incorporating writing

Issue 3 Vol 3 FESTIVALS

Festival season is upon us again: Save us from WI groups and apathy

Debbie Taylor - Michael Ondaatje - Jeffrey Archer Exclusive

Incorporating Writing Contents (ISSN 1743-0380)

Editorial Team Page Editorial Managing Editor Festival Highs and Lows 3 Bixby Monk Fiona Ferguson digs in for the Festival season. Guest Editor Chaz Brenchley Interviews The Queen of Literature 13 Articles Editor Rebecca Moor talks with the novelist and Fiona Ferguson founder of Mslexia, Debbie Taylor

Interviews Editor Michael Ondaatje 21 Andrew Oldham Felix Cheong talks to the author of ‘The English Patient’ Reviews Editor G.P.Kennedy Jeffrey Archer 27 From disgraced peer to best selling Columnists novelist of 2006, we get behind the man Andrew O’Donnell and the author. George Wallace Dave Wood Articles Sharon Sadle Bigger than cheese, us! 7 G. P. Kennedy has a wry and somewhat sly Contributors squint at the fiction factory of UK literary Rebecca Moor, Felix Cheong, Sam Festivals. Morris, Clare Reddaway, Mark Cantrell, Linda Benninghoff, Helen Shay, Caroline Drennan The Right Man 30 Sam Morris returns with an intriguing Design parallel between rap and and SF Marsh Thomas Novelist, A. E. Van Vogt

Contact Details Columns http://www.incwriters.com Degrees Of Freedom 11 George Wallace gate crashes a Incorporating Writing is an imprint of The Incwriters Society (UK). The magazine is managed Nick Johnson reading. by an editorial team independent of The Society’s Constitution. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or part without permission of Cubicle Escapee 25 the publishers. We cannot accept responsibility for Sharon Sadle reports from unsolicited manuscripts, reproduction of articles, somewhere in the USA. photographs or content. Incorporating Writing has endeavoured to ensure that all information inside the magazine is correct, however prices and details are subject to change. Individual contributors Reviews 35 indemnify Incorporating Writing, The Incwriters Society (UK) against copyright claims, monetary claims, tax payments / NI contributions, or any Competition 45 other claims. This magazine is produced in the UK.

© The Incwriters Society (UK) 2005 News and Opportunities 49 3 incorporating writing

Festival Highs and Lows

Editorial by Fiona Ferguson

audience, to see and hear writing; catapulting us back in time to writing’s archaic oral origins. Like a rather confusing game of charades, the book finds itself centre stage.

Originally hailing from Liverpool, where everyone is a performer, I have always taken it for granted that words are not just to be read, but to be heard, spoken, acted out, or sung. As demonstrated by Liverpool’s recent Writing on the Walls Festival, the performance element is still It was, of course, a deliberate, calculated very strong here: the spoken word slam, decision on my part to join the featuring rap and interactive poetry from Incorporating Writing editorial team in local artists was absolutely electric and time for festival season. Hey- everybody the film extravaganza proved to be a likes a good party. And that is what massively successful event this year. festivals ultimately are: a collective, Writers, even the most well-known, are public celebration and mingling of all perhaps the most hidden of the creatives, things literary: books, scripts, stories, so propelling them into the public arena, poems, plays, people, ideas, debate, as festivals do, can be a most intriguing discussion and words, words, words. circumstance. Anyone who has been to Festivals are exciting as they give us a the glorious Hay will be familiar with this chance to experience the many strange phenomenon as the place dimensions of writing; thrusting it from suddenly crawls with literary heavy- the silent page of the sole reader into weights, emerging from under the wholly different arenas; readings, reassuring thick covers of their latest performance, poetry recitals, drama, hardbacks and blinking in the limelight, music, slamming, jamming, story-telling, like a gang of celebrity moles on the with the last few years increasingly annual outing. It is particularly showing an emphasis on film; writing for extraordinary and inspirational to witness both the big and the small screen. literary giants reading their latest opus: Festivals allow us, as a collective Ian McEwan sending shivers down my incorporating writing 4

spine reading from a then unpublished beyond the shores of the UK, but perhaps ‘Saturday’ at last year’s Hay, and if I play my cards right here, I’ll be able witnessing a first reading of ‘On Beauty’ to blag a few Press passes to Bologna, or from Zadie Smith (whom I later splashed Montreal All in the name of professional with Stella Artois in the beer tent, by way development and research, of course. of expressing my appreciation. But then, Incorporating Writing is, in essence, a it was a festival, after all. Rock and roll ) mini online festival in itself; a monthly Although celebrity-spotting at the Hay is textual exposition of writing in all its vari- a most diverting pastime, festivals are eties, so it gives me great pleasure to join not just the realm of the already famous, in with the celebration. I hope to bring to however, but also function as a brilliant its large and disparate audience an platform for new styles, new ideas and equally absorbing and singular display of new talent. In recent years, at Birming- features as grace the stages, tents and ham’s slick, modern Book Festival, I have workshops of our lit fests. There may be been dazzled by writing talent old and no spotlights, beer tents or thunderous new; particularly enjoying last year’s applause but I hope that the quality of Poetry Slam event, featuring the breath- writing and the insights offered within taking wordsmithery of Birmingham’s may earn a kind of silent, internal accla- Poet Laureate Dreadlockalien. A personal mation. And there are, still, the literary highlight from 2004 was the performance luminaries; in this issue Felix Cheong of two radio dramas from two amateur gains an audience with both Jeffrey writers, both being mentored through the Archer and Michael Ondaatje. Sam Mor- West Midlands writing agency Script. This ris’ exploration of the competitive and excites me as they are revealing new pugnacious nature of slam poetry’s word- generations of writers. As GP Kennedy warfare. reveals in his article, the UK enjoys one As of this issue I will be taking over from of the world’s most prolific and colourful Andrew Oldham as Articles Editor. Andrew literary scenes; hosting more literary will now be solely concentrating on edit- festivals and events from John o’Groat’s ing the Interviews section, so please feel to Land’s End than you could shake a free to contact me for any article que- stick at (or I than can wax lyrical about in ries, ideas or pitches. The next issues are this editorial, or even begin to hope to ‘Playwrights & Critics’ followed by ‘The attend). Literary festivals are taking place American Beat Trail’. Looking forward to across the planet, from Sydney to San- hearing from you! tiago, as perhaps the most engaging and collective way of experiencing writing. I [email protected] am yet to make it to a literary gathering [email protected] 5 incorporating writing 1 RedInk 1 RedInk

Subscription Form

Name Address

Email Telephone

I wish to subscribe for

1 Year £4.00

2 Years £7.00

Single Issue £2.00

Please note that all cheques must be payable to The Incwriters Society. Red Ink is governed by the The Society’s constitution, further details can be found on The Society’s homepage at www.incwriters.com.All cheques must be returned with subscription form to, Red Ink, c/o 10 Bottoms Fold Cottages, Micklehurst, Mossley, Lancashire OL5 9NH

I understand that Red Ink is PDF magazine (electronic format) and that I will receive it via email twice a year (Summer and Winter), and that as such, I must keep Red Ink up to date with any changes in my email, this can be done so by emailing [email protected]. Neglecting to keep Red Ink up to date with my contact details and email will result in me not receiving the magazine.

Signed Print Name Date

All monies received go towards the running of the magazine and Aim and Objects of The Incwriters Society. 7 incorporating writing

Bigger than cheese, us! Article by G. P. Kennedy

Bath in December, one can indulge in a panoply of festivals the year round. Geographically the scope is no less broad, covering Orkney to St. Austell with many familiar and downright odd stops along the way (my favourites conveniently staged both in March; Wakefield’s International Festival of Mountaineering Literature, and London’s non- expectorating Spit-Lit).

“Other big beasts variously engaged in conversation, reading, answering questions, and generally oozing sagacity”

A quick Google search for ‘UK Literary Visiting a lit fest gives one a rare Festivals’ will return an eye-straining opportunity to hear the great, the good 2,940,000 different results: a similar and the blandly average of the literary search for ‘UK Music Festivals’ garners firmament, ask questions of them, the deafening roar of 35,700,000 interact with like-minded individuals and different results; while a third search perhaps even spot the ever-decorous along similar lines, for ‘UK Cheese Hanif Kureishi (starring at this year’s Festivals’ offers the delectation of Guardian Hay Festival, 26 May – 4 June) 2,190,000 different results. So, while it spill sponsor’s coffee down the front of his would be folly to suggest that UK literary crisp white shirt. Other big beasts festivals are the new rock ‘n’ roll, they are variously engaged in conversation, certainly prevalent and well covered, and reading, answering questions, and most definitely bigger than cheese. generally oozing sagacity, include Zadie From January in Glasgow, (a chilly Smith, Joan Bakewell, Clare Short MP, prospect to drive even the most Joanna Trollope, Germaine Greer, logophobic to a book-laden fireside) to Margaret Atwood (all appearing at the incorporating writing 8

lady-laden Guardian Hay); intriguingly vauntor or vaunted. Let us assume, be- Chuck Palahniuk engages Irvine Welsh in tween you and I, that we are visiting a lit tete-a-tete, while prototypical grumpy old fest this summer, together if it so pleases man and self-labelled ‘contrarian’ you. Is it your first? Probably not. Let us Christopher Hitchens comes over all abandon all memories of festivals gone Thomas Paine (Brighton Festival, May 6- by, years passed, and slip into the lit fest 28); Joanne Harris willfully and possibly fold afresh. deservedly continues to milk Chocolat Literary festivals will conjure up images, and Louis Theroux gets The Call of the for many, of confidently righteous Wom- Weird (Belfast Festival at Queen’s, en’s Institute members attending a vil- October 19 – November 4); Matthew lage fete: the well-heeled trying desper- Parris is joined by political stable mate ately to impress the vicar with their ex- Ann Widdecombe, the never knowingly cellent home baked cakes and secret unirritating John Hegley, the recipe pots of jam; barrages of men sin- pleonastically non-effervescent Will Self, gularly bent on displaying their large and unless my eyes very much deceive vegetables. One is put in mind, also, of me or the website is misdirective, an especially poor episode of Midsomer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (all gone west Murders wherein one overly ambitious for the Swindon Festival of Literature, author does away with another, in a bat- May 2-13); Lynne Truss has eaten, shot tle of book readings. I believe it is an and left the Bath Literature Festival unwritten law that John Nettles appear at (March), while Edinburgh (August 12-28) every lit fest in the UK, mainland and and Cheltenham (October 6-15) are still islands (of course). focusing the coruscating lights of their star turns at the time of going to press. A literary friend of mine takes a dyspeptic view, “I find the whole concept [of festi- What is it really like? That is the question vals] a little disturbing. All these people that needs answer; the nub of the issue. are gathered in the idyllic summer sun- No two festivals, of any form, are alike (I shine (no rain could ever dampen a liter- went to Glastonbury five years out of six ary festival) waiting for you to amaze in the Nineties and the only constant was them with the beauty of your prose and the consistency of the toilet pits below your sparkling delivery. No pressure then! the shoddily erected cubicles that owed You are rated as a person as much as for much to the designers’ evident fixation your fiction”. with Blue Peter). So how does one go about typifying the lit fest experience? Then there are the critics, most often Well, I guess that depends which side of metro sharks sharpening their false teeth the festival one is on, punter or punted; on the literary krill, removing their den- 9 incorporating writing

tures for the big fish – the phrase ‘suck- as the occasional unseen desperado slips ing up’ has never been so aptly applied. by a side door to transact. This is all show Inevitably they are ill clothed for the with intermittent punch. The implicit nu- event and its location. The brogues ances of the spectacle are accepted by (shoes not accents, of course) are not and on all sides; the sellers must prance wholly suitable, the corduroy jacket a and hawk, they must always be ‘on’, they little too heavy, the Cowell-esque trousers must be ready to engage with their audi- chafing a little bit in the heat; or maybe ence at all times; the potential purchas- their well cut suit and high heels are of- ers hope the sellers know that most of fering similar problems. The school cir- them are there for a free look, to judge, cles, PDAs at the ready, plastic pretend size up, determine whether Shop Window pen poised for panning. A is what they expected, decide that Writer X has aged a lot lately, and on and ever on – veni, vidi, excessi or some “Literary festivals will con- such. jure up images, for many, of confidently righteous This is a view of the archetypical literary Women’s Institute mem- festival, a goggle into its often gaudily bers attending a village dressed and illuminated shop widow. fete” maybe lit fest, bigger than edam cheese in little Britain.

Let us not forget our WI friends writhing at the romantic fiction readings; short- listed authors soft-focus posing by trees, all wind-in-the-hair and lit-celeb bravura; the writing groups wannabes, destined for mediocrity or less: so much to avoid, so little time. For me there is much to be said for this middle England view of liter- G. P. Kennedy is Reviews Editor for Incorporat- ing Writing and a freelance writer of ten years ary festivals. However I think there is also standing. Having slaved successfully in the corpo- a broader context in which to see the lit rate arena for seven years he turned his writing gifts and skills to the literary world finding time to fest. I am thinking Amsterdam red light review and write articles for a number of serious district. The initial visual experience is newspapers and lofty lit mags, and complete the MA Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan somewhat shocking, and most certainly University. After living a transatlantic life for a overwhelming, as people cast a voyeuris- couple of years, mainly between Manchester, England and the independent state of Texas, he tic swathe over narrow corridors of shop has decided upon a relative settling down in windows, judging every book by its cover, Liverpool with the loves of his life. The Sea

a poetry tour, with Pat Milner Ian Borthwick Place Parks + Special Guest Poets & Writers Dates Announced 17th May 2006 Pat Borthwick, Ian Parks + Andrew Oldham Everyman Bistro, Liverpool 8.30PM £1-£3 25th May 2006 Ian Parks & Milner Place Manchester Central Library 1:00PM Free 28th May 2006 Ian Parks + Special Competition Guests Mossley Music Festival 7:00PM Free 3rd July 2006 Pat Borthwick, Ian Parks & Milner Place Bradford Literature Festival 8:00PM TBA Beehive Poets see brochure 6th October 2006 Pat Borthwick, Ian Parks & Milner Place + Lytham St Anns Library 12:30PM Free Peter Lewin Further dates to be announced later in 2006

For further information visit www.incwriters.com Image courtesy of Dan Lyons http://www.daniel-lyons-photography.com/ 11 incorporating writing

Degrees Of Freedom

Column by George Wallace

ing up the pocket-size volume of poems published by Bright Hill. ”Well it sure is little!” someone shouted from the audience. ”True,” retorted Johnson. “But as the Greek philosopher said, Big book, big nuisance!”

It was a typical moment for Nick Johnson, self-targeting, luring his audience in with a pained smile, and then turning neatly en pointe to new vantage. Size aside, Johnson has nothing to be embarrassed by in what he reveals in his new book. Because for all the pained intimacy, we find plenty of big enough moments in the poems of Degrees of Freedom. Allow me to say that Nick Johnson is no stranger to repartee. At least that was my Big as the death of a loved one. Big as impression after attending a reading he the recognition that you may just have conducted from his newly released book the same faults that your alcoholic father Degrees Of Freedom (Bright Hill Press, had. The author treats us to utterly com- 2006) at Tribes Gallery in Manhattan on pelling moments of nicely fractured logic Easter Sunday 2006. Tough evening to and understated ribbing, both of the audi- draw a crowd. Nonetheless there was ence and himself. From the bartender Nick, cruising happily through a series of who asks you a loaded question and then self-revelatory poems of deep wistfulness neatly slips away to the monkey pounding and black and blue humor — serio-comic at his typewriter who has nothing kind to stuff of honest autobiographical origin — say about the humans who have put him eliciting laughter and pained gasps by in that position. turns, when he abruptly stopped and held up the book. It is telling that Johns prefaces the 38 page volume with this quote from Aldous ”I can’t recall if they say size matters Huxley: The sum of evil, Pascal remarked, or size doesn’t matter,” he quipped, hold- would be much diminished if men would incorporating writing 12

only learn to sit in their rooms, if only Degrees of Freedom is one of those rare because the work is at least part caution- books in which it is hard to find a page ary. Nick Johnson has had to swallow the without a great line on it. horse of experience, it seems, and so far he’s lived to tell about it. There’s a subtle complexity underlying much of Johnson’s poetry, but on the How do you swallow a horse? One bite at surface it frequently posses a terrible a time. Thus, one bite at a time we are clarity as he shines his searing light on introduced to Nick Johnson’s world. We’re some tough issues: alcoholism, sexual asked to tag along as he revisits the pain, betrayal, death by cancer, or more simply horror, dada-bemusement and quest for mornings that are not mornings at all, self-knowledge of his journey. At times merely ‘the beginning of the same old Johnson eases us into it with tongue-in- day.’ cheek aplomb, as in Facts of Life: “It takes 32 feet of rope to hang the average With this book Nick Johnson has managed man. In Kansas that’s a fact. Do you be- to amplify our understanding of the lieve marriages are/ happier and longer in ‘shadow and bone’ of experience, the Orlando?” trauma and the pain in the deeds men do, inside and outside of their room. The In Poor Company, a bartender asks him poems are mordant as hell — but made why the long face? Because his wife has palatable and frequently irresistible by just died. “I don’t know why/ he asked. I virtue of the author’s twinkling wit. don’t know why I told him./ Maybe I was glad. Maybe I didn’t have a wife.../ Maybe That’s the kind of compelling self-report- I didn’t tell him/ my wife died.” age most writers in the post- confessionalist age can only hope to ap- In his monologue-poem One Of The Mon- proach. keys, he teases us along. We find Johnson answering the often-stated tru- ism ‘put enough monkeys in a room’ by George Wallace, author of eight chapbooks of poetry, editor of Poetrybay www.poetrybay.com, taking the monkeys’ point of view (“...It’s co-host of his own weekly poetry radio show a play/ Shakespeare wrote back in the old www.wusb.org, and was the first poet laureate of Suffolk County, New York. A regular performer in days/ they want us to write again. So New York City, he frequently tours America with we’re writing a play we never read. They his poetry. Internationally, his work has been read in Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, and particularly in keep inviting/ strangers to watch and the Italy and the UK. His work has been translated strangers say,/ ‘they wrote to be or nutti into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Korean, Bengali, Russian and Macedonian. Latest collec- to be!’...”) tions include Burn My Heart in Wet Sand and Fifty Love Poems (La Finestra Editrice, IT). 13 incorporating writing The Queen of Literature Interview by Rebecca Moor

“We think it will be easier to re-invent ourselves in a new place – and we are probably right” incorporating writing 14

Debbie Taylor trained in psychology and Do you visualise your readers as was employed as a Medical Research predominately female, or do you feel Fellow before going to found Mslexia. that the male perspective of Martin Whilst living in Botswana, she was initi- (‘Hungry Ghosts’) and Microphilus ated into the local Batlokwa tribe, which (‘The Fourth Queen’)expands the she wrote about in The Guardian. She has appeal of your novels? been the Editor at New Internationalist, I tend to assume my reader will be she has written for UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, female, because women read twice as and wrote their major State of the many novels as men. But I have been World report series. One of these – The really pleased by how many men have State of the World’s Women – was pub- sought me out to say how much they like lished as book (Women: A World Report, Hungry Ghosts. Actually I find writing Methuen), with additional contributions from a male point of view much easier by Germaine Greer, Angela Davis, Nawal than when I’m writing about my female El Saadawi, Buchi Emecheta and others. characters. I think it’s because I don’t She has written for the BBC and Channel identify with them so much; I’m more Four. Her documentary, With These detached from my own autobiography Hands, won the UNEP Prize at the and obsessions when I’m thinking myself Ecovision film festival. into a male character, which makes it easier to give my imagination free vein. She has wriiten the novels The Children who Sleep by the River, The Fourth Queen Both your novels centre around an (Penguin) and a book of short stories A escape; why do you think this Tale of Two Villages. My Children, My Gold appeals to readers? (Virago) – was shortlisted for the Fawcett It appeals to me! On several occasions in Prize for women’s writing. my life I’ve packed a suitcase and headed In March 1999, she launched Mslexia, off to live in another country: Botswana, which has a readership of 14,000. in my twenties; then the Greek island of Karpathos in my thirties. If it wasn’t for Her latest novel is Hungry Ghosts (Pen- my family, I’d probably be living in Crete guin). right now – and I certainly spent a lot of time there writing Hungry Ghosts. Barbara Trapido maintains that writers need a place where they can step outside their normal lives, rather as prophets used to go ‘into the wilderness’. Moving to Botswana, where I lived in a mud hut and was initiated into the local tribe, was my 15 incorporating writing

way of catapulting myself out of my historical fiction is rather akin to writing career as a psychologist – and into science fiction. Both are based on another kind of life, where writing and the educated guesses about what life might imagination would be much more central. have been like, developed from My move to Karpathos was prompted by incomplete assemblages of facts. a similar urge to get away from my normal life in order to concentrate on my writing. “Another piece of advice: don’t get hung up on the I think this is a fantasy lots of people beginning of your novel” share, which is why there are so many programmes on television about ‘a place in the sun’. We think it will be easier to But it was tremendously difficult book to re-invent ourselves in a new place – and write, because whenever I went back to it we are probably right. For Sylvia, in after setting it aside for a month or two – Hungry Ghosts, escaping to Crete allows as most writers have to do in order to her to rediscover her more creative and earn a living – I had to ‘upload’ all the adventurous childhood self. historical information into my brain all over again. Did you prefer creating the eighteenth century setting of ‘The From that point of view, Hungry Ghosts Fourth Queen’ or the more recent was much easier to write. I had already backdrop of ‘Hungry Ghosts’? researched infertility and miscarriage in Once I had got over my tentativeness (it the course of my own experiences. My was so difficult to get good information psychology training taught me something about that period in Morocco), I had great about depression. I’ve spent time in fun imagining life in the harem in various communes, so life in the Matala Marrakech. But I was continually dogged Caves was easy to imagine. And I’ve by the fear that some expect Moroccan spent lots and lots of time living alone in historian would denounce me publicly for run-down houses on various Greek my portrayal of the intimate details of islands married life in that eighteenth century Islamic country – many of which I had to If you have future novels planned, extrapolate from my travels in will these also incorporate the dual contemporary third world countries. perspective of your first two novels? What inspired you to use two In the end, though I did a huge amount perspectives? of research, I concluded that writing Actually I’ve written three novels. My incorporating writing 16

first, The Children who Sleep By The the end of your story, then come back to River, was about witchcraft and childbirth the beginning and consider throwing in a Zimbabwean village and used four away your first three chapters In my perspectives. But you’re right, several experience most new writers start their perspectives is a feature of my work – novels far too early in the action and and novel I’m planning will also use spend far too much time scene-setting. several voices.

I think this technique creates a kind of “Yes, of course. It’s three-dimensional psychic world, because impossible to read widely you see the characters from all sides, as and NOT be inspired” it were. I write very intimately about my characters, even in third person, which limits the scope of the narration: the What else? Plug yourself into the writing reader can only know what the character community in some way, by joining a knows. With a more distant third person class or a writing group, going to a viewpoint, an author can comment on festival, signing up for a writing course. things none of the characters is aware of. It really helps to meet other people in Having several points of view is a good the same boat, and to see what kind of way of circumventing that restriction thing other people are writing. If you without compromising the closeness of possibly can, go on an Arvon course. the characterisation. These one-week residential courses, in wonderful surroundings, taught by You have written articles and run experienced tutors, really can change workshops on the mechanics of lives (www.arvonfoundation.org) creative writing. What advice would you offer to aspiring novelists? Subscribe to Mslexia, the writing I am a great believer in the RIRO magazine I edit. It’s full of advice and philosophy. Rubbish In, Rubbish Out. I opportunities for writers. think this applies especially to writers. So (www.mslexia.co.uk) my first piece of advice would be to read only wonderful exciting writing. If you Both your novels were inspired by steep yourself in good sentences it will true events; eighteenth century become, in time, impossible for you to kidnappings in ‘The Fourth Queen’, write a bad one. and a newspaper report about a boy discovered ‘living with dead Another piece of advice: don’t get hung animals’ who evolved into the up on the beginning of your novel. Get to character of Martin in ‘Hungry 17 incorporating writing

Ghosts’. Other inspiration evident in for an image that satisfies me. At the ‘Hungry Ghosts’ seems to be drawn same time I am often working in the op- from your own ‘escape’ to Africa and posite direction, to cut down my use of your fondness for the traditional life adverbs and adjectives by finding good in Botswana. Do you ever draw verbs to use instead. inspiration from other writers i.e. from fiction not fact? “I find writing endings em- Yes, of course. It’s impossible to read barrassing. They always widely and NOT be inspired. The work of seem so trite” really good authors makes me itch to go and create something myself. I’m always on the lookout for writing techniques I The colours blue and orange are prin- can steal and apply in my own work. cipal features of your latest novel. Do Sometimes – for my own amusement – I they hold any particular significance write pastiches of other authors’ work, to for you personally and what would see for myself how it’s done. But this is you like the colours to convey in the all about the craft of writing, not the novel? subject matter. I didn’t realise those two colours were so prominent – though it’s inevitable that the I think the subject matter comes more colour blue would feature in a place like from my own passions and obsessions, Crete! and my own experiences. Running all through the book is a contrast I particularly enjoyed your use of between black and white and full colour. simile and metaphor in ‘Hungry This is expressed in lots of ways: in Ghosts’, for example the internet’s Sylvia’s clothes; her house in Newcastle; ‘trails of illuminated blue cotton’ and in her photography; in her black and your description of applying lipstick white moral stance. It’s one way I try to which likens it to a mangle. Do you portray her personality, her need to con- have to work at using similes and trol her world. metaphors, or do the images present themselves spontaneously? So colour is the antidote, as it were, a Thank you! One of the real pleasures for symbol of the journey she needs to take: me as a writer is finding a really apt hand-tinting the photographs; using metaphor or simile – and, yes, I do work primary colours in the house; embracing at that. It’s a challenge I enjoy hugely the complex moral issues of her own and I can spend half an hour searching bereavements and Martin’s confession incorporating writing 18

Many contemporary novelists choose keep referring to your research while to set their stories in the Greek you’re writing, there is a danger that the islands. What do you think appeals to facts will take precedence over the story writers/readers about Greece? you need to tell. You won’t be able to For me it’s to do with generosity, beauty resist putting in that irrelevant detail that and simplicity: the Greeks are so took you three weeks to uncover welcoming; they create beauty out of such simple things (flowers, red paint, How do you think the internet has whitewash) – and the food is both basic affected the writing industry? and delicious. It has also been, The main effect has been access to the historically, a very inexpensive place to cornucopia that is Amazon. And instant stay – and writers are always short of access to information about publishers, money! agents, grants and prizes. I know the Society of Authors is worried that access Sylvia’s character embarks on a to books on line will undermine authors’ journey of self-discovery when she income, but I can’t say that it has moves to Crete. Do you think that affected me yet. creative writing should lead the author to explore aspects of What would you say was the themself? message you want to convey through I think it’s inevitable. Writers tend to have writing ‘Hungry Ghosts’? a finite set of issues that they write Three messages, really. The first is about about, repeatedly, in different guises and magic and the supernatural. I think not setting. These issues fuel the engine of believing in the ‘paranormal’ is as much creativity; they’re what keep us going. an act of faith as believing; and that our And they are always personal, on a very lives are so much richer if we allow for deep level. Obsessing about these things the possibility of things we cannot is how writers keep sane. I believe that’s explain. The second, related to the first, the reason we feel such an urge to write – is about the lack of ritual in our secular because we need to keep exploring those society. There are so many events in our issues. lives these days that pass without being marked: the loss of an unborn child – by How important do you consider miscarriage, elective abortion, infertility – research to be when writing a is one of the most obvious, but there are fictional work? many more. I think we need to pay due My motto is: do the research, lock it away respect to our losses (and our joys) and while you write the book, then check your seek forgiveness from those we have facts when the book’s finished. If you wronged; that’s what the Hungry Ghosts 19 incorporating writing

ritual is about – the donation of food to end before you started writing it? unknown spirit entities – and that is I find writing endings embarrassing. They emblematic of the whole book, really. The always seem so trite. So I tend to leave third, alluded to elsewhere in this them open, regardless of how I think they questionnaire, is about moral relativism; ‘should’ end. In Hungry Ghosts, both what Martin refers to as ‘”and”, not “or”’. Martin and Sylvia have to make peace This is the critique of black/white thinking with the people they’ve wronged before that runs throughout the novel, that they can get on with their lives. In this argues for every case to be considered in sense, I knew that would happen and was its own context, and judged on its own working towards it as an ending. As for merits. I think that Martin is to be whether they end up making a life to- forgiven – but many readers disagree gether, that seemed to me to be a ques- with me! tion for a different book. So I left it delib- erately vague. I want people to make up You are involved in editing, writing their own minds, and the readers groups articles, haven written a non-fiction I’ve been visiting have been full of argu- book and two novels. Which do you ment about whether Sylvia should go think has been your biggest chal- back to Martin or stay with Bennett. It lenge? was the same in The Fourth Queen. I (Three non-fiction books, actually – and want people to ask themselves what three novels ) Oh, that’s a hard one. The Microphilus should do when he finds out Fourth Queen was incredibly difficult to that Helen is carrying his child. write because I was trying to write, look after a baby and run a publishing com- Both novels are about personal growth, pany all at the same time. The challenge about the emotional journeys the charac- comes not so much from the writing it- ters have to make. I want my readers to self, as from the things that get in the embark on those journeys with the char- way of the writing: earning money; cook- acters and I hope, by the end, that they ing supper; picking up my daughter from will know what happens next. school. Now she’s older, things are a bit easier, but I still felt burnt out by the time I’d finished Hungry Ghosts – getting up at dawn; writing through every holi- day for two years And I’ve decided now Rebecca Moor is a first year student of English Literature and French at the University of Ches- to give up my day job and concentrate on ter. After completing her degree, Rebecca hopes writing full time – in penury! to pursue a career in publishing. She is currently working as an intern for Incorporating Writing; the interview with Debbie Taylor is her first Did you decide how your novel would contribution to the magazine. Advertising here is cheaper than you think

For further information email: [email protected] www.incwriters.com 21 incorporating writing “I’m not sure how stories are made yet”

Michael Ondaatje: Waiting For Guests

Article by Felix Cheong incorporating writing 22

You gaze into his sky-blue eyes and part poetry and part non-fiction, the book watch him tousle his wiry white hair ab- challenges traditional notions of the sent-mindedly. You notice his olive-col- novel. He followed that up with equally oured skin and listen intently as his voice complex works: In the Skin of a Lion, rounds vowels in a distinctively British Coming Through the Slaughter and of accent. course, The English Patient. It was adapted by director Anthony Minghella And you’re immediately drawn to and into an acclaimed movie that swept nine paradoxically disoriented by Michael Academy Awards in 1996 and grossed in Ondaatje. excess of US$78 million. For the celebrated Canadian writer, re- In spite of such fame and fortune, nowned for his 1992 Booker-Prize-win- Ondaatje remains humble and very much ning novel The English Patient, is charm- down-to-earth, as The Edge Singapore ing in a way that defies easy categorisa- discovered in a chat with him recently in tion of country and race. Indeed, the 53- Bali where he was the main draw at the year-old candidly describes himself as a Ubud Writers’ Festival: “mongrel” of mixed blood that includes English, Dutch, Tamil and Sinhalese. His “I’m not sure how stories are made yet, writing too crosses borders and genres but I begin with a kernel, a grain of sand, seamlessly, at once all poetry and prose. an image perhaps. With The English Pa- tient, it was a man in a bed talking to a Born and brought up in Sri Lanka, nurse. I’d write about why he was there. Ondaatje was the child of prominent Was he alone in the plane crash? Who members of Ceylonese colonial society. was he? His father was a tea and rubber-planta- tion superintendent while his mother I have no idea how it’d connect up but performed part-time as a dancer. gradually, it builds up, like pieces of crys- tal, and you create a character. So what In 1954, Ondaatje moved to England with happens is that the book goes forward his mother after his parents separated. but you yourself are going backwards and After attending Dulwich College in Lon- researching. don, he went on to attain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Canada. It’s like archaeology. You’re digging to Ondaatje became a Canadian citizen in find the bodies and why they’re there and 1962. how they had died. It’s probably an un- healthy way of writing; so don’t try this With his 1970 publication, The Collected at home! Works of Billy the Kid, Ondaatje came into critical prominence. Part memoir, Some writers know exactly what they’re 23 incorporating writing

going to do when they write a book. But if etry simultaneously but now, it’s become I knew what I was going to write, I’d be difficult. It’s either one thing or the other. bored! I also learned a lot about writing through I’m waiting for guests, in some way, to film. Film affected me in how I edit my come in. It’s interesting to keep the doors books, in the care and precise way you open all the time so somebody else can edit the frames. enter the story. I don’t know what the I was happy with The English Patient [the characters are going to say but I just film] but at the same time, it was not my create a conversation and then see how it book. I like Minghella well enough as an goes. artist and I knew it had to be different. I Whatever you’re interested in, in your wouldn’t want to sit through two hours of life, at that time, and the kind of world a patient talking to a nurse! you’re in, comes into it. [For instance,] I Winning the Booker Prize was important didn’t know that the character Kip [in The to me because it allowed me freedom to English Patient] was going to be in the write full-time. Being celebrated [as a book until halfway through it. I didn’t writer] has a lot of positive things about even know that Hana was Hana until it. You can meet people you need to about 30 or 40 pages into it. meet. Not socially but when you try to This is why the process of rewriting and work on something or do some research. editing becomes twice as important. It’s At the same time, you do lose your pri- like making a documentary. You don’t go vacy. You try to keep a balance. So I usu- in there with a preconceived idea to prove ally don’t do many interviews!” that x is bad and y is good. You discover what the story is. You discover the ideas in the art of writing. Things like the theme – you understand it only at the Felix Cheong was the recipient of the National end. Arts Council’s Young Artist of the Year for Litera- ture Award in 2000. His three books of poetry are I actually began as a poet. What I like Temptation and Other Poems (1998), I Watch the Stars Go Out (1999) and Broken by the Rain about poetry is that it’s an intimate whis- (2003). The latter was shortlisted for the 2004 per. So when I write prose, I take the Singapore Literature Prize. He has also published a motivational book, Different (2005), which was best in a poem. You don’t say everything. commissioned by the National Youth Council and You don’t need so many bridges. You includes interviews with more than 50 successful Singaporeans like singer Kit Chan and entrepre- make the book as tight as you can with- neur Charles Wong. out using too many words. Felix Cheong was a featured writer at the Ubud Writers’ Festival held in October. His trip was I used to be able to write prose and po- funded by the National Arts Council. incorporating writing 24 25 incorporating writing

Cubicle Escapee

Column by Sharon Sadle

remote cabins, taking side trips to slot canyons and whatever else i could cram into long weekends. though i’ve had the grandest time in colorado, in retrospect, i’ve lived it up a bit too much to leave not feeling torn, undone and broke (which, i’ve decided, should be considered part of the adventure).

my friend tom, the one who has headed the mississippi trip effort so far, is now officially a skipper after completing a safe boating class and talks in short gasping As the june 1 launch date of my 2300 breaths about all things river and boat. he hundred mile trip down the mississippi also shared a few stories that made me river crowds in on the fun i’ve been hav- keep, for now, the rest of my part of the ing in colorado, i’m getting set to endure boat money safely close to my breast, another series of goodbyes, another two namely pulling a guy’s tooth in exchange week notice at one more job and another for a gun. though i didn’t get any details pack up everything i own scene. maybe that made sense over our always sub par some day i’ll be accustomed to the pick phone connection, i’ve decided to throw up and go routine. for now, it’s weighing my cautionary pauses aside and proceed heavily, giving me shadowy dreams and along. with or without money, broken causing reconsideration at every turn. my heart or a hundred percent enthusiasm, advice to anyone trying to make a work/ i’ll take my one way ticket and backpack travel/repeat cycle a success: work hard. and soon be heading to meet tom in work really hard at two jobs or as many chicago to begin the trip. we’ll trailer the as you can fit into a day and don’t make boat to minnesota, and there i’ll meet up friends. then, when it’s time to move on, with more new friends (a constantly instead of feeling nostalgic and being changing group of those who swear broke, you can go without regret and be they’re coming along), load my load onto flush with cash to finance whatever might the little pontoon platform that’ll be home be down the road. i’ve worked minimally for the next two or so months and shove and blown my dough nearly as fast as it off at the headwaters of the mississippi was made learning to ski, backpacking to river, lake itasca. from beneath the up- incorporating writing 26

turned john boat that serves as our es- will finally be put to rest. another experi- cape pod/part of the roof, i’ll be keeping a ence under my belt. and when it’s time to sharp lookout for spring thaw dislodged temporarily go back to work, to fund floating logs, navigational buoys and the whatever is next (the pacific northwest? high adventure mark twain wrote of. my the john muir trail? maybe some time poor, hand wringing ma can blame my overseas?), i’ll try to keep at least the river float dream on him. first part of my own advice in mind: work hard, work really hard, because i know for now, i’m basking in the last few weeks that with just the tiniest bit of money, of lowly humid, comfortably liberal, tall anything i can cook up is possible. mountains just to the west, denver. all the hiking has trimmed me down and i Sharon Sadle escaped her cubicle on september dread getting fat and grilled as i lounge 22, 2005. she’s been traveling away from her for endless days on the scratchy astroturf hometown in florida by car, north and west, ever since. from the road, sharon writes about coffee deck, nothing to eat but high sodium with strikers, darts with bartenders, forays into soup and just add water this and that. abandoned factories and contemplative discom- posure along the byways of the united states. nothing to do but slip in and out of rest- her stash of socks totals 44 pairs. less sleep as we float into a hot southern summer. brooding in dreadful fear is one way of dealing with uncertainty and i’ve embraced it almost thoroughly. dread of the mental discomfort of being in con- stant close proximity with others, dread of no email, of no control over river cur- rents. i fear i’ll be bored. i fear the great time i’ve had in colorado will never be matched. once i bore myself with enough fear and dread, i’ll release my cares and then be prepared for the free wheeling fun i’m counting on this trip to be. i will harmonica off tune to the banjo that won’t be strummed in time. if i tire of taking in the scenery, i can busy myself organizing and reorganizing my quarter of the 8x24 foot deck, pouring over navi- gational charts and plotting out island Available now from: layovers. then, if we don’t sink the boat [email protected] or drown before new orleans, this dream 27 incorporating writing

“In writing a book, I probably have a better feeling for human nature that I had before”

Jeffrey Archer: From Disgrace to Deliverance Interview by Felix Cheong incorporating writing 28

Jeffrey Archer, whose novels and How difficult was it to weave 911 short stories include Not a Penny More, into the story? Not a Penny Less, Kane & Abel and Twist Very difficult. You didn’t want to make it in the Tale, has topped the bestseller lists look as though you were doing it pur- around the world, with sales of over 120 posely. You wanted to make it look million copies. casual; you wanted it to make it look as The author has served five years in the though it fitted the story. That takes a House of Commons, fourteen years in the lot of work. Then there’s all the re- House of Lords, and two in Her Majesty’s search. I read about 10 different peo- prisons, which spawned three highly ple’s descriptions of escaping from the acclaimed Prison Diaries. tower. I read three books: one by the firemen, one by the policemen and one, False Impression is his first novel since the official report by the government. I being released from prison, and he is put it all into one and then I put myself currently working on a screenplay and a on the 82nd floor and made my way new volume of short stories, entitled Cat down mentally, until I escaped. of Nine Tales. I know New York very well indeed. Of The author is married with two children, course I wasn’t there when the towers and lives in London and Cambridge. came down. I had a friend working – Your new book has a painting at the one of my researchers was there – she centre of the story. This sounds sus- was able to give me very hands-on piciously like Dan Brown’s novel. description. What’s your take? No plans to include the London bombing (cynical laugh) That is sheer coincidence, in the next book. It doesn’t interest me. because his is a code and mine is nothing I know what the next two books are. like that. (Goes on to relate story) I When you’ve done something like this, needed a picture that was universally you don’t want to repeat yourself. I like understood to be worth a hundred million to move on and do something totally American dollars. That really only meant different. Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh. I chose In what way has age made you a Van Gogh because there’re two self-por- better writer? traits with bandaged ear. One is in a pri- vate collection and the other is in the I think you do get more matured. When Courtauld Museum in London. As long as you sit down to write a new book, you there’s one in private collection, no one start with more knowledge of how you can see it. That was the reason. It had set the thing out, where you should be nothing to do with Mr Brown at all. going. In the end, you still have to have 29 incorporating writing

a story, If you didn’t have a story, then What’s your motivation behind want- you can’t write a book, however profes- ing to rejoin the Party? sional you are, however good you are No motivation at all. I just want to apply technically. for normal membership. No big deal. What have you learned in prison that Amazing really [the storm generated by has proven useful for your writing? it] I did a charity auction last week for Michael Vaughan, captain of the England More about human beings. Being a very cricket team and I raised 287,000 pounds middle-class person, and the tremendous and it didn’t get a mention in one paper. I advantages I’ve had in life which many applied to join my local Conservative as- other people have not had. I think cer- sociation and it was front page. I’m puz- tainly how lucky I’ve been. In writing a zled by what is news. book, I probably have a better feeling for human nature that I had before. If you What’s your assessment of the terror- lived with people for two years who have ist situation now? nothing – some are drug addicts, some Just as bad and just as dangerous. You are just evil people – you do realise can never tell what’s going to happened there’s a different world out there. next or where it’s going to happen next. What was it like running a creative We’re in what I call a Third World War – writing workshop for these guys? that’s enough, thanks [to photographer]. It’s giving me a headache. You now have Very interesting. Some of them were a new world which involves terrorists and genuine, some of them were not. One of they’re going to attack wherever they them is doing a degree now. He did a BA like. They can take the risks and kill indis- and an MA; and he’s going to do a PhD. criminately. 911 wasn’t the beginning of it One of the boys I taught. He’s got a good but the most audacious of the attacks. We brain. And he will come out the other end also have London bombings and the Bali with a PhD in media studies; that’s good. bombings. This isn’t going to stop.I’m not Some critics have accused you of sure we’ll ever be able to stop them. For cashing in on your time in prison. them, it’s a religious fervour and it’s going What’s your defence? to go on and on, right or wrong. They just believe that killing people is the answer. I haven’t read anything like that. If some- one said it, I wouldn’t bother to defend it. Fanatics? To have your books compared to Yes, good word. Dostoevsky – anyone who said I was cashing in is either a fool or very envious. incorporating writing 30

The Right Man Article by Sam Morris

time of the contests anyway). The rap- battle or open-mic (microphone) contests consists of two MCs or rappers taking turns to deliver their own style of lyrics over a looped synthesised percussion beat. Each MC’s lyrics are balanced be- tween pre-practised verse and improvised response to the opponent MC’s lines. The crowds at these events, which are staged at such diverse locations as the top floor of Hackney Market car park to pirate radio stations housed in suburban hous- ing estates, dictate the outcome of the battles by cheering for the MC they feel has ‘won’. As would be expected, there is much talk of how rich, strong, attractive, promiscuous, loved, hated, admired or despised the individual MC is. This is then delivered in varying, but nonetheless Across London, its surrounding counties tentatively universal, colloquial slang. and satellite towns that mimic their over- An example from one of these modern flowing, older sibling, there are under- day urban poets may aid my explanation. ground contests and rumblings that al- Below is an excerpt from The Mercury most go unheard of outside their own Award winner Dizzee Rascal: delivering, immediate circles. These are not violent on pirate radio, a ‘freestyle’ (improvised) or cruel physical battles or viscous blood flourish of vocabulary in an attempt to sports, although they do have a taste for ‘put down’ the MC Crazy Titch: “I can the inherent testosterone fuelled competi- hear you, I don’t need to be near you./I tion that arises in those vile forums. The hear you talking out your backside squat underground contests that I am inter- squeeze,/But I don’t want to hear the bull ested in are clashes of wit, vocabulary so stop please./Cos you don’t clock G’s,/ and timing, coupled with delivery, un- And you ain’t doing no shows for no top shakeable confidence, lightening response fees,/Or travel over seas./On no adven- to your surroundings and intimate empa- tures like Hercules./Full of beans but you thy with your fellow individual (at the 31 incorporating writing

ain’t mashing peas./So why you lying to unpublished1 until the saviours of obscure the city geez ” philosophical texts, Paupers’ Press, issued Razor blade cutting insults coupled with their copy in 1992. In the fourteen chap- self-assertion of status and wealth all ters of the pamphlet Van Vogt’s sets out delivered as sharp as can be. “G’s” are his theory of ‘the violent male’ or as he ‘grand’s’, one thousand pounds. later calls him ‘the right man’, a type of I hope that the above will give you a individual that under no circumstance can flavour of the oral aggression and egoism ever admit to being wrong. The type of that must be maintained to ‘win’ a rap- person who will argue and rage if their battle. Most would feel that this is an opinions are ever questioned, or their obviously male dominated arena. But it is self-esteem challenged. The type of per- an indefinable quirk of our modern west- son an MC would need to be if he or she ern culture that women also rise to this are to ‘win’ a rap-battle. role with true relish and viscous verbal As Roberto Anton Wilson puts it in The acumen. There are many acclaimed fe- New Inquisition male MCs. However, regardless of sex, the key to success is always wit, confi- “Whether this action be dence verging on arrogance and the abil- striking your wife or signing ity to orally assert yourself over other the execution of six million contender. Jews”

Yet I do not want to dwell on the intimate “This is not a concept from clinical or details of the UK urban music scene. experimental psychology. It is a mere Rather use this specific facet - the rap- empirical generalisation by the writer A. battle - and its intrinsic self-confidence E. Van Vogt, in a pamphlet Report on the and verification of the individual to shed Violent Male The Violent Male...seems to some light on a little known pamphlet be a man who literally cannot, ever, admit written by a quite well known author. he might be wrong, he knows he is Most regard as a science fiction writer right... Van Vogt found that an astonish- working during the ascent of the genre’s ing amount of violence is committed by Golden Age, through the 40’s and into these males, and he calls the type The the 50’s. Yet he did produce a handful of Right Man, because this man always in- straight novels. One of which he obvi- sists he is Right....” ously felt was of such importance as to write an accompanying pamphlet, a sort In the novel The Violent Man Van Vogt’s of explanation. The Violent Man was pub- writes about Chinese attempts to brain- lished in 1962, with its small explanatory wash American prisoners of war captured text A Report on The Violent Male staying and detained in a prison camp. The camp incorporating writing 32

commander is the ‘right man’ of the novel The further application of ‘the right man’ and displays the above characteristics. physiological state of mind can be seen in Yet what Van Vogt’s highlights as his mo- the horrific irrationality of many dictators. tivation in the pamphlet is from a far Van Vogt’s argues that Stalin, Hitler and more everyday or domestic setting in Mao Tse-Tung were all ‘violent men’. With comparison to the hierarchy of a prison a dominant characteristic of the ‘right camp. The pamphlet is full of examples of man’ being a refusal to recognise that he husbands treating their wives in the most is ever wrong an eternal spiral of self- intolerable and outright hypocritical man- verification can be ridden to any ends ner. One example cites a man who sets that the mind can take; however twisted up his divorced wife in a home yet ex- or perverse. Wild outbursts of rage can be pects her to live as a sort of celibate justified later on the grounds that he had nurse to their child. Devoting herself to been pushed passed all reasonable limits their son’s welfare while remaining un- and anyone would have done the same. married, while he was free to do as he The individual will rationalise anything wished and lived a life of promiscuity. and necessarily distort facts to whatever Throughout the marriage he had been means needed, using this for ground for violent and craved the status of absolute further action. Whether this action be master over her. striking your wife or signing the execution Yet a peculiar aspect of ‘the violent male’ of six million Jews. is the fact that the women, or the direc- Now these are extreme examples. What tion of his assertion, seem to be the foun- is of interest is that there are clearly de- dation or cornerstone of his whole exist- grees of ‘right man’ tendencies. When a ence. In many of the examples Van Vogt’s dangerous drivers cuts you up in traffic highlights the men lose all purpose if the and you flash or beep your horn com- women in their lives leave; or, at times, plaining to your passenger of their infe- even threaten to leave. They may become rior driving ability or lack of community suicidal, or sink into depression, drugs or care you are displaying a ‘right man’ as- alcohol. Total moral collapse. As Van pect; asserting your view. Or you watch Vogt’s writes: television and all knowingly chuckle at the misadventures of others or pontificate “If she leaves him or starts divorce pro- over the mismanagement of others chil- ceedings, he presently goes into a frantic dren we are all displaying (in a diluted emotional state. The death-thought be- form) ‘right man’ tendencies. gins to show: tears, wild appeals, desper- I suspect that many readers will feel that ate anxiety: ‘Don’t leave me, I love you to a greater of lesser degree, the ‘cap fits’ more than life’ so to speak. Every individual has his or her opinions tainted by their views and 33 incorporating writing

values, and crucially are liable to rise to own opinions in one stroke. the defence of them or impose their own In A Criminal History of Mankind Colin interpretation of the ‘facts’. Yet what is of Wilson describes the ‘Right Man’s’ circular far greater importance is the fact that the existence as follows ‘right man’ is ultimately obsessed with his view of the world around him, his “He is a man driven by a manic need for perception. This is far reaching if we pass self-esteem — to feel that he is a ‘some- out of the realms of domestic strife or body.’ He is obsessed by the question of even politics and look at the bigger pic- ‘losing face,’ so he will never, under any ture. circumstances, admit that he might be in When an artist paints a picture, or a poet the wrong the Right Man is an captures his concerns in verse, both are ‘idealist’ he lives in his own mental world essentially saying ‘this is how I see the and does his best to ignore aspects of world’. Or in other words ‘I am right’. Yet reality that conflict with it reality can the assertions of the artistic realm sway always be ‘adjusted’ later to fit his glori- from the glory of Blake or Turner, the fied picture of himself. The Right Man optimism of Shaw or Whitman to the hates losing face; if he suspects that his pessimism of Goya or the angst of Max threats are not being taken seriously, he Beckman or Beckett’s work. They can not is capable of carrying them out, purely all be right. for the sake of appearances the central Now I am not saying that they were all characteristic of the Right Man is the ‘right men’ in the extreme. Nor I am I decision to be out of control, in some passing value on the status of the ‘right particular area. We all have to learn self- man’. I simply aim to highlight that there control to deal with the real world and is an essential characteristic of creativity other people. But with some particular that is intrinsic in all ‘right men’ activi- person — a mother, a wife, a child — we ties. Even a scientist who approaches an may decide that this effort is not neces- issue with intense empirical objectivity, sary and allow ourselves to explode. But with a mind to be a passive observer, — and here we come to the very heart of level headed, detached, logical; is, to an the matter — this decision creates, so to extent, saying ‘others are not like this, I speak, a permanent weak-point in the am right in this frame of mind’. In the boiler, the point at which it always same way a down trodden individual who bursts What is so interesting here is the has been unlucky in employment and in way the Right Man’s violent emotion rein- love, and creates vast conspiracy theories forces his sense of being justified, and his about how society does not accommodate sense of justification increases his rage. his ‘type’ and all are against him could be He is locked into a kind of vicious spiral, seen to be creating and validating his and he cannot escape until he has spent incorporating writing 34

his fury The Right Man feels that his rage ‘right man’ tendencies must play a part. is a storm that has to be allowed to blow The assertion of ones own vision, and the itself out, no matter what damage it defence of your vision is the fundamental causes. But this also means that he is the structure of belief. You do not have to be slave of an impulse he cannot control; his a liked individual if you are driven by your property, even the lives of those he loves, own vision. The value, moral or other- are at the mercy of his emotions.” wise, is not at question here. The ‘right man’ could be a saint or a sadist. Isaac Van Vogt’s tends to keep his analysis of Newton was known to be a sour, suspi- the ‘violent male’ with a clear mind on the cious and deeply religious man. Yet his violent results of these individuals, spe- moments of great inspiration came out of, cifically when it leads to death. He pep- what could be seen to be, a very wrong- pers chapter seven of the pamphlet with headed but self-assertive frame of mind. newspaper headlines such as Wagner treated his patrons, and many women, in an atrocious manner while also Husband Invades Christmas Party enveloping his whole being inside epic Shooting Wife Grief Stricken When She moments of creativity. Did these people Would Not Reconcile. need their ‘right man’ aspects to create? I Wife Stabbed To Death Unfaithful Says think not, but to create what they created Husband. Amazed Friends Say He Was – high art, high thought – I think it must Unfaithful, Not She. be clear that self confidence and the as- sertion of ones own will on your sur- Admittedly the text, itself, does, at times, roundings (key ‘right man’ attributes) are feel like a slice of tabloid sensationalism. intrinsic in many moments of inspiration Endless case after case of megalomaniac and creativity. husbands inflicting their will onto pitiful wives. Yet this does drive home the se- 1 Van Vogt’s did privately publish a copy at the time of the novel that Colin Wilson describes as being in ‘unreadable type’ in his introduction verity, in the domestic realm, of the ex- to the Paupers’ Press 2003 edition. treme ‘right man’s’ world; as it was a privately published piece, and is intended to be read with the novel, this tabloid feel is all forgivable. Sam Morris is a freelance writer, living in Lon- don, with a foundation and training in Art History. It must be noted that there needs to be a He has previously worked with contemporary certain degree of ‘right man’ characteris- artists on various exhibition reviews and artist statements of intent and influence. Yet his main tics in an individual if there is to be any areas of interest are concerned with Existential real attainment of creative progression. writings and works that express the Romantic impetus towards elevated consciousness and Arguably if one is to reach any sort of human emotional understanding. Sam Morris can creative peak, on a subjective plain, then be contacted by email at: [email protected] 35 incorporating writing

Recommended Read Hungry Ghosts, Debbie Taylor

(Penguin, 368pp, ISBN 9780141012438, £7.99)

narrative voice for the other, Taylor proves herself to be an inspired narrator. Her characterisation of Sylvia reflects her own experiences of loss and travel, but it is her depiction of Martin which is most impressive. Taylor has taken a true story of an eleven year-old boy and made it her own; his character is flawlessly drawn and Taylor’s ability to visualise the thoughts and feelings of a young boy, scarred by his seclusion and mother’s illness, is su- preme and provides strong evidence for the depth of her research. Debbie Taylor’s second novel, Hungry Taylor’s prolific use of imagery helps to Ghosts is an eclectic fusion of mass ap- bring an exotic setting and its vivid char- peal and literariness. acters to life for the reader, whilst also A career woman’s growing disillusionment managing to add depth to more familiar with life directs her towards Crete and a aspects of everyday life. Her metaphor for new love; this is the standard holiday the internet, a blue trail, really strikes fiction of thirty-somethings. The rural home in both its accuracy and its original- landscape, unsullied by pollution and ity. urbanisation, and the colourful Greek It is therefore rather disappointing to lifestyle provide a form of escapism which encounter so clichéd an ending, a flavour is so revered by twenty-first century of self-help books, a taste of the mundane readers. in an otherwise rather spicy novel. It However, the darkness evoked by this smacks of the holiday romance, a cat- novel sets it apart from its peers. Themes egory which Hungry Ghosts repeatedly of obsession, forbidden desire, shame attempts to struggle out of. It seems to and loss permeate the novel to its core have succeeded in this endeavour, al- and enable Taylor to craft a work which is though perhaps at the cost of some, in disappointment and obsession. Through Taylor’s own words, die-hard ‘Lit Lite’ the ease with which she exchanges one readers. REBECCA MOOR incorporating writing 36

Island, Jean Grenier

(Green Integer Books, No 131, 128pp, ISBN 1-892295-95-4, $12.95)

‘In the period in which I discovered Is- lands I believe I wanted to write. But I truly decided to do so only after reading the book.’ He goes on to say that some- times he writes sentences as if they were his own that do, in fact, appear in this book. He talks of being transfigured by what he read. All of which, although very adulatory, did not lead me to think that I would enjoy the book that followed.

However, although these essays are beautifully written, erudite musings on the nature of life and death, Grenier’s approach to these momentous subjects is to write about the more mundane - his childhood, or his cat; his friendship with a I admit it: I’m an intellectual lightweight. dying butcher, or his travels. These hold I don’t keep a copy of Bertrand Russell by all the charm of a sun drenched French my bed and discuss Kant with my friends. afternoon. His observations of his cat So when I received a book in the post Mouloud are sensual and amusing: ‘A new which was billed as lyrical essays by a slumber commences, lighter, more pleas- French philosopher, and the first chapter ant, like the one of women in large cities was called ‘The Attraction of the Void’, my between nine and eleven in the morning. heart sank. How wrong I was. This is a In such moments cats love to be caressed gem of a book, a complete delight and I softly. You must pass a hand behind their feel enriched to have read it. ear so that they throw their head back. These essays were first published in It is then possible to caress their chin and 1933, and then republished with a preface their chest between the forelegs.’ But by Albert Camus in 1948. Grenier, al- Grenier moves on to observe himself though a philosopher, essayist and author observing Mouloud, realising how the cat in his own right, also found fame as is entirely one with his actions and com- Camus’ teacher. His influence was pro- paring this with what it means to be hu- found. Camus writes in the introduction man. He uses the cat to discuss society 37 incorporating writing

at large, love and, always, death. and romanticised and diminished by the west. He refers to ‘an inhuman people’, He asks the question in the essay The and to Hindus as taking an interest only Blessed Islands ‘Why travel?’ His answer in dreams. He states that India ‘has not is that ‘travel can be the stimulant neces- known a coming of age. She appears in sary for awakening those feelings that our eyes in perpetual childhood...’ This slumber in everyday life. You travel, essay, perhaps alone, has not stood the then, in order to gather in a month or in a test of time. year a dozen rare sensations, those which can awaken in you an inward song with- out which all that you feel will remain “For Grenier, the void is without value.’ Quite. This might not be never far from view. He the most profound of his statements or feels time passing, he conclusions but it epitomises the clarity of wants to create a void, to language and the precision with which he interrupt time” pinpoints aspects of human life.

For Grenier, the void is never far from view. He feels time passing, he wants to However, I do not think that this one create a void, to interrupt time. Certain should detract from the other essays. spectacles of travel, the bay of Naples or There are so many thoughts to savour. the flowered terraces of Capri, do not ‘How beautiful are those instants in which bring ‘absolute fulfilment, but instead desire in on the verge of being satisfied.’ carves out in us an infinite void’. ‘Sun- ‘A wound, well, you resign yourself to it; light creates a void.’ However, quite what but pinpricks every day, that is intoler- the nature of this void is for him is, to able. Seen in its vastness, existence is me, unclear. I wonder whether perhaps it tragic; up close it is absurdly petty.’ And is the stillness that he writes of elsewhere the funny, as in his description of a – ‘At the very moment in which a tumul- mortician and exhumer of graves: ‘A good tuous passion attains paroxysm, at this situation, steady, albeit better in dry very moment it fashions a great silence times than in times of rain.’ These essays within the soul.’ reward being read again and again. The design of the book is perfect – it slips My only quibble with the book is the easily into the pocket to be taken out and chapter on ‘Imaginary India’. This essay dipped into at the bus stop or on the compares Hindu religion, culture and tube. I, for one, shall be doing just that. history with Greco-Roman civilisation. CLARE REDDAWAY His conclusions feel dated, rooted in an India dominated by an imperial power,

39 incorporating writing

Killing Neptune’s Daughter, Randall Peffer (Speck Press, ISBN: 1 933108 05 3, £8.99)

former whaler Neptune, growing up in the fishing town of Woods Hole, Cape Cod, where she was known to the local boys as ‘Tina the Tease’.

It’s a world she left behind in her teens. When she fled to New York to make a new life for herself, far from the ghosts of her haunted and troubled past. A new life that ultimately ended in a lonely and frightful death at the hands of one of those ghosts she fled.

So begins a sombre reunion back in Woods Hole for sports journalist Billy Talk about a slap in the face. Just as Bagwell. Like Tina, he fled his childhood the book appears to reveal its twisting home to make his life anew in the Big path to the centre of the maze, it side- Apple. Like Tina, he brought something steps into another avenue and bang: the rotten with him. There’s much more than reader is left reeling, as they realise they old friends and past mistakes waiting to were heading up a dead end. greet him at the funeral. Some of them think he might be the killer. And of not, The end in question is that of Noelle they suspect he knows who it might be. Werlin, the celebrity wife of New York rock legend Butch Werlin. He’s the prime So begins the recollection of the life they suspect when Noelle turns up dead in knew as adolescents, growing up in a savage circumstance. Raped, sliced up fishing port that was itself on the verge of and with a marlin spike skewering her change. Misdeeds and misadventures, heart. It’s a brutal end to what was de- sexual experimentation, self-loathing and scribed as a Cinderella life story. mad exploits are resurrected, as Billy — once known as ‘Bagger, the crazy In a previous existence, she was Bagman’ — is forced to re-examine his Celestina de Oliveira. The daughter of past and confront the sordid acts that incorporating writing 40

have poisoned his life for the last 35 victim of a crime and a criminal that years. has continued to shape their lives — even to the present day. It’s not Underlying all their interweaved stories what you think, as Butch Werlin are two terrible, innocence-stealing might say as he sweats on the side- events that forever bound Tina and Billy lines, and the truth will strike like together. He does indeed known who the that fateful marlin spike. MARK killer is, but like the reader, his memories CANTRELL have led him up a blind alley. He’s in for as much a slap in the face as those ac- companying him along the pages.

This is an excellent psychological thriller, touching upon the experiences of young people growing up in a time of profound change. Not just for their local home, or for themselves as adolescents stumbling into confused adulthood, but for the world as the Vietnam war rages and in time some of their number face the dreaded draft.

Peffer has created an enthralling, if dis- turbing picture, of adolescent coming of age gone wrong, in a picturesque, if moody environment. The atmosphere is intense, and filled with a suitable fore- boding as the characters and the readers try to find clues to the present in the murky, suppressed past. They all loved Tina, in their way, they all On spec despised her too. She was the ‘easy lay’ the Canadian magazine of the fantastic, and so the girl they all sought out. They Summer issue (Copper Pig Writers were the ‘Tina Toys’ and she played with Society, ISSN 0843 476X, 112 pages, them, as if her sexual favours granted $5.95) power. Ultimately, it was her downfall. As they uncover the hidden history of their ‘On spec, the Canadian magazine of the lives, they reveal that Tina was the tragic fantastic’ is a first-rate journal of horror, 41 incorporating writing

science fiction and the fantastic. It conversation”. They live in a new develop- contains both poetry and fiction. Its first ment of condominiums, and one of the story, ‘Rat Patrol’ works because of the woman at the party is new there and ordinariness of its setting. Arthur Low oblivious to the trickier undercurrents of patrols an out of the way countryside for conversation. As they wander through rats, presumably laying down rat poison. the backyard, they discover human body He has taken on a young boy, Jake, as an parts, as the supernatural intrudes on the apprentice. As the story unfolds, the story’s realism. fantastic enters in, and it turns out he is In ‘Monsters of the Deep’ - a science not really patrolling “this particularly fiction story, the language is crisp nasty stretch of land along the and clear - not a spare word is used, in Southeastern border of Alberta” for rats, keeping with the action, which is fast- but for the supernatural. A dead man, paced and decisive. Hernandez tries to Hank, has been resurrected by a rescue the crew of a ship taken over by supernatural entity and it is taking over aliens, and this involves him in contradic- his soul. Hank wants to kill his widow. tions. After Arthur kills the possessed husband, (body and soul), he has a vision of Jake, In ‘Testing Edon’ the mystery of this ex- also possessed by the same supernatural cellent fantasy piece gradually unravels, being, drenched in blood. The widow and the depths of study the apprentice suggests Arthur keep Jake with him must engage in before he has mastered anyway: ”What if,” she said, “what if It his magic become clear. wants you to send the boy away? What if Although the poetry is not as outstanding you’re stronger having him here? You as the stories, it makes for an interesting can’t trust a vision that came from, you read. know. That ‘having a kid around’ is like a second chance for you, Arthur. Maybe It The content of the magazine was excel- doesn’t want to see you happy - ou ever lent. The magazine is nicely designed, the thought about that?”. The story works on print a comfortable size. It is an easy two levels - the fantastic and the read. The stories and poetry are accessi- psychological. Arthur’s loneliness at work ble. I would read it again and subscribe. is as critical to the story as his battle LINDA BENNINGHOFF against evil.

Some of the other stories present an ordi- nary setting where the supernatural sub- tly infiltrates. In ‘Boys Night Out’ a group of women get together for “cookies and incorporating writing 42

The Sugar Mile, Glyn Maxwell

(Picador Poetry ISBN 0-330-43824-7, £8.99)

The book is centred around its three prin- ciples, holed up in a New York bar on Broadway and 86th; Joey Stone, bar fly and veteran New Yorker of British-Italian descent; Maxwell, or his literary approxi- mation known variously as Glen/Clint/ Glyn, who comes to the bar to write po- etry; and Raul, the bartender, who has a motor mouth and a spelling problem.

Narrative flits between east London, Black Saturday, September 7th 1940, and New York, the weekend of September 8th 2001, a clean and clear sunlit Saturday. What is striking is the huge cast of characters drawn by Maxwell, all speaking in the first I was presented with something of a person; Joey, Raul, and Granny May and conundrum when called upon to review a the bombed out Pray’s, Robby, Julie, book of poetry by a writer who is already Harry, Sally, Betsy and even baby Lily, in receipt of the Somerset Maugham whose voices have lived with Joey for 60 Award, E. M. Forster Award from the years. American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Geoffrey Faber Prize for Poetry. It Maxwell clearly employs his skills as a is all too easy for the reviewer, keen to fit dramatist to voice and control his cast, into the lit-flock, to want desperately to himself stating: like the work of such a writer. Conversely I tried to give my characters new forms it all too easy for this reviewer to want to to speak in. I do have sestinas, sonnets dislike the much lauded before I start. So and quatrains in there, but they need to it was with a determination to strike a be fresh, responsive to real speech. I balance between these conflicting predis- gave them strong forms to speak in be- positions that I tackled Glyn Maxwell’s cause strong forms – rhyme, metre, rep- narrative poem, The Sugar Mile. 43 incorporating writing

etition – are memorable. or more pointedly, pickled. Of course the literary Maxwell is in a bar writing poetry The principles voices are clear enough on a glorious late summer Saturday – and their narrative missions cleanly who wouldn’t be? drawn. Joey, in his drunken lyric sprawl unveils the secrets that explain why he Ultimately the development of character left London; Raul takes care of bar busi- is basic and wooden. I have read a de- ness in hackneyed New York style, hinting scription of Maxwell’s virtuosity in which occasionally at the disaster about to be- he is described as a ‘ventriloquist’ and it fall his city; and Glen/Glyn/Clint simply is very tempting to accept this given scares off women with poetry, and listens that his characters feel like dummies, so he may record and recall. animated only when he inserts his poetic hand into their inanimate backs. Herein lies the problem I have with this work. It is all a little too clean and clear, Be not under the illusion that The Sugar clever in a too-knowing way. Maxwell has Mile is anything other than a very ambi- descended into the convenience of cliché tious, lofty, erudite, and perhaps signifi- and stereotype. I certainly feel strongly cant book. Unfortunately what it is not is that Raul is the amalgam of one thousand entirely successful in realising its ambi- and one stage and screen New York bar- tion, nor is it sufficiently engaging nor tenders, all worldly-wise, wise-ass and convincing. Maxwell alludes strongly to smart mouth with a lyric twist, an intrinsic link, psychologically, memorially, intellectually, and physically Keep moving you can move the goddam (through Joey), between the London of world! the Blitz and post-9/11 New York. This Stand still, you wanna stand still, you do link is never forged; the bridge between that – the two places and events is never fully constructed. What you are left with is You lovely ladies gonna need ID – the dual melancholia of displaced Eng- Nothing comes of nothing. Gotta try it, lishmen, Joey and Maxwell. Bluntly, this is insufficient. While the book has a right? – Hey, I’m from Cleveland like you, strong base in fact Maxwell somehow finds a means to deliver the tendentious. Cheyenne, you married? What? It’s all my I feel this is redolent of distance from business! his subject, a notion that appears borne Equally it is all too convenient that the out in Maxwell’s own words from a con- bar Glen/Glyn/Clint wanders into three versation with Jennie Renton at the days before 9/11 features habitué Joey 2005 Edinburgh International Book Fes- Stone, Blitz boy become barfly gone bad, tival, incorporating writing 44

I suppose one does feel a bit of an out- of an important Basque politician, giving sider. That’s the central contradiction rise to this page-turning read. about being a poet at all - on the one Part of the pull of the story comes from point, you’re supposed to be speaking the conflict within Milius himself. He is representatively in some way, and saying supposedly rebuilding a very different life things that are universal; on the other for himself in Madrid, after being aban- hand, because you’ve chosen to be that, doned by MI6, following a very unfortu- you are doing something very unusual nate operation against the CIA. He has and you’ve carved out some sort of lonely effectively been on the run for six years, space that most people don’t inhabit. but has nevertheless found a new home, As a reviewer I admire this work for all it job and relationship – albeit that the seeks to do though I do not wholly be- latter, with a married woman, brings its lieve in it: I respect Maxwell as an obvi- own problems and limitations. However, ously hugely gifted writer with a breadth he remains a victim of his own fatal fasci- and depth of mastery of his art that is nation for secrets, and deception is still rare: a writer capable of attempting to his true vocation. This leads him into improve upon Eliot’s Prufrock technique is collision with the intelligence authorities, clearly very gifted. As a reader I do not whom he used to serve. He may no feel able to recommend this book. One longer be answerable to them, but he is reader thought adheres to the core of the now even more expendable. The sense of reviewer cerebrum, refusing to be shaken menace mounts towards a climax where free, Milius is pitted against modern terror and This is the type of book that drives GCSE faces a challenge, which can also turn his English students from poetry for life. life around. G. P. KENNEDY Cummings handles the twists in this story with captivating dexterity. The complex The Spanish Game, Charles political background is interwoven with Cumming the lives of the characters and feeds naturally into the dialogue, so as to avoid (Michael Joseph, Hardback, 386pp, ISBN any feel of heavy exposition, which can 0-718-14726-X, £12.99) often slow down this type of novel. The This is an intriguing spy novel set in language is simple but never cliched. The Spain, and featuring Cumming’s hero, level of detail evokes the setting perfectly Alec Milius, from his earlier highly suc- and an atmosphere of constant danger, cessful A Spy by Nature. Milius remains beneath the apparently ordinary, is true to that nature, and is drawn into the present throughout. The reader empa- mystery surrounding the disappearance thises with Milius, despite his sang froid 45 incorporating writing

and ruthlessness as a means of self-pres- ervation, because he is a flawed hero, haunted by his own past and the death of his former lover. The violence in the novel jolts the reader but is not gratui- tous.

Cummings draws on his own background, having been recruited for MI6 after leav- ing university. This gives authenticity to his writing, and he is a worthy successor to John le Carre. The Spanish Game is a tense and compelling spy thriller, which will appeal to lovers of the genre and readers in general. HELEN SHAY

The Ballroom on Magnolia Street, Sharon Owens

(Penguin 2006, 375 pages. ISBN 0-141- 01873-9) WIN THE HOW TO BOOK WITH A DIFFERENCE

Mat Coward’s Success . . . And How To Avoid If you are looking for an escapist, humor- cobines humour with practical information, ous and heart-warming read, then The and is based firmly on hard-won personal knowledge, it’s a tonic, an antidote, a survival Ballroom on Magnolia Street will do very kit for every writer who is fed up with being well. Following her recent success with told how easy it is to write yourself a fortune. The Tea House on Mulberry Street, which Available at www.ttapress.com delighted the critics with its ‘mouth-wa- Win a copy of this book by sending anecdotes tering’ descriptions of food, Sharon about your writing career experiences to us at Owens focuses creates a second engaging [email protected]. The best will be published in the next issue and one lucky romantic comedy, set against a Belfast reader will receive a copy. Deadline 30th June backdrop. In this novel, from a black 2006 satin posing pouch to a wedding gown incorporating writing 46

‘dripping with frills and lace and glitter Hogan, the first by blowing off his own tipped rosebuds’, details of dress take fingers with an exploding gun, the second centre stage. by falling asleep as his hostages escape. There’s Eileen Hogan, Jonny’s eighty-four The story has two main strands. The first year old granny; the brains behind the is the tale of Jonny Hogan, a blitz orphan ballroom, feisty and garrulous, she makes brought up by his grandparents and a mean mark with a knife on Lolly’s known as ‘the miracle boy’. Out of the throat. dust and ashes of the area where he was born, Jonny, ‘the first young person in Yes, there are darker notes. Heists and Belfast to wear blue suede shoes’, creates kidnappings seem in tune with Belfast’s in 1967 the ballroom on Magnolia Street. bleaker world. There are intermittent This becomes the nightspot for the local hints of this setting, and of the gritty community, and a favourite disco haunt of reality of cities. Kate and Shirley work in the sisters who complete this story, Kate an unemployment office, and Shirley and Shirley Winters. To the ballroom’s dreams of a flawless first date, ‘there success the young Jonny sacrifices the would be no one else on the streets; no love of his life, and it is love that the drunks, hooligans, layabouts, wasters, Winters girls are seeking when they preen troublemakers, clowns or losers of any themselves for a Magnolia street night description. And the streets would be out. clean of chips and cigarette butts and political slogans and hungry dogs.’ But Here we have an array of eccentric char- the environment is very much in the acters. Kate and Shirley couldn’t be more background. The main interest lies in the different, the one whose mania for col- personal challenges faced by the charac- lecting handbags has her ‘looking for the ters. Potentially catastrophic events and perfect man-bag combination’, the other issues abound: unwanted pregnancy, with a passion for quirky thrift store cast paternity acknowledged too late, and an offs, who imagines romantic trysts in a emergency Caesarean section to list but a garden ‘full of huge purple rhododen- few. However, there is no real sense that drons’. There’s the strait laced Miss things will turn out in any way but right. Bingham who gets a thrill out of sacking For some this will seem just too cosy, but Kate, whose past is more complex than it if the book you’ve opened has a glittery might seem, and who goes on a ‘three pink handbag on the cover, you’ve al- week sweet-sherry bender’, when she ready had a fair indication of what is to herself is finally pensioned off. There’s come. Eugene Lolly, otherwise known as Sly, ‘hapless leader of the Bonbon gang’, who The main tone of the novel is that of gen- fails twice to get the better of Jonny tle humour with some bold comic set 47 incorporating writing

pieces, the failed heist, the disastrous reduced to stereotypes and, if some of dream date, the ‘battle of the bosoms’ at the events seem a little far-fetched, the disco, leading a barbed exchange of Owens has her answer. The novel closes special requests, ‘And this request comes with Jonny’s grandfather contemplating from a good friend of yours, and she says the end of a film. ‘He was thinking that you will know who it is Kate’s mouth fell real life was much more interesting and open as the plaintive sound of ‘Bigmouth complex and tragic and wonderful than Srikes Again’ filled the ballroom.’ In the any film could be.’ The same of course is creation of such scenes, the author pro- true for the novel, and at the core of vides a wealth of precise description. hers, Owens conveys a strong sense of Some of this can be a little heavy the intricate elements that combine in handed, as in early lengthy inventories of even quite ordinary lives. CAROLINE the sisters’ clothing, but once Owens DRENNAN settles into the narrative, such character notes are more deftly woven in: ‘Shirley, she said, as her sister passed the bed- REVIEWERS Rebecca Moor is a first year student at the room door, wearing spider’s web tights, University of Chester. She is currently working as an ankle-length skirt and a purple mohair an intern for Incorporating Writing. sweater’. There are also some brilliant, Clare Reddaway writes scripts for theatre and economical observations. Kate Winters radio, and stories for children. She has had a children’s animation series idea optioned by Lion upsets her rival by starting a rumour that Television, and two of her radio plays have been she has an artificial eye.’ Not surprisingly, developed for Radio 4. She now lives in Bath with her daughter. Louise plots revenge but as she leaves the sweetshop where she works, a jar of Mark Cantrell lives and works in Bradford. He is a poet, writer and journalist and is working on his mint imperials seems to ‘mock her, filled third novel. to the top with its miniature minty eyes.’ Linda Benninghoff has spent most of her life in Later, as Kate seeks attention by dusting Long Island, New York. She has a MA in English. her cleavage with glitter, Shirley observes G. P. Kennedy is Reviews Editor for Incorporat- that her ‘pale sparkling bust resembled ing Writing. solid ice. She hoped Alex was fond of icy Helen Shay is a solicitor-turned-writer. She has things.’ reviewed for magazines, Reading Lights and Print Radio. She writes fiction (drama and performance The conclusion of The Ballroom on Mag- poetry) and non-fiction. nolia Street subverts by stretching. A Caroline Drennan was born in Malaysia and conventional tying up of loose ends ex- brought up by Irish parents on the South Coast of England. She has always been passionate about tends past the main characters to those literature, studied English at Oxford. She has who hardly feature, such as Eugene Lol- produced both poetry and plays. She was short- listed for the Harpers and Queen/Orange Short ly’s wife. Inevitably, in a book of this Story Competition 2005. length, some of the minor characters are

49 incorporating writing

Poetry Competition Industry News and http://www.chapteronepromotions.com/ open_poetry.htm Opportunities Annual Poetry Competition with a twist with prizes up to £1000! All submissions entered will be sponsored by...’ will be a world changing collection judged by Anna Robinson, and the best twenty of poetry: a rich source of inspiration and insight poems will be displayed on our website. The to help us to take action.The collection will be public will then vote for their favourite and the launched in Autumn 2006 to celebrate 10 years three highest scoring poems wins. of Corporate Watch, the leading anti-corporate research group. The entry fee is £5 per poem and the deadline is www.corporatewatch.org midnight on Thursday 1 June. All poems must be previously unpublished and must include the Submissions: we welcome writing from anyone in poet’s details on a seperate sheet. any creative form: poetry, prose, songs, lyrics. Please send your work to: Poetry submissions, Submissions and payment are accepted online. Corporate Watch, 16b Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG or [email protected] On-line voting takes place from 1st to 15th July. The winner’s poems and biographies will be You are warmly invited to come and displayed on the website for six months. participate in this discussion, the first of a series of AHRC/NAWE backed practice led The Horsham-based Muse & Music Society is research events in creative writing, which takes once again inviting entries for our popular place in London on June 16th 2006. The convener ‘Between Ourselves’ writing or writing-and-acting is Prof. Graeme Harper BA MLitt DCA PhD FRGS competition. Launched successfully in the FRSA Writer, Editor & Chair, New Writing, Head of Millennium Year, this totally unique biennial School of Film, Arts and Media, University of competition has attracted interest from many Portsmouth. areas of the UK and indeed from other countries too. We invite all aspiring or successful writers http://www.ahrccreativewriting.org.uk (and also actors) to submit either a monologue or a duologue AND just to write it, or to write AND Please confirm attendance early, as places are perform it. There are prizes for both the writing limited. All welcome! and the performing. 1st - £150, 2nd - £75 and 3rd - £50. Closing date is August 31st 2006. Further details available from [email protected] Please email GwynRedgers, Chairman of Muse & Music Society, at [email protected] , MARGARET REID POETRY CONTEST FOR ring him on 020 8785 6910 or write to him at the TRADITIONAL VERSE Contest Office, 89 Bickersteth Road, London Postmark deadline: June 30 SW17 6SH. $3,500 in prizes, including a top prize of $1,000. Winning entries will be published. Submit poems “THIS POEM IS SPONSORED BY...” - POEMS in traditional verse forms, such as sonnets and IN THE FACE OF CORPORATE POWER haiku. You may submit work that has been Deadline for submissions 1st July 2006 published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you Reply to: [email protected] own the anthology and online publication rights. Calling all writers and worriers, lyricists and Entry fee is $6 for every 25 lines, payable to layabouts, radicals and revolutionaries, thinkers Winning Writers. Judges: J.H. Reid, D.C. Konrad. and storytellers, performers and poets... Submit online or mail to Winning Writers, Attn: Corporations are the dominant institution of our Margaret Reid Poetry Contest, 351 Pleasant time. They are omnipresent in our lives, from the Street, PMB 222, Northampton, MA 01060. branding posted on every street corner and bus Winning Writers is one of the “101 Best Web Sites stop, to our clocking on and clocking off for the for Writers” (Writer’s Digest, 2005). More company that pays our bills, to the TV we turn to information: to numb our minds after the daily grind. But the http://www.winningwriters.com/margaret impact of corporations on our lives, societies, ecosystems and economies is strangely absent THE PLOUGH PRIZE 2006 Deadline: November from mainstream cultural debate. ’This poem is 30th 2006 incorporating writing 50

http://www.theploughprize.co.uk/ The purpose of its widest sense up to 2,000 words. 1st prize our competition is twofold: to raise funds for the £150, 2nd £100, 3rd £50. Single entry £4 (TNW Plough Arts Centre and to provide support and subscribers two entries at same fee). encouragement to poets. Short Stories, Serials/Novellas - stories up to To the latter end, we provide a great deal more 4,000 words, serials/novellas up to 20,000 words feedback than most competitions: critiques are on any subject or theme, in any genre (not chil- available for a small extra fee, and if you send us dren’s). Previously published work is not eligible. a stamped, addressed envelope or subscribe to Short Stories: 1st prize £300, 2nd £200, 3rd our email results service below, we will send you £100. Novella: 1st prize £300. Entry fees £4 per a complete breakdown of the competition’s re- short story (TNW subscribers two entries at same sults - including a list of all poems that are short fee) or £10 per serial/novella. or long listed. It’s not too early to enter for this year’s competition. The closing date, as usual, is Single Poems and Collections - single poems up to November 30th. If you plan to ask for a critique 40 lines and collections of between 6 - 10 poems. with your entry, it would help us if you could get Single poem entries must be previously unpub- it to us in good time - ideally by by October 1st. lished; previously published poems can be in- cluded as part of a collection. Collection: 1st prize Exciting New Yorkshire Poet Launches Debut £300, 2nd £200, 3rd £100. Single: 1st prize Collection Comma Press is delighted to an- £100, 2nd £75, 3rd £50. Entry fee £4 per single nounce the launch of the debut collection by poem (TNW subscribers two entries at same fee, Halifax-based poet Gaia Holmes, titled Dr James £10 per collection. All work should be clearly Graham’s Celestial Bed (0-9548280-8-9). Gaia, a typed, double-spaced (except poetry), on one graduate of Huddersfield University’s English with side of white A4 paper and paperclipped. Entrants Creative Writing BA, is one of the most exciting may make as many submissions as they wish but new voices to emerge in British poetry recently please include your name, address, title of entry, and is winning acclaim from fellow poets all over. word count and category on a separate cover sheet with every entry. Praise for Gaia’s poetry:

These poems are made from intense sensual Preliminary judging will be carried out by The New experience, bursting with colours, flavours and Writer editorial board with guest judges making textures. Gaia Homes has an eye for the strange- the final selection so there should be no identify- ness of things, from fat lenses of jellyfish/packed ing marks on the entries. Judges in recent years in jigsaws of ice to the sounds and smell of the include Mimi Thebo, Jane Draycott, Ros Barber, steelworks, where metal shrieks as it softens and Margaret Graham, Phil Whitaker. Entries re non- throbs/under the core of heat. returnable. A full list of winners will be sent pro- vided SAE is enclosed. Further information includ- - Jean Sprackland ing guidelines and entry fees at -http://www.thenewwriter.com/prizes.htm To listen to a selection of her poems live online, click on The first International Screenwriters’ Festi- val is taking place at the Cheltenham Film Studios http://www.commapress.co.uk/ between 27th and 30th June 2006. Details can be ?section=authors&page=holmespage. found at www.screenwritersfestival.com

PROSE AND POETRY PRIZES 2006 - SPON- The Festival is dedicated to the art, craft and SORED BY THE NEW WRITER MAGAZINE business of writing for the screen. It will provide a Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2006 unique forum for debate and discussion about Reply to: [email protected] writing dramatic scripts for film, television and http://www.thenewwriter.com/prizes.htm new media. It will be a hothouse of story-telling One of the major annual competitions for short and script-writing, bringing together professional stories, novellas, single poems, poetry collections, industry delegates, high profile guests and new essays and articles; offers cash prizes as well talent from around the world. The Festival is being as publication for the prize-winning writers in The supported by Julian Fellowes ( Gosford Park ), Bill Collection - special edition of The New Writer Nicholson (Gladiator) and Jimmy McGovern magazine each July. Essays, Articles, Interviews - (Cracker, The Street) and amongst our sponsors covering any writing-related or literary theme in are C4, BAFTA, and the UK Film Council. Calling all writers, readers, publishers and journalists

Subscribe to Incorporating Writing today email: [email protected] receive it or lose out free and informed www.incwriters.com