APRIL AUTHOR OF THE MONTH - ANTHONY HOROWITZ

AUTHOR OF THE MONTH - ANTHONY HOROWITZ

A lost inheritance, absent parents, a wicked grandmother, a wretched school life; these could all pertain to an Anthony Horowitz teen hero but in fact describe Horowitz’s own unhappy childhood. He has made a career out of coupling his own experiences with an active if macabre imagination. Anthony Horowitz is an established, successful author who is now on the brink of mega-stardom.

Horowitz is a former writer for an advertising agency who must now qualify as the hardest working author writing today. A workaholic wordsmith, Horowitz writes as comfortably and ably for TV, stage and film as he does books for children. He can write for 10 hours a day in his garden shed, from where he has created at least 20 children’s books as well as his Television work. For TV he created the series Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, and Murder in Mind and in addition has been a regular writer on Poirot.

‘Ark Angel’, the sixth book in his series featuring reluctant teen super-spy Alex Rider, won the Best Children’s Book at the National Book Awards last month. With appropriate synchronicity the first in the same series ‘Stormbreaker’ is released as a summer blockbuster movie starring Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo. Expect teenage boys to be quipping “the name’s Rider …. Alex Rider” all summer long. Horowitz writes action packed, danger-laden dramas, liberally laced with humour. The film will echo the tone with Bill Nighy, Stephen Fry and Robbie Coltrane adding British wit to the cast.

Murder and mayhem are constant themes in all his work, perhaps an adult exorcism of a child’s unhappiness. His latest children’s book, published this month, is his darkest yet. ‘Evil Star’ is a supernatural chiller following on from last year’s hit ‘Raven’s Gate’. These two are the start of another series ‘The Power of Five’ in which Horowitz pits his troubled teen protagonist against supernatural evil bent on global destruction.

Horowitz had earlier success with his Diamond Brothers and Groosham Grange books, the latter based on his own gruesome schooling. But it is the Alex Rider series that has catapulted him to the top of the class and on to the film set in Hollywood. Not content with these achievements he has just published the paperback of his first novel for adults.

‘The Killing Joke’ has the same blend of horror and humour, darkness and light as his work for children. Published on April 1st The Killing Joke follows the misadventures of Guy, the shambolic, hapless hero on his quest to find the source of jokes. A journey on which he encounters surreal and dangerous characters who have walked out of punch lines and into his life.

Anthony Horowitz has often pitted his fictional teen heroes against enemies set on global domination only to discover that in reality it is he, Horowitz, who has the world at his feet. Anthony Horowitz has mined his own childhood misery to bring enjoyment to millions of today’s youngsters - the bullied schoolboy is having the last laugh.

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. 17/04/06

BOOK REVIEW Book of the Month April 2006

SUITE FRANCAISE Irene Nemirovsky Chatto & Windus £16.99

The real life story behind the writing and publication of Suite Francaise is every bit as dramatic, human and haunting as the two excellent novellas that comprise the book. Irene Nemirovsky had been a successful Russian émigré author living and working in Paris prior to the German occupation. Her debut novel, ‘David Golder’, was an instant bestseller and in 1930 was turned into a successful film. Eight more novels and another film adaptation followed until Nemirovsky was forcibly stopped from publishing on the dictates of the German occupiers.

The first of the novellas within Suite Francaise, ‘Storm in June’, interweaves a dozen different storylines telling the tragic, farcical and ultimately hopeless flight of Parisians from the advancing German Army in June 1940. Nemirovsky is merciless in her depiction of the self-centeredness of the majority of her characters; they flee without dignity or humanity. She punctures their pomposity with needle sharp wit and exposes their hypocrisy with candid humour. Cars crammed with worthless valuables and invalid relatives block the arterial roads out of Paris before being abandoned as the fuel runs out. Reduced to walking, thousands of terrified refugees spread out into the countryside only to confront the retreating French army and advancing German troops.

Nemirovsky wrote these stories in 1941 having experienced, together with her husband and two daughters, the fall of Paris first hand. Barred from publishing, Nemirovsky continued to write, chronicling the traumatic events unfolding around her. So closely did her fictional narratives follow the fate of the Nemirovsky family that for decades after the war her daughters thought her leather-bound notebook contained private memoirs rather than a manuscript.

Like the characters from ‘Storm in June’ the Nemirovsky family was forced to flee Paris and in 1940 they settled in the relative safety of the village of Issy-L’Eveque, still in German occupied France. The second novella, ‘Dolce’ is set in just such a rural community under German occupation. ‘Storm in June’ described the national humiliation and the multiple losses for the individual during the shambolic and shameful capitulation of France; ‘Dolce’ deals head-on with collaboration. In both stories Irene Nemirovsky denounced cowardice and the acceptance of persecution but found hope and love in the most unlikely circumstances.

These two works were to be part of a five-volume set, however the real world interrupted Nemirovsky’s fictional accounts of the war one final time. Although Irene and husband Michel Epstein had converted to Catholicism, and the daughters were baptized, according to the previous French census they were classified as Jews – a status which determined their fate in Nazi occupied France.

Irene was arrested by French police on July 13th 1942 and was transported to Auschwitz the next day. She was registered at Birkenau extermination camp and died from typhus within the month. Unaware of his wife’s fate, Michel wrote to Marshal Petain asking to be taken in her place – the Vichy regime duly obliged and Michel was arrested, transported to Auschwitz and killed. The girls were aged five and thirteen.

Their governess removed the Jewish star from their clothes and smuggled them into a convent school under false names. The moral complexities intrinsic to surviving under occupation are infinite. The two daughters only survived because French citizens, strangers in the main, took risks on pain of death to save their lives. The French police tracked them down and they were forced to flee again and again. Somehow they survived the war and miraculously still had the manuscript for Suite Francaise in their possession, safe and intact.


This edition of Suite Francaise includes a preface outlining the salient events in Irene’s life and career, the outcome for her family, and the genesis of the work itself. There is an appendix transcribing Nemirovsky’s hand-written notes on the situation in France and her thoughts on her work. Together with the second appendix of correspondence between husband, wife, friends, publisher and the authorities, written as the net closed in, the whole work is an extraordinary reading experience.

Here is the fulcrum on which opinion swings. Disregarding the genesis of the novellas, do they excel in their own right as stand-alone works of art? Or does the provenance of the fiction lend it unearned kudos?

Nemirovsky employs powerful imagery and introduces a vibrant, varied cast of characters, the majority of whom she patently enjoys ridiculing. This gallery of morally-challenged collaborators and ordinary people living in extraordinary times navigates a series of sub-plots laced with coruscating wit and gallows humour. The French literary scene hailed the publication in France in 2004 as a ‘masterpiece’, ‘incomparable in French Literature’ and Irene Nemirovsky was awarded the Prix Renaudot. Acclaim this side of the Channel has been only a little more subdued.

A cynic might suggest that the French establishment is assuaging deep-seated guilt in embracing an author who chronicled collaboration with such a pitiless eye and also met her death at Birkenau, sent there by French police. It is easy to imagine Nemirovsky herself enjoying caricaturing the contemporary French literary establishment as it now embraces her so heartily having abandoned and betrayed her 60 years ago.

Excellent as they are, the stand-alone stories are not among the very best that French Literature has to offer but taken as a whole, Suite Francaise is a masterpiece. These works are inseparable from the life experience of their author. In ‘Storm in June’ Nemirovsky describes her most sympathetic character writing his experiences into a notebook in exactly the same manner in which Irene’s daughter remembers her mother. “He wrote with a chewed-up pencil stub, in a little notebook which he hid against his heart. He felt he had to hurry; something inside him was making him anxious, was knocking on an invisible door. By writing he opened that door; he gave life to something that wished to be born”. Nemirovsky had consciously entered herself into the body of her fiction, and told us so.

This edition of Suite Francaise must be read in its entirety; the translator’s notes, the preface, the novellas and the appendices. The complete book is inseparable from its provenance. As such Suite Francaise stands as the defining indictment of the twin wounds in the psyche of post-invasion France; capitulation and collaboration.

This review first appeared in its entirety in 'The Leamington Gazette' April 2006. The copyright remains the property of the Derwent Bookshop.

Cricket Books. 10/04/06

CRICKET

Tuesday 18th April saw the start of the 2006 Cricket County Championship. Whatever your level of playing, it is time to shake the mud from your boots, whiten your pads, wear three layers of sweater and dream again of glory with bat and ball. For armchair cricketers April sees the publication of the twin harbingers of summer, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and the Playfair Cricket Annual.

The ghost of W. G. Grace stands like a colossus at the crease of cricket history, every player since will be judged against the giant shadow cast. Where better to measure contemporary players against the great man than in John Wisden’s eponymous Cricketers’ Almanack, the other Victorian institution that still dominates our national summer game. The 2006 edition was published on 12th April marking 143 continuous annual publications since 1864. ‘Wisden 2006, the 143rd edition’, includes coverage of every first-class game in every cricket nation, with reports and scorecards for all Test matches and One Day Internationals. This latest edition contains more feature articles and more colour photographs than ever before, as well as a special section on the 2005 Ashes. In addition the editor, Matthew Engel, chooses five Cricketers of the Year who made notable contributions to the game during last season. In 1896 there was just the one name; W. G. Grace.

Wisdens not only attract the attention of cricket fans but are now also highly collectable – a complete collection can fetch in excess of £30,000. After the very early editions the most sought after are ‘1916’ which included Grace’s obituary and ‘1919’ which included the roll call of cricketers lost in the Great War. This year, for the first time, Wisden is also available in an additional limited edition large format, about twice normal size; each volume individually numbered and packaged in a presentation slipcase.

Wisden weighs in over 1,500 pages long – a veritable brick. Bill Frindall’s ‘Playfair Cricket Annual’ is the cheap and cheerful option to carry to the match in your bait box. You still get the highlights of the 2005 season, full stats on all first class players and a preview of the 2007 World Cup – and all for just £6.99.

By his own admission TV cricket analyst Simon Hughes never set the cricketing world alight as a player, but he spent a lot of time in the company of those who did. Hughes coupled this experience of 15 years on the professional circuit at Middlesex with a dry, sardonic wit to produce the 1997 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, ‘A Lot of Hard Yakka.’ Last year Hughes returned to his bowling mark with ‘Morning Everyone’, his account of 15 years as a cricket journalist culminating in witnessing the England Ashes triumph from the commentary box. Fans will know Hughes as ‘The Analyst’ from Channel Four’s award winning cricket coverage.

‘Morning Everyone – an Ashes Odyssey’, just published in paperback, is a sports book of two halves. The early chapters echo Hughes’ workman like approach to everyday county cricket as he learns a new trade as a sports writer. He displays a fine attention to detail, proving a keen observer of fellow commentators, whatever the sport, as well as being a skilled analyst with the rare gift of communicating to professional and lay audience alike. The tumultuous events of the Ashes series dominate the second half of the book as Hughes’ life story is swamped by the historic events of the Ashes summer.

Hughes’ mentor has been the great Richie Benaud, whose swan song this ashes series was. Hughes delivers a warm, affectionate tribute to the retiring commentator against the dramatic dénouement of the Ashes campaign. As a final tribute the book takes its title from Benaud’s customary opening remarks to his TV audience.

The tone of the book owes much to Hughes the bowler. His action is busy and bustling, the pace never drops, although he is a little over reliant on a stock delivery of self-deprecatory humour. The first time we are fooled by the initial trajectory and enjoy the late deviation, but overexposure to his technique diminishes the effect. Hughes is a hard working, energetic enthusiast who has reinvented himself from journeyman cricketer to journeyman journalist and gained friends and respect on the way. The book is hugely enjoyable for all the behind-the-scenes cricketing gossip and for providing the best seat in the house for when England finally regained the Ashes.

British Book Awards 2006

British Book Awards 2006

The winners in the 2006 British Book Awards were announced last Saturday night at the presentation ceremony shown on Channel 4. Five of the winning books have already been reviewed in this column; where Workington leads London follows.

The winner of the ‘Richard & Judy’ Best Read of the Year was awarded to the current Number One bestselling paperback ‘Labyrinth’ by Kate Mosse. Previously best known for being one of the co-founders of the Orange Prize for fiction (by a woman), Mosse has created an equal-opportunities ‘Da Vinci Code’, complete with ancient rites and symbols, crusader knights, and millennial secrets. She tells two interconnected stories separated in time by 800 years but joined in place by the beautiful countryside of the Languedoc. The reader follows the feisty female characters as they struggle through the maze of the plot. This is a girly grail quest with female villains as well as heroines, and the occasional token chain-mail.

The Children’s Book of the Year was awarded to ‘Ark Angel’ by Anthony Horowitz. To the delight of his legions of fans Alex Rider comes back from the dead in book 6 of the teen-spy series to tackle a Russian billionaire who owns a football club. The film of the first book, ‘Stormbreaker’, is released in the UK in July so expect teenage boys to be quipping: “the name’s Rider … Alex Rider” all summer long. Horowitz is a professional, journeyman writer with ad agency credits to his name as well as writing the ‘Midsomer Murders’ and ‘Foyle’s War’ for television.

History Book of the Year was awarded to ‘Auschwitz’ by TV film maker and producer Laurence Rees. Last year the BBC ran an acclaimed series of programs on the events of 60 years ago in the Polish town of Oswiecim. The accompanying paperback is an equally well researched and presented history, drawing on eyewitness reports and documentary records. The book leaves sentiment and judgement to one side and allows the abundant testimony from more than 100 interviews with both survivor and perpetrator to tell the true history.

Julia Niffenegger won the Popular Fiction Award for ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ and Newcomer of the Year Marina Lewycka won with her novel ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’. Both these highly original and literate novels engender fiercely contested and opposing opinions and consequently have found much favour with reading groups.

Writer of the Year was awarded to Diana Evans for ‘26a’, an ambitious and complex first novel investigating the life long nature of identical siblings – you’re never alone if a twin, even when one dies.

BRITISH BOOK AWARDS: all winners, all categories

Best Read of 2005 Labyrinth Kate Mosse

Book of the Year Harry Potter & Half Blood Prince J K Rowling

Biography of 2005 Extreme Sharon Osbourne

Children’s Book Ark Angel Anthony Horowitz

Popular Fiction Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger

Author of the Year Untold Stories Alan Bennett

Crime Thriller The Take Martina Cole

Writer of the Year 26a Diana Evans

Newcomer of 2005 Short History Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka

History Book of the Year Auschwitz Laurence Rees

TV & Film Book of the Year The Constant Gardener John le Carre

Sports Book 2005 Being Freddie Andrew Flintoff

Mothers' Day 26th March 2006

Modern Mothers Turn To Crime

For the first time since records began Catherine Cookson has dropped out of the Top Ten most borrowed authors from UK public libraries to be replaced by an increasing number of writers of crime fiction. The latest figures from the Public Lending Right (PLR) reveal three authors of adult fiction with in excess of 1 million annual borrowings each; Josephine Cox, Danielle Steel and James Patterson. Romance still dominates through Cox and Steel but Patterson heads a new posse of increasingly popular crime busters including Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs. The top three all have new hardback books published in time for Mothering Sunday; but what do you buy for Mother - bodice ripper or body ripper?

Most-read author Josephine Cox returns with the same cast of characters from her previous Number One bestseller, The Journey. Blackburn lass Josephine writes romance from the classic Cookson school, compelling sagas spanning generations and continents. ‘The Journey’s End’ charts the progress of Vicky Maitland and Lucy Baker as their paths diverge and cross after the death of Barney Davidson.

In stark contrast to the traditional northern England rags-to–riches formula, Danielle Steel writes transatlantic padded-shouldered fiction. In ‘The House’ her power-dressed Californian heroine moves from riches to yet-more-riches as she follows her dream of buying a grand old house and restoring it to its former glories. This is Steel’s 66th bestseller, giving her over 500 million books in print.

Romance writing and Crime Fiction are two sides of the same coin; romance is the pursuit of dreams while crime stories are the stuff of nightmares. In his latest Women’s Murder Club thriller James Patterson immerses the reader in an action packed, tension racked, inescapable bad dream. In ‘The Fifth Horseman’ a psychotic killer is on the staff at the city hospital and picks off the victims when they are most vulnerable, most expecting of help and least prepared for foul play. Patterson propels the action at breakneck speed – each chapter barely a page long – leaving his audience angst ridden and breathless.

This week sees the paperback released of Kathy Reichs' latest Dr Temperance Brennan crime thriller ‘Cross Bones’. Reichs is a real-life forensic anthropologist and uses her detailed knowledge and experience to great effect in this double-barreled investigation into a recent death in Montreal and a 2,000 year old skeleton in Israel/Palestine.

Reichs has created a fiction from a true event – the finding of a skeleton by archaeologists which may be that of James, brother of Jesus. The facts of this find may prove stranger than the fictional Holy Blood Line fables of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Kathy Reichs' Cross Bones. We don’t have long to wait to know the truth as the archaeologist concerned, Dr James Tabor, publishes ‘The Jesus Dynasty’ on April 3rd this year.


This review was first published on 24th March 2006. The copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

Cumbrian History from Roman times. 17/03/06

Stand on the cliff top next to the Senhouse Museum at Maryport, at the site of the Roman Fort, and in these pre-Robin Rigg wind-farm days you will see the Solway and the Criffel much as a Roman sentry would have 2,000 years ago. The artifacts saved and displayed in the museum tell us not only that Romans were here but also which Romans and when. The carved statues and altar stones provide us with some of the earliest building blocks with which to construct our history, a reconstruction of past events begun as early as the 16th Century with the Senhouse family’s collection of Roman finds and continued to this day by the Trustees of the Senhouse Roman Museum and associated volunteers.

The Trustees have recently reprinted the 1997 publication ‘Roman Maryport and its Setting’ and also its sequel, the 2004 publication ‘Romans on the Solway’. The earlier volume contains a history of the Maryport Roman Fort and its environs from 1st to the 4th century, with additional chapters on the Roman regiments stationed here, and others on the sculptures and the stone altars found. The book is beautifully and comprehensively illustrated with black and white photographs and line drawings.

‘Romans on the Solway’ concentrates on the military legacy of the Roman occupation, in particular the coastal continuation of Hadrian’s Wall by means of milefortlets and wooden tower emplacements. There are additional chapters on the Geophysical Survey conducted on the Fort and Vicus site between 2000 and 2004, and a record of the archaeological activity at the Roman Cemetery, Beckfoot.

Both books have been collated with great care and attention to detail by the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society (CWAAS) whose latest publication brings the story of our history forward by 1,000 years.

‘Norman Rule in Cumbria 1092 – 1136’ by Richard Sharpe began life as a lecture to the CWAAS in April 2005 and is now reproduced as an 80 page pamphlet. Sharpe’s ‘early building block’ is the single surviving Pipe Roll from Henry 1st’s reign which records the taxes due from Westmorland and Cumberland to the crown. This roll is the first national document still in existence that relates to Carlisle and its district.

Fast–forward 1,000 years to the Second World War. The same process that inspired Legionnaires to record their tenure at Maryport also inspired internees to paint and draw on the walls of prison Camp 103: Moota. The urge to save and display those roman relics by generations of the Senhouse family is alive today in the efforts of the Kirkgate Museum Group who have published the story of Moota and its artwork. ‘Moota: The Story of a Cumbrian Prisoner of War Camp’ by Gloria Edwards has rescued from the past those temporary, transitory images; saving and displaying them for future generations in an extraordinary collection of photographs and reminiscences

Stand on the Solway shore at Beckfoot and share the same view as the Roman mourners who gathered to inter the remains of family and comrades 2,000 years ago and witness history being written. The Maryport & District Archaeological Society, under the auspices of Oxford Archaeology North, are currently digging and cataloguing the site of the Roman Cemetery. The strong local tradition of preserving and celebrating our heritage is alive and well. Watch this space.



This review was first published by the 'Times & Star' 17th March 2006. The copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

BROKEBACK Mt, CONSTANT GARDENER, IN COLD BLOOD, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. 10/03/06

The Oscars 2006

Kiera Knightley or Rachel Weisz? Jane Austen or John Le Carre? This year’s crop of Oscar nominated films owes a lot to adaptations from successful books. Last Sunday night the Oscar Ceremony threshed the wheat from the chaff, the winners from the wannabes. The famous red carpet has been rolled up for another year and the winners have departed gleefully clutching their Oscar statuettes, the wannabes licking their wounded egos.

And the winners are … Annie Proulx for Brokeback Mountain, John Le Carre for The Constant Gardner, Truman Capote for In Cold Blood, and Arthur Golden for Memoirs of a Geisha.

The screenplay for ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is adapted from a short story of the same title by Annie Proulx. Proulx’s previous bestselling and prizewinning novel, The Shipping News had already been successfully transposed to the silver screen. Brokeback Mountain is a short story – just 30 pages long – in a collection of tales sharing the theme of life, and death, on the open range.
The same ruggedly beautiful writing is ever present; Proulx transports the reader to the wide open spaces of Wyoming and plays the drama out against a backdrop of mountain ranges and rivers, with a cast of horses, lonesome cowboys and coyotes.

Le Carre is also no newcomer to film adaptations; just as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was infused with the spirit of the cold war so The Constant Gardener is also driven by zeitgeist. Le Carre uses the thriller format to paint a passionate condemnation of Western interference and indifference in contemporary Africa. With echoes of Graham Greene, Le Carre cleverly twists a plot between the two extremes of personal and global politics; drawing the reader into the personal, emotional drama and simultaneously exposing the rank hypocrisy endemic in the developed nations’ underdevelopment of Africa.

How closely should a film duplicate its written source material? Adapting non-fiction books for the big screen is inherently more problematic than adapting fiction – doubly so when the writer chooses to tell a true story as a novel. Truman Capote investigated the slaughter of the Clutter family as a reporter for the New Yorker Magazine yet you will find In Cold Blood on the fiction shelves in bookshops and not with the true crime. Whatever its provenance the book is rightly considered one of the great classics of 20th Century American literature. Gripping and chilling, In Cold Blood holds a mirror up to American society and values – and by extension our own – to reveal an appetite for casual, callous violence, and an unhealthy obsession with fame and celebrity.

‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ is a book of fiction which pretends to be autobiography, allegedly written by Sayuri, Japan’s one-time principal geisha. Arthur Golden, a Harvard graduate in Japanese studies, has created a stunning and credible work; beautifully written, opening up a formerly closed world with accuracy and empathy. In his acknowledgments Golden pays homage to Japan’s real life premiere Geisha, Mineko Iwasaki who was in many ways the model for his heroine Sayuri. Mineko has subsequently written her own memoirs, ‘The Geisha of Gion’, providing us with more insight into the Geisha world and also another angle on the creative process linking life story, biography, fiction and film.

These reviews were first published by the 'Times & Star' 10th March 2006. The copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

Val McDermid THE GRAVE TATTOO. Feb 2006

Mutiny on the Bounty - Did Fletcher Christian return home?

Local folklore is as formative in our imagination as fells and lakes are of the physical landscape. Cumbrian fell-lore binds us to the place we inhabit; nourishing our sense of self with a rich diet of local tales that play out against a dramatic backdrop of ancient rock and water.

In her 1999 novel, ‘Isabella’, Fiona Mountain chose romantic fiction as the vehicle to retell one of the most enduring mysteries of these parts; the supposed return from death in the South Seas of the Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and his relationship with Isabella Curwen of Workington Hall. Best selling author Val McDermid reworks the same material in a different genre in her latest crime thriller, ‘The Grave Tattoo’. Torrential summer rain erodes a fellside to reveal the preserved remains of a tattooed corpse that might or might not be that of Fletcher Christian himself.

Both books take as given a bedrock of facts upon which they deposit layers of supposition and rumour to create their own fictional landscapes. Fletcher Christian was cousin to Isabella Curwen, who in due course married another cousin, John Curwen. Fletcher Christian was a school friend of William Wordsworth who joined Fletcher’s brother Edward in publishing a defence of Fletcher’s actions. The reports of Fletcher’s death on Pitcairn Island are contradictory and no body was ever found. There are documented contemporary sightings of Fletcher in England post mutiny by Peter Heywood, yet another cousin and one time member of the Bounty crew. Edward Christian, a solicitor of some considerable means, left no will – possibly enabling his brother to inherit anonymously.

Val McDermid’s heroine in ‘The Grave Tattoo’ is a Wordsworth scholar and firm believer in the notion that Fletcher returned to Cumbria. Furthermore, she believes he came back specifically to persuade William Wordsworth to tell the mutineer’s side of the Bounty story, which he did in the form of an epic poem. However, Wordsworth could not publish in his lifetime under risk of execution for harbouring a mutineer, and so this work became a secret lost masterpiece, the search for which is the initial quest of the book.

By marrying the Bounty story and its associated folklore to the ‘Dove Cottage industry’ that mythologises the Wordsworths, McDermid has re-spun a classic yarn of uniquely Cumbrian fabric. As for the epic poem on the Bounty Mutiny and Fletcher’s return, it may well exist. Written by Wordsworth’s collaborator on ‘The Lyrical Ballads’, the poem is known today as ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


This article was first published by the 'Times & Star' February 2006. Copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

Cumbrian Christmas stocking fillers. 23/12/05

Top Ten stocking fillers (for less than £10)

These last minute presents, bought in haste, can be enjoyed at leisure over the holiday break.
1. Flimby’s Poet Laureate Ethel Fisher has published a second selection of Humorous Tales in Cumberland Dialect Rhyme, available in paperback (£5.99) or on CD (£4.99). This collection includes the classic ‘She’s nivver lived’.
2. This year’s surprise Christmas bestseller is ‘Does Anything Eat Wasps?’, 101 questions and answers from The New Scientist magazine. Wise, weird and wacky answers to such important questions as; ‘Why do geese fly in a V shape’, and ‘How long can I live on beer alone?’
3. You can conduct your own investigation into the above with the help of the ‘Cumbria Real Ale Guide’ (£3.95), compiled by the four Cumbria branches of the Campaign for Real Ale. Start with a pint of Yates’ in The Ship at Allonby and count the years it takes to get to The Gate in Yanwath.
4. How long can you live on Rum? If your family name is Jefferson the answer is nearly 300 years. ‘The Jefferson’s of Whitehaven’ by Brian Parnaby (£8.95) is an unofficial history of the trading dynasty from 1704 to 1998. The author has distilled this account from public records, both local and in the Caribbean, and fortified it with maps, copies of original documents, and photographs.
5. Black and white photographs dominate Jeff Taylor’s ‘Keswick: Then and Now’ (£7.50), all profits from which go towards the Wivell Bridge Appeal. This pictorial record of change spanning 100 years has two images on each page, past and present, both taken from the same vantage point. The most apposite are the two photographs showing a flooded Fitz Park and Bowling Club; the first from the 1930’s and the most recent from January 2005, a consequence of the same storm that swept away Wivell Bridge. Pictures of Keswick take precedence although the last chapter also includes some of the outlying villages; Borrowdale, Threlkeld, Braithwaite etc.
6. Borrowdale is the setting for a brutal garroting in ‘Murder in Cumbria’, (£8.95) a round-up of the usual suspects from the last century. Ian Ashbridge recounts 20 infamous cases from the beautiful county’s less attractive past; including the shooting of Percy Toplis, the alleged ‘Monocled Mutineer’.
7. If this subject matter is too unseasonal perhaps Laurie Kemp’s ‘The Ghosts of Cumbria’ (£6.99) will raise your spirits. The characters who haunt these pages include; The Hangman of Brigham, James Lowther, and the headless ghost of Hutton Hall. The lack of hard evidence and the anecdotal nature of these tall tales mean as many questions are posed as answered.
8. No such problem with the Cumbria Crossword Book (£4.99), which contains the answers in the back. Michael Curl has compiled Cumbria Magazine’s monthly crossword for years and here presents his favourite sixty puzzles to test your local knowledge.
9. Local images take pride of place in the Fir Press ‘West Cumbria Calendar 2006’ (£2.99). Although predominantly of Workington there are some photographs, past and present, from Flimby and Maryport.
10. And finally … a Christmas bestseller with a Christmas theme. ‘A Wayne in a Manger’ (£10) by Gervase Phinn is a collection of Christmas and Nativity Play stories form his bestselling Dales books. In the land of tea-towel headgear and cardboard angel wings, we meet the inn-keeper who fancied Mary, the baby Jesus whose head fell off, and the wise man who said ‘woof’.


This article was first published in the 'Times & Star' 23rd December 2005. Copyright remains the property of THe Derwent Bookshop.

WORKINGTON REDS, BYGONE WORKINGTON, MARCHON. 12/05

The past is another country, they do things differently there.’ Just how different is made clear by these new accounts of our local history; be it sporting, social or industrial.

Workington 1 – Manchester United 3. Just one of the many gems from ‘Reds Remembered’, Tom Allen’s excellent definitive history of Workington A.F.C. January 1958 and Workington’s Clive Colbridge scores in front of 21,000 at Borough Park to give the home team a 1 – 0 lead at half time, only to be sunk by a Denis Viollet hat-trick in the second half. Just weeks later that memorable team of Busby’s is tragically undone in the snow and ice of Munich. Tom Allen’s follow-up book to ‘The Team beyond the Hills’ mixes the dramatic with the routine to give a rounded comprehensive history featuring a chronological account of The Workington Reds since 1884, together with key players’ biographies and a shed full of stats. After two seasons of improving fortunes this timely book is an appropriate reminder of the long and distinguished footballing heritage in Workington, an ideal gift for every Reds’ fan.

The Workington skyline and town centre have changed radically in recent years. ‘Bygone Workington’ (volume 2) by Keith Wallace is a fascinating pictorial record of how it once was, from the 1880s to the 1980s. The book has more than 150 photographs including street scenes, team photos, works outings, school line-ups and buildings that are now long gone. There is no thematic structure or chronological order to the images which encourages the reader to progress through the book picture by picture. This demonstrates the diversity of Workington life, in work and at leisure, over that hundred year period; the clog shop on Pow Street in 1890, men digging for coal on the Quay during the strike of 1912, the John Peel Ales mural at the top of Wilson Street, a British Steel football team of 1968. In total there are more than 1,000 local faces for you to recognize.

On the coast, south of Workington, is the harbour and parish of Harrington, whose Local History Group has published its fourth review of ‘interesting happenings’ from Harrington’s past. This issue contains 20 articles on such varied topics as ‘The Harrington Wesleyans’, ‘The Lowca Light Railway’, and the ’Harrington Horticultural Society’. The group is to be commended for sustaining this programme of local publishing over a five year period and to such a high standard. All four volumes are well illustrated with photographs, reproductions of original documents and contemporary maps.

Still further south on the West Cumbrian coast is the former site of the MARCHON Chemical Works at Whitehaven. Former employee of 30 years Alan Routledge has compiled a detailed history of the company from its inception in 1939, through the merger with Albright & Wilson, to the final act of corporate vandalism by Huntsman in June 2005. It is a tale of initiative and innovation, of a skilled and dedicated workforce, of regional and national government intervention and retraction, and ultimately of duplicity and betrayal. In just 60 years MARCHON became an international leading player in its field, employing 2,300 at Whitehaven and many more world wide, only to be stripped of its customer base by foreign owners and finally reduced to nothing but rubble. ‘Marchon – the Whitehaven Chemical works’ contains many photographs of the staff employed over the years, telling the human side of this industrial tragedy. It is a sobering account of how even the biggest and most prestigious of large local employers can fall away, leaving nothing to show for its efforts but the memories of the generations who worked to make it a success.


This article was first published in the 'Times & Star' in December 2005. Copyright remains the property of The Derent Bookshop.

GREAT BRITISH SPORTING HEROES

With just sharks and mountainous seas for company Ellen MacArthur faced her challenges alone when in February 2005 she sailed her trimaran ‘B & Q’ over the finishing line to become the fastest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed. She shares the loneliness and the triumph with us in her book ‘Race against Time’, a large format, beautifully illustrated personal account written up as a diary. This is an exciting read. We are pulled along powerfully by the swift current of this race against the clock. In her own words she captures the drama, excitement, danger, joy and tears of a truly extraordinary achievement.

By definition Ellen MacArthur achieved her globe-spanning record by competing in the biggest arena of all. In stark contrast Frank Bruno conquered the world on a piece of canvas measuring 24ft by 24. His legendary long reach, however, went well beyond the ropes and struck the hearts of the nation. In his prime he rode the high tide of achievement and affection being both Heavyweight Champion of the World and contender for BBC Sports Personality of the year. ‘Frank – Fighting Back’ is Bruno’s own account of how fate and fortune have ebbed and flowed in life as well as in the ring. Sent to reform school at 11, World Champion at 33, and in a psychiatric hospital at 41, Bruno has ridden the wave of success and experienced the troughs of depression and despair. In this autobiography, part therapy and part rehabilitation, Frank is justly proud of his achievements and honest about his troubles. Despite his tabloid tribulations, the public always maintained an undercurrent of affection which has seen the book become an instant top 10 bestseller.

For nearly two decades English cricket had been all at sea, when suddenly an Ashes series win sees the England team surfing a tsunami of popularity. Amid the flood of Ashes souvenir books that have been published since the summer there are two that stand out; the autobiographies of the Man of the Series and that of the England Captain – Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan. In ‘Being Freddie’ Flintoff charts his progress from a school playing field in Preston to the Ashes victory celebrations in Trafalgar Square when tens of thousands formed a sea of adulation. Still a young man with his best cricket ahead of him, Flintoff’s book covers only a few years of playing but compensates with plenty of colour photographs, many from this summer. As the most successful England Captain for 20 years Michael Vaughan has more of a story to tell in his latest book – ‘Calling the Shots’. Vaughan delivers an enthralling behind-the-scenes account of his time at the helm - set to follow Clive Woodward's ‘Winning!’ as a bestselling tale of sporting triumph.


This review was first published in the 'Times & Star' on 11th November 2005. The copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

Patricia Cornwell PREDATOR, Martina Cole THE TAKE, P D James THE LIGHTHOUSE. 18/11/05

DEADLIER THAN THE MALE – THE BEST OF WOMEN CRIME WRITERS

When Dr Kay Scarpetta made her first Y incision in 1990, Patricia Cornwell carved out her own niche from the body of contemporary crime writing. ‘Forensic Fiction’ was born. ‘Predator’ is her latest Scarpetta thriller, featuring the usual cast exhuming the evidence as Cornwell dismembers the plot around them. Powerful storytelling and detailed forensic procedure are the hallmarks pointing to another bestseller. Having created the genre Cornwell must now endure the flattery of a host of imitators; Kathy Reichs, Tess Gerritsen, and Karin Slaughter among them. Patricia Cornwell was first into the autopsy room, however, and with her latest novel proves she is still a cut above the rest.

Martina Cole has also staked out her own territory. Martina’s manor is the London underworld, where there is honour among thieves and violence has the currency of cash. ‘The Take’ plays out in the same mean streets as her previous bestsellers and is told in the same brutish style. The sentences are short. And the clichés come thick and fast. Cole portrays a parallel world to our own, with inverted value systems and its own language. Those who break the criminal code are ‘well out of order’ and can expect to be ‘chivved’ with a ‘shank’. She mixes a strong cocktail of drug fuelled petty hoodlums and their codependent women into a plot laced with violent retribution, served up with strong language and louder-than-life characters. This heady brew is increasingly popular, Martina has had a succession of No 1 bestselling books in both hardback and paperback, and total sales of her books now exceed 4 million copies.

Of a previous Martina Cole novel THE MIRROR wrote, ‘It’s vicious, nasty and utterly compelling’. Of P.D. James THE SUNDAY TIMES wrote, ‘She is the greatest contemporary writer of classic crime.’ Cole and James are two highly successful female authors writing at the same time in the same genre, yet utterly different in content, style, and audience. ‘The Lighthouse’ is a Cornish set murder mystery featuring the poetry-writing police Commander, Adam Dalgliesh. The action centres on an imaginary island off the Cornish coast, a locale whose violent pirate and wrecker past has echoes in the contemporary tragedy. P.D. James vividly evokes a sense of place, an atmospheric backdrop against which her well refined characters struggle through the intricate plot. P.D. James is a national treasure; a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; a former governor of the BBC; a member of the Arts Council; on the board of the British Council and a serving Magistrate. She has received honorary degrees from seven British universities, was awarded the OBE in 1983, created a life peer in 1991, and elected President of the Society of Authors in 1997. Martina Cole lives in Essex.


This review was first published in the 'Times & Star' on 18th November 2005. The copyright remains the property of The Derwent Bookshop.

Alan Bennett UNTOLD STORIES, Sharon Osbourne EXTREME, John Peel MARGRAVE OF THE MARSHES. 28/10/05

Not one to miss an opportunity, SHARON OSBOURNE cleverly uses the X in ‘Extreme’ to highlight her X Factor fame. Sharon has not taken her rock promo genes for granted, but has pursued a high risk, high octane, self-made career. When your dad has managed Gene Vincent, the Small Faces and the gravy-train that was ELO, you have been handed a ladder in the business. Full credit to our Sharon though, she ditches daddy after two years and makes her own way. The book is uncompromising in revealing the bitterness in this father-daughter relationship. She displays a raw, in-your-face honesty in writing her story that mirrors the warts-and-all telling of her family life on TV in ‘The Osbournes’. And what a story – it reads like a rejected film script, too extreme to be believed; Ozzy’s drugs, his murder attempt (of her), her weight reducing surgery, near total face-lifting and body-sculpting, her managerial success, the hit TV shows (plural), and of course her widely documented battle with cancer. This is a woman who has taken what was given and used it to the most; she changed her body, her work and her life to make it the success it is.

In 1997 ALAN BENNETT was also diagnosed with cancer, and given a 50/50 chance. Unlike Mrs Osbourne, he chose not to wear his colon on his sleeve but he did use the experience to determine the final form of this collection of writings. The looming death sentence was a powerful creative laxative and purged all inhibitions from his system, he decided to publish everything. ‘Untold Stories’ is Bennett’s first collection of prose since ‘Writing Home’ and takes in all his major writings over the last 10 years. ‘Writing Home’ dominated the bestseller chart for 10 months, selling a quarter of a million copies in the UK and this collection will no doubt do the same. There is a joyful irony to be observed in the English language’s greatest champion of understatement telling ‘Untold Stories’ to such critical and commercial success.

For John Peel there was no death sentence to galvanise his writing muse. No warning for us either, John died suddenly from a heart attack. Peel had already been commissioned to commit his life to paper and had the job half done – his widow Sheila writes the second half of this extraordinary record of a much loved man and voice. Sheila Ravenscroft (John’s real name was Ravenscroft) was married to him for more than 30 years and has used her intimacy with the man and his memories to great effect. The beauty of John’s contribution is that he wrote exactly like he spoke; you hear him coming off the page.

Three very different people have recorded their lives and works in their own distinctive voices. Each book resonates with the unique sound of that author – and there lies their success; you don’t so much read these books as listen to them.



This review first appeared in the 'Times & Star' 28th October 2005. The copyright is owned by The Derwent Bookshop.

The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child, Charlie Cook's Favourite Book. 25/11/05

‘Where the Gruffalo Roam’

Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ chilled and thrilled the children of 20 years ago. His wonderfully weird, not-so-scary monsters have evolved and their direct descendent ‘The Gruffalo’ now stalks the imagination of the children of those children. ‘The Gruffalo’ by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler is a modern classic. It is a feel-good adventure story of a quick thinking little mouse who uses his wits to prevail against the multiple dangers of the Deep Dark Wood.
Children’s early literacy is founded on the three ‘R’s; Rhyme, Rhythm and Repetition, and ‘The Gruffalo’ excels as the perfect primer. Not only is there wonderful wordplay with repeated phrases and paraphrases but the structure of the narrative is perfection, the second half being a backwards retelling of the first – with a twist. There is perfect harmony between the rhyming verse and the action in the colourful, playful illustrations. Adults and children will delight in the out-aloud telling of this intelligent tale.
Child readers grow up and have children of their own and with fitting symmetry so do the characters in children’s books. It is six years since the first appearance of the Gruffalo and this Christmas sees the paperback publication of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. In a neat inverted retelling of the original, it is the Gruffalo’s child who must navigate the Deep Dark Wood taking care to avoid the mythical Big Bad Mouse. These are moral tales, where in the fight against fear, brain triumphs over brawn. The place where the really wild things are is revealed to be not some distant land, or even the pages of a book, but the imagination of the reader.
There is an expert interplay in Donaldson and Scheffler’s work between word and picture, between idea and the means to convey that idea. This self-referencing is taken to a new height in the brand new offering, ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’. Again their canvas is the boundless imagination of a child, this time represented by a dozen interconnected mini-stories within the main book. This enables the authors to introduce a varied cast of perennial children’s favourites, including a one-armed pirate, a fire-breathing dragon, little green aliens, and a headless ghost called ‘Underarm Alice’. Into this rogues’ gallery they introduce the notion that we can all enter the stories we read, so making the reading of a story as significant as the writing of it. The clever cyclical twist at the end of Charlie’s favourite book will guarantee children demand the story to be reread to them instantly, time and time again.
Donaldson and Scheffler credit their readers with imagination and intelligence and as a result they create wonderful, skilful books that excite, stimulate and delight. Highly recommended.

This review first appeared in the 'Times & Star' 25th November 2005. The copyright is owned by The Derwent Bookshop.

Rock & Hard Place, Gazza, Operation Certain Death. June 05

‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’ by Aron Ralston is the author’s true life account of surviving the aftermath of a climbing accident. Aron was hiking alone through a remote and rocky Utah canyon when a falling boulder trapped his arm. After five days of alternating hope and despair Aron devised a solution as effective as it was shocking. Employing a cool logic reminiscent of the ‘cutting–the-rope’ incident in Joe Simpson’s ‘Touching the Void’, Aron severed his trapped arm using a penknife. He tells his extraordinary tale in present tense diary style, supplemented with verbatim transcripts from his video diary. The immediacy and intimacy generated by this writing technique make for a compelling read, drawing us in on a personal level until we are there, trapped with him. This is an inspiring account of how a young, active, outdoor loving man was forced, while in solitary desperation, to consider and take extreme measures to save his life. (paperback £7.99)

From the solitary climber to the team player – from physical mutilation for survival to self-destruction while enjoying the heights of fame and fortune; ‘Gazza: My Story’ by Paul Gascoigne is the updated paperback edition of Hunter Davies’ award winning collaboration with the flawed football genius. The book rightly won the ‘Sports Book of the Year’ at the British Book Awards as well as universal critical acclaim for its honesty. Gascoigne’s appeal broke out of the football world and into the national psyche at large when he was pictured giving his all for England, tears streaming down his face, kissing the three lions on his shirt. The footballer’s biography has raised its game in recent years with some excellent books that have faced up to the vulnerability of their male leads. ‘Gazza’ joins ‘Addicted’ by Tony Adams and ‘Full Time – the secret story of Tony Cascorino’ at the top table of must-read football books. (paperback £6.99)

The third book examines the exploits of another team of professionals; but these guys don’t play games. ‘Operation Certain Death’ by Damien Lewis is billed as ‘The Inside Story of the SAS’s Greatest Battle’ and details the 1999 mission to rescue captured British soldiers held deep in the African jungle. Out numbered 5 to 1 the SAS, SBS and 1 Para attacked the stronghold of the rebel group ‘The West Side Boys’ and with daring, ingenuity and courage pulled off the most spectacular special forces operation since 1945. Lewis conducted extensive interviews with the men involved, both hostages and special forces, to construct this 650 page blow by blow account that takes the reader on a nightmare journey into the heart of darkness. Lewis writes with real journalistic skill, simultaneously chronicling events and pacing the unfolding story like a Freddy Forsyth thriller. (paperback £6.99)

This article first appeared in 'The Times & Star' June 2005. Copyright is owned by The Derwent Bookshop.

Celebrity Cook Books: Jamie, Rick and Nigel. 09/12/05

LOCAL, SEASONAL & FRESH
The basic ingredients for this season’s successful cookery TV are a ‘celebrity’ chef and a foreign, photogenic location; Jamie Oliver serves it up in Italy, Rick Stein in France and Keith Floyd in China. If you are a fan of Jamie, Rick or Keith then you will find a lot to enjoy from their lavishly illustrated, garnished-in-colour books.

In ‘Jamie’s Italy’ Jamie Oliver acknowledges his debt to his Alma Mater, the ‘Riverside Café’ of Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray. These two were among the first wave of contemporary chefs to seek out the fresh, seasonal ingredients essential to authentic Italian cooking and ‘Jamie’s Italy’ echoes their sentiments and philosophy. In his introduction Oliver is explicit: ‘Good cooks only champion local, seasonal and fresh produce’. Considering his association with a leading national supermarket one suspects that Jamie wants to have his panatone and eat it too.

Rick Stein is another personality chef who knows all the right things to say regarding local, seasonal and fresh. Indeed Stein’s previous ‘Food Heroes’ books championed exactly those qualities in regional suppliers around the UK. ‘French Odyssey’ charts Stein’s aquatic and gastronomic exploration of the French Canal network, a double helping of eye-pleasing rural landscapes and mouth-watering recipes inspired by his travels. Both Stein’s and Oliver’s books are beautifully produced and look gorgeous enough to eat. Just how local, seasonal and fresh you can be with these sunny Mediterranean recipes when you spend December in Egremont or Flimby is a moot point. These books are snapshots, still frames from the moving images of the television series, and the pictures naturally take precedence over the text. The temptation is to forego the cooking and consume the books instead of the real thing.

Nigel Slater, author of ‘Real Food’, is the real thing. His ‘Kitchen Diaries’ record his daily culinary chores throughout one calendar year, an audit trail that proves he walks the talk; we witness him buy fresh produce, in season and sourced from local markets. Slater’s mantra is ‘the right food in the right place at the right time’, so he actively avoids the ‘all year round’ availability of the supermarkets. Instead he favours the local farmers’ markets and quality specialist butchers, fishmongers and delicatessens. He claims loudly and proudly in his introduction: “I have honestly never set foot inside a branch of Tesco.” This is a beautiful, honest book; part recipe for the season and part recipe for life – part gastronomic guide, part gastro-manifesto.

Annette Gibbons is a professional cook who has used the experience of her ITV Border series ‘Home Grown’ to provide the raw ingredients for her book ‘Home Grown in Cumbria’. Annette showcases and celebrates the local producers of fresh quality food in Cumbria. If Nigel Slater has motivated you to track down real food then Annette has provided the roadmap. In addition to the recipes, her well researched, beautifully illustrated book contains a directory of where to buy the best food that Cumbria has to offer. This home grown publication is more than equal to the glossy heavyweights of Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein – Annette’s is the better book for being the genuine champion of local, seasonal and fresh.

This review first appeared in 'The Times & Star' 9th December 2005. Copyright belongs to The Derwent Bookshop.