VIII by H M Castor

Behind the image of Henry VIII
review by Maryom

We all know about Henry VIII, or think we do - the piggy-eyed chap with the many, many wives, who spent his time chopping off heads. But do any of us stop to wonder how he turned out like that? This is exactly what HM Castor sets out to do in VIII.

Starting with a small boy hiding in the Tower of London from the rebels trying to dislodge his father from the throne, this novel traces the influences on Henry and their possible impact on his character - his father's tenuous hold on the crown, his upbringing as 'spare' rather than 'heir' and his sudden catapulting into prominence upon the death of his brother, Arthur.

The period and characters are brilliantly brought to life in a way never allowed in a non-fiction book. Telling the story in the first person from Henry's point of view lets the reader get behind the politics and power struggles of the time and see Henry as a person - just one who happens to grow up to be king.

An outstandingly readable account of Henry's life - I was hooked from the start. Admittedly it's written for Teens but I'm sure any adult who found Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall just too long and demanding would love it as well.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Templar
Genre - teen, historical fiction

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Cynan Jones - Author interview - Everything I Found on the Beach

Following on from Maryom's review of Everything I Found On The Beach by Cynan Jones, Cynan has kindly agreed to an interview.

 
His first novel, The Long Dry, was published in 2006 and went on to win a Society of Authors' Betty Trask Award. It was subsequently translated into French, Italian and Arabic. He was nominated as the Hay Festival Young European Writer for the Scritture Giovani project in '08. His second novel, Everything I Found on the Beach, was published earlier this year.

Short stories have also been published in anthologies and journals, and in 2004 his children's story 'The Piano Player's Hands' was one of the winners of Richard & Judy's Winning Stories - a national TV competition.

 

In a BBC interview you said that if you hadn't got published in two years then you would have had to get a 'proper' job. What age were you when you set this timetable and at what stage in your life?

I'd made the decision at twenty two that at twenty eight I'd give myself the two years. People make the mistake of believing that because we've talked from a young age we can write. We can't. It takes learning and practice - much like playing the piano or learning to mix paints. So between twenty two and twenty eight I worked as a freelance copywriter in Glasgow. That knocked the writing into shape. I returned to Wales at twenty eight. The Long Dry came out, Hollywood fashion, just as the time was up.

What jobs have you worked at?

I've been a supply teacher, builder's labourer, kitchen porter, freelance copywriter, wine presenter. I've worked in a wine shop. I've worked in an aquarium and animal kingdom, given out leaflets on the street. I've worked as an AD on film sets, and for three years as a tutor in a children's behavioural unit. Among other things.

One of the characters in Everything I Found On The Beach expresses their disgust at the waste in meat processing within the UK and how that waste cannot even be consumed by employees within the factory. Is this waste something you have strong feelings on?

That happens in the book because it (constantly) happens in reality. The strong feelings come against the commercial remits forced on producers, mainly by supermarkets, and the continual artificial setting of prices that dupe people into shopping at them. The system as we have it prevents a small community from being able to sustain itself with the goods it produces locally. Happily, a degree of the meat that would otherwise be wasted does make it out of the door (illegally) but doesn't go to waste.

The processing methods in the meat factory seem to be covered in some detail - is this something you researched or have you actually been involved in some way?

This was researched, but also simply absorbed through spending time around people who work in the abattoirs. You also learn a lot from farmers.

The fisherman seemed to feel, not only a lack of job satisfaction but also a disconnection from life when working in a factory. Do you feel factories are somehow 'evil'?

Once you have to feed towns and cities - which are incapable of feeding themselves - they are a simple, economic imperitive.

The character 'Hold' catches and prepares the fish and we are told a lot of the detail of the processes. Do you fish?

I fish, but I am not in it for the fishing if that makes sense! I set nets, put out pots, and fish from my kayak. But that's about feeding myself and the people near me.

'Hold' also shoots rabbits for the pot. Do you feel we should all source our own meat?

That's not feasible. I feel we should all stop going to supermarkets and instead buy meat from local butchers.

Do you have more novels planned and can you tell us anything about them yet?
The first draft of the next novel is on the desk and I'll work on it after Christmas. It centres on a sheep farm, a man who baits badgers for a living, and the story of an Italian intern sent to work on a West Wales farm during the Second World War. It's called Traces of People.

Our thanks go to Cynan and we wish him every success, not only with his current books, but also his future projects as well - we look forward to seeing them on the shelf.

Lost Christmas by David Logan

Magic in Manchester
review by Maryom

Last Christmas, Goose had a happy loving family and the best present ever - a puppy! This Christmas could not be more different - his parents have died in a car accident, his nan is slipping into a bizarre world of her own and now his dog, Mutt, has gone missing. Then on Christmas Eve a mysterious stranger turns up wandering the streets of Manchester. He can't remember his own name, which may or may not be Anthony, but seems to have the answers to everyone's problems. There are many things that need to be fixed though before he can help Goose find Mutt. And can even Anthony help Goose regain all the things he's lost in the past year?

This is another instance when I'm reading the book before I see the film. Adapted by David Logan from the screenplay he co-wrote, due to air this Christmas, Lost Christmas is a wonderful heart warming story that brings the magic of It's A Wonderful Life to modern Manchester. There are many poignant, tearful moments, though, along the way so have the tissues ready. Will there be a happy ending? Well, it is a feel-good Christmas story, so maybe there will.

Lost Christmas is aimed at children but I think will appeal to grown-ups just as much.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Quercus
Genre - 10+

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Lost Souls: The Cube of Asgard by Kevin Oxland

Psychic adventures!
Review by The Mole

Spencer keeps having episodes, when he loses his temper, where strange things happen and he blacks out. These episodes are getting worse when he is taunted by a stranger and his dog to enter an old building, a building his grandmother forbids him to enter. Like all young boys such warnings add to the curiosity and with a friend from school, Frankie, they get whisked off to some remote place with no way to return home.

Will this be their undoing and how will what is happening to Spencer help him?

I would start by saying that the early stages of the book are very unlike the latter. During the early part I truly wanted to keep giving the author a swift kick! The reason is he was using plot devices that appear in other books - books that I have read - and when I read a book I want to read something new. So why did I read on and not just throw it to one side? Well there was something behind it that was just his, but in the early part it's not very obvious. When he gets into the swing of story telling, telling his own story, then he tells it well and the plot moves quickly holding your interest and attention and leaves you waiting for book 2. I do hope though that we don't see the errors that I felt existed in Michael Scott's "Nicholas Flamel's" stories.

The books to which I refer have now mostly been published for ten or more years, books that I read to my daughter as a child, so today's young reader may not see the reference but I recommend that when reading this book you should have a rag doll beside you and each time something that reminds you of another book annoys you then stab the doll with a pin! This should help to remind the author to plough his own furrow because he can do a good job when it's all his own.

A most enjoyable story and a different ending, one that came as a surprise to me!

Publisher - Peachstone Publications
Genre - Childen's, Fantasy

Buy Lost Souls: The Cube of Asgard from Amazon

Resistance by Owen Sheers

Futile or not?
review by Maryom

One morning in September 1944, a few days after the Germans invade Britain, Sarah Lewis and the other women of the Olchon valley in a remote corner of Wales wake to discover that their men have left sometime during the night. The only clue to their whereabouts is a discarded pamphlet, found in a cowshed, outlining tactics for guerilla warfare. The woman resolve to keep their men's disappearance a secret and to work the farms themselves but the situation changes when a German patrol arrives in the valley on a secret mission. Led by war-weary Captain Albrecht Wolfram, looking for a place to sit out the remainder of the war away from the front line, they take up residence in a deserted house and settle themselves in. Cut off from the war first by location, then by the snowdrifts of a harsh winter, the women are won over by the soldiers' helpfulness and stop seeing them as the enemy. An uneasy alliance is forged, of growing friendship and possible romance, but can it be maintained when the outside 'real' world intrudes?

Set in an alternate World War 2 where, following the collapse of the Russian army and the failure of the Allied D-Day landings, the German army has turned its sights on Britain, Resistance examines the changing relationship between two small groups of people - the female Welsh inhabitants and the male German intruders. Sheers takes us into their hearts and minds, presenting the reader not with two stereotypical groups but individuals with differing attitudes and reactions - from those quick to build new friendships to those opposed to the enemy at all cost. The strength of Sheers' writing comes from his ability to portray moods - of the harsh yet beautiful landscape or of people caught between their emotions and duty - the reader can feel the tension building, the moments when a misplaced word could tip a situation either way.

By placing the story in an unreal past, Sheers underlines its timeless relevance. Is there a right or wrong response in such a situation? Are the soldiers just ordinary men caught up in something beyond their control or a deadly enemy to be opposed to the bitter end?

I tracked Resistance down through the library as I wanted to read it before watching the film. I half expect that many of the subtleties will have been lost - the plot concentrating on the main story-line between Sarah and Albrecht, and the varying reactions of the women being lost. I hope not.

I've read other reviews which have said the ending is ambiguous. I didn't find it so myself.
My only slight criticism would be that I wasn't convinced that anyone would maintain their voluntary isolation for so long - surely a lack of tea, coffee, soap and other essentials would have won out?

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars

Publisher - Faber&Faber

Genre - adult fiction, war

If you've read and enjoyed Resistance, try White Ravens, Owen Sheers' re-imagining of the Welsh folk tale of Branwen daughter of Llyr

Pack Men by Alan Bissett

Not Just For Football Fans
review by Maryom

2008 - Rangers are playing in the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester and hoards of their fans are travelling south to join in the party and watch the match - if not actually in the stadium - then on the next best thing, the huge screens erected around the city centre. Not a situation to end calmly. Among them are old friends Alvin, Frannie and Dolby - and Dolby's young son, Jack - on a mini bus packed with fans from Falkirk, for a lads' day out come reunion.

This has unfortunately been languishing for too long on the TBR pile as I'd picked it up, had a quick glance and dismissed it as a novel about football hooligans - oops, I should take a bit more care before I decide to write something off.

The story centres round Alvin, the only one of the group to leave Falkirk. He's been to university, now lives in Edinburgh and dreams of being a horror writer, how can he fit in with his old mates? From the first page the reader feels him wincing at being surrounded by the sectarianism and pack mentality of the bus's other fans. While he tries to hide his discomfort and blend back in for the day, it becomes apparent that he has a bigger secret that he doesn't want to share with even his closest mates.

Against this compelling story background Alan Bissett explores themes of sectarianism, belonging and how we are defined by class and/or religion. Read it for the surface plot or the thought provoking deeper issues - whichever, it's really enjoyable. Just don't make my mistake and reject it out of hand. Pack Men is not just a book for football fans - I've never watched a game in my life!

Warning - it is an Adult novel and sexually explicit.
Since reading pack Men, I've discovered it's effectively a sequel - the main characters appear in a previous Bissett novel, Boyracer, set about 10 years before. It's obviously not necessary to read this to enjoy Pack Men but I think it's now one to track down and see what additional insights it brings.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Hatchette Scotland 
Genre - Adult Fiction

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Time Traveller Sarah Lacey by Elizabeth Dye

Time travel can be addictive!
Review by The Mole

Sarah is frightened of water and is attending special swimming classes, which she dreads, when she is contacted by Anniz, a time traveller, who recruits her to travel to the further past, an area he cannot reach. Sarah expects to see great great historical events but instead is thrown into events that bring her face to face with some of her greatest fears!

This book in the series looks at some of the working conditions and ways children were treated in industry - namely mining. While the author makes it plain how terrible conditions and treatment were she doesn't set out to frighten her target audience of 8+  readers, but simply to ensure that they are horrified without being reduced to tears!

While the book is informative - and that fact must not  be ignored - it is not at the expense of a well told story that will be enjoyed by its reader just as a simple fiction book. An extremely good balance of story telling and education for the 8+ readers and one that they will thoroughly enjoy!

Maryon read and enjoyed "Alex McLean - Time Traveller by Morag Ramsey" in the same series.

Publisher - Seven Arches Publishing
Genre - childrens 8+,historical, sci-fi

Buy Sarah Lacey Time Traveller from Amazon