[NB: this article assumes that you have read the book] All writing, it might be said, works by synecdoche: the writer supplies the part and from it we infer the whole to fill the space the writer leaves. Alan Garner is a master of omission: what makes it onto the page is spare and lean … Continue reading ‘Let words be nice’ – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Treacle Walker’
Category: book-related
Α or Ω ? Reflections on ‘A Vignette’ – M R James’s last masterpiece
'Feeding the Cockerels' by Myles Birket Foster A Vignette is generally described as 'the last ghost story MR James ever wrote' – not unreasonably, since it was published posthumously in the year of his death, 1936, in the November edition of The London Mercury (at that time, a major monthly literary journal), James having died … Continue reading Α or Ω ? Reflections on ‘A Vignette’ – M R James’s last masterpiece
Why Colin can’t remember – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Boneland’
Boneland must be one of the strangest sequels ever written. It is not Alan Garner’s best book, but for the questions it poses, it is of great interest to all of us who write for children. It purports to complete the trilogy begun fifty years ago with his earliest books, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and … Continue reading Why Colin can’t remember – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Boneland’
Where to Find Talking Bears, or The Needless Suspension of Disbelief
Something I have been struggling to pin down is a clear expression of my thoughts on the oft-quoted dictum of Coleridge, shown in its original context here: ‘it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a … Continue reading Where to Find Talking Bears, or The Needless Suspension of Disbelief
Pity or Terror? MR James and Jonathan Miller
Since MR James is our most noted writer of ghost stories, Michael Hordern one of our finest actors, and the many-faceted Jonathan Miller among our most celebrated directors, it should be no surprise that a production combining the talents of all three should acquire ‘classic’ status; but that should not stop us looking at it … Continue reading Pity or Terror? MR James and Jonathan Miller
‘The sound must mean mischief’ : M R James and the Age of Uncertainty
J Atkinson Grimshaw, 'Shipping on the Clyde' Is it still possible to write ghost stories or are they mere period curiosities? Let me start by saying that the period and the milieu from which MR James’s stories spring has a strong attraction for me. Things Edwardian afflict me with acute nostalgia (nostalgia, as its name … Continue reading ‘The sound must mean mischief’ : M R James and the Age of Uncertainty
The perils and pitfalls of adaptation in the ghost stories of M R James
('Young Shepherds at Evening Time' by Myles Birket Foster) The usual effect of seeing any film or TV adaptation of a book or story that I like is to send me back to the original, so on that ground alone (assuming I am not the only one so affected) I would say that such adaptations … Continue reading The perils and pitfalls of adaptation in the ghost stories of M R James
City of Desolation, Chapter 21: Across the Abyss
Jake's attempt to cross the nightmare bridge began badly and soon got worse. So steep was the initial descent that the only way to do it was to clamber down ladder-fashion,using the wooden slats as rungs. Unfortunately, the slats were too wide to grip easily with his hands, while the gaps between them were too … Continue reading City of Desolation, Chapter 21: Across the Abyss
Stories: the Odyssey and Ulysses
Stories are tales of the past recounted in the present. Each of these elements - the past, the recounting, the present - is important to an understanding of how stories work. In storytelling, the important relation is not between the story and its original (a mistake moderns are increasingly prone to make) but between the … Continue reading Stories: the Odyssey and Ulysses
an extract from City of Desolation : Chapter 19 – Virgil
(for an audio version of this piece, click here) There was sand in his mouth and someone was pulling his arm. He tried to open his eyes, but they seemed to be stuck together. Then whoever was pulling his arm turned him on his back and water that had been in his mouth ran down … Continue reading an extract from City of Desolation : Chapter 19 – Virgil
COMPLEAT TROWZER 