailed as a cross between Fleabag and Gavin & Stacey. Hannah wanted to portray the humour and romance of Welsh people, which comes across strongly in…
Intricate Layers: Eight Detectives By Alex Pavesi
I’ve always loved a good detective novel, particularly, it has to be said, a good Agatha Christie (and now I find myself living in Harrogate where she famously disappeared). I remember so many of them but, don’t worry, I won’t list all I’ve read… just a few. My first was Cat among the Pigeons – I always checked the weight of a tennis racquet after that one. The ABC Murders was one where the intended victim was not made clear…
Interview With Cat Walker - Author Of The Scoop
A hackneyed cliché oft trotted out by experienced souls to aspirant literary tyros is, ‘write about what you know’. For debut novelist Cat Walker, the inverse may be equally true, for the creative muse animating her fledging pen was not knowledge, but the absence of it. In Walker’s case, her first novel, The Scoop draws upon a quasi-autobiographical quixotic quest for philosophical, spiritual and emotional knowledge. Stemming from what is not understood or known by its author, this frolicsome yet…