Li’l Pops Saves Christmas by John W. Ashbrook (2023)

   Back from a few days hiding out in Cornwall, Li’l Pops Saves Christmas was a lovely way to squeeze the last bit of the festive cheer out of the holiday and inspire some actions for the New Year.

   John is a friend from many years back when he lived and worked locally.  He moved back “up North!” but we still communicate through the magic of social media, and the conversations still feel very much like the continuation of the ones we started all those decades earlier, which is special I think.

   Anyway, John writes and publishes a Christmas story most years and sends them out like other folk might drop you a greetings card.  And that’s a bit special as well.

two from previous years

   This year’s is the adventures of Li’l Pops on his Allotment that Time Forgot as he saves Christmas from the crows, with an assortment of animal helpers.  It’s an amusingly quirky but traditional tale, done entirely for fun and the satisfaction of doing it, I imagine.

   I’m not sure if the A5 format makes it technically a zine but they live on my zine shelf and I find them every bit as inspirational as all the other small publishers out there, that are just doing their own thing and getting their words in front of folk in a very tangible kind of way.

   So, a very heartfelt and public thank you for these festive tales John, they have become a bit of a tradition in their own right, and I really should reciprocate, although I don’t think I have it in me to write something that’s as nice.  I would aim for funny, bounce of cynical and most probably end up in the kind of dark place that makes me laugh and others raise their eyebrows questioningly.  Which doesn’t mean I won’t give it a go! It’s not like I haven’t got a year’s lead time.

Pep Talks for Writers by Grant Faulkner. Read by Greg Tremblay. (2017)

    Pep Talks for Writers is my last completed Audible for 2023

   This motivational book for writers was free on Audible to members and I’m always up for a bit of free advice when its offered.  It’s presented in 52 short chapters, with none of them longer than 10 minutes and most coming in at around 5.  It’s very clearly written and read and is very much designed for dipping in and out of.  And what I really liked about it was that the advice is simply offered and not dictated. Try the things it suggests or don’t.  It fully acknowledges that there is no one single way to write successfully and that each person must find their own methods.  I don’t think there is anything particularly groundbreaking in here but its good to hear some of these ideas voiced out loud and to ponder them over the washing up or while engaging in other daily tasks.  I suspect a lot of the advice would compliment most creative endeavours and so it’s an encouraging support system for the arty types.  As such I can see me dipping back into this from time to time to refresh my motivation or to try out a different creative tactic.

Hell Train by Christopher Fowler (2012)

   Hell Train is one of my last completed reads of 2023

   Imagine a Hammer Horror film that never existed and that’s what this story is.  I’m not being exceptionally perceptive here, that is the basic conceit of Fowler’s novel, where we are first introduced to Shane Castle, the jobbing script writer who is given a few days to come up with a workable treatment for the ailing studio.  Most of the rest of the book is that story, presented to us as prose, or the novelisation of the would-be film, as it were but we do revisit Castle’s higher reality intermittently and in order to give the novel something like a denouement of sorts.

   It’s entertaining enough for the most part, but it ultimately suffers from being too successful at what it sets out to emulate.  The novelty of the idea wears off after a while and you are then left with all the failings of a late in the season Hammer horror film. That is; a series of predictable set pieces, played out in a predictable manner. It probably outstays its welcome by a scene or five and makes absolutely no effort to add anything unexpected or unusual into the mix.  So actually, the book is quite a skillful interpretation of that movie genre, faults and all.

   For me this was a chance-buy for a quid from a charity shop the week before Christmas and there is something very right about a horror story at this time of year so I’m happy to have read it but its not a keeper by any means.

   In truth I’m not that big a fan of the Hammer horror films anymore.  The blood n boobs, was a bit of a rights of passage on late night TV in my formative years but they no longer retain a cosy nostalgic allure for me as they do for some.

   If someone wants to do another Quatermass story or even a sequel to Moon Zero Two then I would be down with that but I’m guessing that is never going to happen. In the meantime, I’ll find a suitable recipient for Hell Train because the right person is going to love it.

The Magus by John Fowles (1972)

Big Listen 2023 

The Magus

Written John Fowles. Read by Nicholas Boulton

Published - 1965 (revised1977) Audible – 2012

Audible / digital download

   Let’s start with a slight confession. I don’t like large books. That is to say; I don’t like books with large page counts. Anything much past 200 pages is going to stretch my patience and good will.  This is probably because I read quite slowly, although quite thoroughly, and unless it’s got a high ideas to page ratio then its going to get put down about two weeks in.  I will always promise to pick it back up again soon but there are books that are now almost 10 years pending!  This has become more pronounced the older I get and seems to be centred around fiction rather than biographies or factual books.  That means there are a lot of novels that I’ve always wanted to read but their size dictates that I will almost certainly never get round to them.

   Now The Magus has been on my TBR list since the early 1990s, when I started working in my first bookstore and was exposed to the entire top selling fiction back catalogue. I think I was first drawn to this one by its enigmatic title, an arcane word for a magician. Not in a Paul Daniels kind of way but rather more like John Constantine in the Hellblazer comics.  It also came very recommend to me by a colleague, whose tastes and appreciation of authors like J G Ballard and Ian McEwan matched my own.  But nothing happened back then because it’s a brick of a book. And with a back cover blurb that only teased the general direction of the plot, rather than offering a clear indication of the story, it just kept getting passed over.

   And then I got audible. And it popped up again, free to members at the time and its 656 pages seemed somehow less intimidating when presented as a 27 hours listen.  Yes that’s still a lot of time but daily chores melt away with a good book in your ears and there’s a never-ending supply of that.  So, I finally gave it a go and I’m very glad I did. The Magus may not only be one of the finest written books I’ve ever encountered but it may also be the most beautifully narrated as well.  I’m actually grateful that my own dithering has meant that this is how I first encountered the story.

   So, what is it about then? Ok, the back of a fag-packet plot is this. Nicholas Urfe, a young and arrogant misanthrope, reluctantly takes a teaching job on a small Greek Island in order to escape England and himself.  While there, he becomes entwined in the psychological gameplay of Maurice Conchise, a wealthy recluse and enigmatic trickster figure.  A chess game of discovery begins, and the stakes get progressively higher as the truth becomes more obscure. Beyond those mechanics, it’s really about relationships and identity, truth and belief but nothing is dictated only ever left for the reader to pick up on… or not.  There are some folks that will tell you it’s boring, nothing happens and the ending in inconclusive. I’m very much of the opinion that its sublime and encapsulates life. It’s also just a little bit meta, which I’m always drawn to.  Its powerful stuff on the page but in the ear it becomes something much more magical.

   At which point I better now call out the narrator; Nicholas Boulton, because his is a contribution way beyond simply reading the words.  His voice is authentically that of Nicholas.  He makes him real and so makes the experience of listening feel like an actual conversation between the fiction and the reader

   And here’s my justification for that statement.  I started listening to The Magus in England and then took it on holiday to Menorca to finish it off. I thought the complementary climate would add to that of the story’s and bring a little something extra to the experience.  But after only a couple of days I had to stop and read something else as it actually became all too heady a brew.  That first-person narrative, written so eloquently by Fowles and embodied so perfectly by Boulton, placed the thoughts and motives of Nicholas Urfe directly in with my own. And so sitting in the immersive heat with the dry air, the smells and noises of the island all around me, the walls of reality began to feel just a little too porous. The anger, confusion and general emotional state of the character began to mix with my own.  I’ve been emotionally engaged by books before but this felt like a possession.

   I finished it in the airport and on the flight home, surrounded by plastic, air-conditioned cool air and hundreds of other people.  I still felt like I lived the end but at least the experience was only one way.

Steve.