Indian/Australian author Aravind Adiga poses after winning the 2008 Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker prize ‘promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year’. The panel of judges have now whittled down the 132 submitted novels to the thirteen book, Man Booker long list.  The long list will in turn be reduced to six books over the next month and the winner of the £50,000 prize will be annouced on the 6th October, 2009.

The prize will be awarded to the author of the best, eligible full-length novel in the opinion of the judges. The Prize may not be divided or withheld.  To be eligible’ the book has to be a full-length novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth, or the Republic of Ireland, and published in the current year. The novel must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published’.

The judges

In the chair is the well known radio broadcaster James Naughtie. He  is also a member of the advisory board of the Edinburgh International Festival, a patron of the Prince of Wales Foundation for Children and the Arts, a trustee of the Classical Opera Company, a trustee of the Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries and a patron of Southbank Sinfonia. In 2008 he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Stirling.

Lucasta Miller is best known as the author of The Bronte Myth and has worked for many years as a critic, most recently for The Guardian Review.

John Mullan is Professor of English at University College London. He is the author of Anonymity. A Secret History of English Literature (Faber) and How Novels Work (Oxford University Press). He has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature.

Sue Perkins is a comedian, presenter, broadcaster and scriptwriter. She regularly appears on radio and television programmes such as Newsnight Review, Have I Got News For You, Just a Minute and The News Quiz.

Michael Prodger has been a literary journalist for many years and is Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He also writes regularly on art for a number of publications, including The Sunday Telegraph, Standpoint and The Spectator.

The Long List

The Children’s Book

AS Byatt

Set at the turn of the 20th Century, it is a novel about children – and on the side of the children – who are lost, cheated, and finally destroyed by their elders.

Brooklyn

Colm Toibin

In the 1950s a young Irish woman emigrates to Brooklyn only to be summoned back to Ireland after receiving tragic news forcing her to make heartbreaking decisions between personal freedom and duty.

The Quickening Maze

Adam Foulds

Based on real events in Epping Forest on the edge of London around 1840, this book centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet John Clare.

How to Paint a Dead Man

Sarah Hall

Covering half a century, Sarah Hall’s fourth novel is a fierce study of art and its place in our lives.

The Wilderness

Samantha Harvey

The story of Jake Jameson, a 65-year-old architect on the cusp of retirement whose memories are slowly being eroded by Alzheimer’s.

The Glass Room

Simon Mawer

Set in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s it follows a newly-wed couple – a Jew and a gentile – as their optimism fades when the storm clouds of the Second World War gather and the family must flee, accompanied by the husband’s lover and her child.

Summertime

JM Coetzee

Completing the majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir begun with Boyhood and Youth. Due to be published in September.

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

Novel set in 16th-century England which focuses on the rise of Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son who rose to one of the highest offices before fatally offending Henry VIII.

Me Cheeta

James Lever

The story of Cheeta the Chimp, simian star of the big screen, on a behind-the-scenes romp through the golden years of Hollywood.

Not Untrue & Not Unkind

Ed O’Loughlin

A story about friendship, rivalry and betrayal among a group of journalists and photographers covering the wars in Africa.

Heliopolis

James Scudmore

A rag-to-riches tale about Ludo, a young man born in Sao Paulo who has developed an obsessive, adulterous love for his adoptive sister, whose husband is his only friend.

Love and Summer

William Trevor

Set in a small Irish town, it follows its inhabitants during one summer and explores the themes of suspicion, guilt, forbidden love and the possibility of starting over.

The Little Stranger

Sarah Waters

In a post-war summer in rural Warwickshire a doctor is called out to attend to a family living in a haunted mansion, struggling to keep pace with a changing society.

Links

Man Booker website

Guardian article

Mark Billingham crime writer

Mark Billingham is one of Britain’s well established writers. His DI, (Detective Inspector), Tom Thorne novels have been spectacularly successful in the UK and abroad.  He was the opening speaker on the Friday morning session of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate.  He was also the winner of Best Crime Novel 2009 prize, awarded in the opening ceremony the previous night.

Early career

He was introduced by the author and Guardian crime fiction critic Laura Wilson, who quickly gave us Mark’s background.  He was brought up in Birmingham, trained as an actor and appeared in a number of minor roles in episodes of TV showsDempsey & Makepeace, Juliet Bravo, Boon, and The Bill.^] Afte finding himself playing a variety of “bad guy roles such as a soccer hooligan, drug addict, a nasty copper, a racist copper, or a bent copper”

He then moved into standup progressing from 5-minute, unpaid “try-out” spots to 10-, 20- and 30-minute paid slots. Within a year he played The Comedy Store on several occasions, where he also appears regularly as a Master of Ceremonies.  This combined with a number of appearances on TV and radio, such as the only human face on the  Spitting Image, “the taller half” of top double act “The Tracy Brothers” and appearences on the radio version of The Mary Whitehouse Experience.

In 1988, he was seen on the children’s comedy series News at Twelve, in which the central character “broadcasts his own (imaginary) TV news bulletin every evening.  This led to his getting a part in Maid Marion and her Merry Men, which opened the door to his writing career.

Mark played the part of Gary, one of a pair of Sheriff of Nottingham’s  henceman.  With his colleague Graeme, played by David Lloyd, and were the “bestest mates”.  Mostly they were extremely affable, but in the tradition of clever villains with idiot sidekicks, not very clever most of the time. They are often very friendly with the Merry Men, who tend to return the sentiment, except when Gary and Graeme are doing what they’re paid for.  Graeme tended to enjoy things like torture and teasing the villagers more than Gary does, though Gary would challenge Graeme for the chance to do executions.

Although a children’s programme it was much appreciated by many adults, and has been likened to Blackadder, not only for its historical setting and the presence of Tony Robinson, but also for its comic style. It is far more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more (deliberate)anachronisms. Like many British children’s programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted, as well as witty asides about the Royal family, buses running on time, etc.  interestingly the show was brought by American TV and shown at an 11:30 evening slot.

Moving into writing

Mark was actually paid to this erm – work.  While on the set he got interested in writing and with the encouragement of Tony Robinson he developed his skills and contributed to the scripts.  He then moved into writing scripts for children’s television.  With David Lloyd he wrote and acted  in episodes of Harry’s Mad (based on the book by Dick King-Smith) and with Peter Cocks wrote and co-starred in Granada TV’s Knight School.

He described, with a lot of humour, his writing career.  He reckons he owes a lot of his writing skills to his acting and particularly his standup experience.  His main protagonist:  London based Tom Thorne.  He talked for quite a time about the getting the character right.  It is cliche that a policeman investigating murder is flawed, but that is the reality of the job.

Structuring a book

The structure of a book is important and building tension as is bringing in unexpected twists. he gives a good example in the film Silence of the Lambs.

• Towards the end of the film we see the SWAT team has got the address of the serial killer.  They move into place around the house.
• Meanwhile Jody Foster, FBI agent, is going out to finish off a couple of loose ends, to tidy up the paperwork.
• The head of the SWAT team press the doorbell.
• We see the killer come from his basement up the stairs.
• We see the serial killer start to open the door.
• The SWAT team look tense.
• Then we realise that it is Jody at the right house and in serious danger.

This is a great example on film on how to throw the viewer.  Writers need to do something similar to keep the interest in their books.

Characterisation

Mark described his main character anvil shaped, as in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.  Ton will retain the shape of the anvil after it has fallen on his head.  Thorne has the psychological equivalent.  A bad experieince will affect and develop the character over the series, which is a good reason once you’re hooked on the books to start at the beginning of the series with Sleepyhead and gradually progress with Thorn’s troubled life.

Research

Mark talked about research.  There are certain things a writer has to get right.  The characters in particular have to be believable.  He will make a lot of effort to understand say how Alzheimer affects the individual and the family and friends of the individual.

However, he, and I strongly agree, dislikes authors who write the great ’see my research’ tracks of their books.  He quotes, and I also agree, though my wife will kill for saying so, that Kathy Reichs spends four pages describing the difference between cat hair and dog hair. (In the book I read there were at least four pages on blood splatter and why o’ why did a sensible heroine go by herself, without backup to a drug dealing, biker’s bar – calm down Paul.)

Mark does warn that research is probably the greatest excuse not to write.  He  feels that some detail are not so important, such as ‘checking whether you can take a left turn at a certain point’ or as mark ruefully admits that there is not a Starbucks in Brixton.  He does get complaints from readers, but as he points out – it is only a story.

He was asked how he research things he doesn’t know.  He says he just asks people.  He says he has a friend who is pregnant and he goes around and asks her how she’s getting on.  ’Sore nipples’, get out the notebook write it down.  ’Leakage’, get out the notebook and write it down.

Bad experience

Laura got Mark to talk about his most frightening experience.  He was staying in a hotel in Manchester with his writing companion Peter Cocks.  They decided to stay in one night and ordered beer and pizza.  There was a knock on the door and three men wearing balaclavas burst in, beat them up and got the cash cards and pin codes.  They were held over midnight so that the gang could  maximise the withdrawals over two days.   The crime was bizarre, the Manchester police had not come across a simialr incident.  It was clear that the crime was an inside job and Mark suspects that the attackers thought they were possibly closet gays.

He has used the fear in his second book Scaredy Cat illustrating that ‘the power of fear is a very powerful weapon, and if you are prepared to instill it, you have a very powerful weapon that is every bit as dangerous as a gun or a knife.

Help for others

Besides writing books Mark is very active with the crime writing community.  As I went around the Crime Festival I noted Mark organising people, encouraging, introducing and working quite hard behind the scenes to make sure the event was a success.  He was also very active in Creative Thursday, the event for what people like my self, who are now called, prepublished authors.

Mark’s writing career to date

The first book, Sleepyhead, published in 2001, was an immediate bestseller.

The second novel, Scaredy Cat was published in July 2002 and was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried and Death Message. The newest novel, a standalone thriller called In The Dark is published in August 2008. Mark is at work on the next Tom Thorne novel called “Blood Line”

Links

Mark Billingham’s website

Wikipedia Mark Billingham

Mark Billingham’s novel ‘Death Message’ wins the Theakston Crime Novel of 2009 award.

He was presented with the special barrel of Old Peculier and the £3,000 prize, by Simon Theakston, at the opening of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, on Thursday 23rd July. The festival, the largest crime fiction festival in the world is held annually at the Crown Hotel, Harrogate in Yorkshire, north east England.

The jam packed four day crime writing event is a fantastic place to see and meet numerous crime writers from the up and coming to the well established writers, such as Val McDermid, Laura Lippman, Simon Kernick, Mark Billingham, Lee Child and a special treat for me this year is the visit by George Pelecanos, a great crime novel writer, as well as a screen writer for the TV series. ‘The Wire’.

The short list:

Death Message (Tom Thorne Novels) (Mark Billingham)

The first message sent to Tom Thorne’s mobile phone was just a picture – the blurred image of a man’s face, but Thorne had seen enough dead bodies in his time to know that the man was no longer alive. But who was he? Who sent the photograph? And why? While the technical experts attempt to trace the sender, Thorne searches the daily police bulletins for a reported death that matches the photograph. Then another picture arrives. Another dead man …It is the identities of the murdered men which give Thorne his first clue, a link to a dangerous killer he’d put away years before and who is still in prison. With a chilling talent for manipulation, this man has led another inmate to plot revenge on everyone he blames for his current incarceration, and for the murder of his family while he was inside. Newly released, this convict has no fear of the police, no feelings for those he is compelled to murder. Now Tom Thorne must face one of the toughest challenges of his career, knowing that there is no killer more dangerous than one who has nothing left to lose.

The Accident Man (Tom Cain)

Breathlessly paced and featuring one of the most intriguing heroes in recent fiction, The Accident Man surprises the reader at every turn. For a certain sum of money, Samuel Carver will arrange any death. But when a job below a bridge in Paris goes wrong and he is pursued by the very forces that hired him, Carver must execute his most daring feat yet.

Author Tom Cain is the pseudonym for an award-winning journalist with a 25-year history of investigative reporting.

Bad Luck and Trouble (Lee Child)

From a helicopter high above the California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night. On the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher is pulled out of his wandering life and plunged into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends . . . and the people he once trusted with his life.

Reacher is the ultimate loner–no phone, no ties, no address. But a woman from his old military unit has found him using a signal only the eight members of their elite team would know. Then she tells him a terrifying story about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his team, scrambling to unravel the sudden disappearance of two other comrades. But Reacher won’t give up–because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them.

Gone to Ground (John Harvey)

Will’s first thought when he saw the man’s face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out…Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, is found brutally murdered in his bathroom. Will Grayson and Helen Walker, police detectives investigating the case, at first assume that his death is the result of an ill-judged sexual encounter: rough trade gone wrong. But doubts are soon raised. Bryan’s laptop has gone missing – could the murder be connected to a biography he was writing on the life and mysterious death of fifties screen legend, Stella Leonard? Convinced there’s a link, Bryan’s sister Lesley sets out to prove that Bryan had uncovered a dangerous truth, and that – desperate to keep it hidden – Stella Leonard’s rich and influential family have silenced him. But soon both Lesley and Helen Walker find themselves victims of the violence that swirls around them, as gradually the investigation uncovers the secrets of a family corrupted by lust, wealth and power…
Ritual (Mo Hayder)

The Garden of Evil (David Hewson)

The sixth novel in Hewson’s riveting Italian crime series The picture possessed a frightful beauty, one which burned so brightly that, once witnessed, could never be unseen . . . Even the presence of two corpses, one clearly murdered, the other dead through strange and suspicious circumstances, did nothing to distract their attention from the canvas . . . In a hidden studio in an area of Rome where the Vatican liked to keep an eye on the city’s prostitutes, an art expert from the Louvre is found dead in front of one of the most beautiful paintings that Nic Costa has ever seen – an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. But before long tragedy will strike Nic far closer to home. The main suspect’s identity is known, but he remains untouchable – protected in his grand palazzo by a fleet of lawyers and a sinister cult known as the Ekstasists. If Costa and his team can crack the reasons for the cult’s existence, he may well stand a chance of nailing the double-killer. But the mystery will take him right back to Caravaggio himself and the reasons he had to flee Rome all those centuries before . . .

A Cure for All Diseases (Reginald Hill)

The new psychological thriller featuring Dalziel and Pascoe, the hugely popular detective duo and stars of the long-running BBC TV series, following on from the bestselling Death of Dalziel He may have been in a coma but it would take an act of God to put Superintendent ‘Fat’ Andy Dalziel down for good. In the meantime, He’ll settle for a few weeks’ bed-rest. Sandytown, a pleasant seaside resort devoted to healing, seems just the ticket. And when a fellow newcomer appears in the shapely form of psychologist Charlotte Heywood, Dalziel develops an unexpected passion for alternative therapy. But Sandytown’s warring landowners have grandiose plans for the resort. One of them has to go and when one of them does, in spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to investigate – with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. And Pascoe soon finds dark forces at work in a place where holistic remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all!

The Colour of Blood: An Ed Loy Novel (Declan Hughes)

Emily Howard is nineteen years old, slim and petite with a pale complexion and a red rose tattoo. She is also missing. She disappeared three days ago, and now her father has been sent photographs of her naked body. He is desperate to find her.

So he calls Ed Loy, a private investigator who knows the dark streets of Dublin better than most; a man who will find Emily Howard within twenty-four hours. But locating Emily turns out to be only the beginning. Within hours, Emily’s ex-boyfriend is found murdered, and Loy finds himself in a race against time to catch a killer – and to unearth the many dark secrets the Howard family have kept long buried.

Dead Man’s Footsteps (Peter James)

Abby stepped in the lift and the doors closed with a sound like a shovel smoothing gravel. She breathed in the smell of someone else’s perfum, and lemon-scented cleaning fluid. The lift jerked upwards a few inches. And now, too late to change her mind and get out, with the metal walls pressing in around her, they lunged sharply downwards. Abby was about to realize she had just made the worst mistake of her life …Amid the tragic unfolding mayhem of the morning of 9/11, failed Brighton businessman and ne’er-do-well Ronnie Wilson sees the chance of a lifetime, to shed his debts, disappear and reinvent himself in another country.Six years later, the discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman’s body in a storm drain in Brighton, leads Detective Superintendent Roy Grace on an enquiry spanning the globe, and into a desperate race against time to save the life of a woman being hunted down like an animal in the streets and alleys of Brighton. ‘One of the most fiendishly clever crime fiction plotters’ – “Daily Mail”.

Broken Skin (Stuart MacBride)

A new Logan McRae thriller from the bestselling author of Cold Granite and Dying Light, set in gritty Aberdeen. In the pale grey light of a chilly February, Aberdeen is not at its best! There’s a rapist prowling the city’s cold granite streets, leaving a string of tortured women behind. But while DS Logan McRae’s girlfriend is out acting as bait, he’s dealing with the blood-drenched body of an unidentified male, dumped outside Accident and Emergency. When a stash of explicit films turns up, all featuring the victim, it looks as if someone in the local bondage community has developed a taste for violent death, and Logan gets dragged into the twilight world of pornographers, sex-shops and S&M. To make matters worse, when they finally arrest the Granite City Rapist, Grampian Police are forced by the courts to let him go: Aberdeen Football Club’s star striker has an alibi for every attack. Could they really have got it so badly wrong? Logan thinks so, but the trick will be getting anyone to listen before the real rapist strikes again. Especially as his girlfriend, PC Jackie ‘Ball Breaker’ Watson, is convinced the footballer is guilty and she’s hell-bent on a conviction at any cost!

Beneath the Bleeding (Val McDermid)

The terrifying new psychological thriller featuring Tony Hill, criminal profiler and hero of TV’s Wire in the Blood. The race is on to uncover the identity of a murderer with nothing to lose — and everything to kill for. When Robbie Bishop, star midfielder for the Bradfield Vics, is poisoned by a rare and deadly toxin, profiler Dr Tony Hill and trusted colleague DCI Carol Jordan have their work cut out for them. Robbie was adored, so the public want answers — but the answers aren’t coming, and trails are running cold. Then a bomb explodes in the football stadium, causing massive casualties — and another man dies from poisoning. Is there a link between the cases? And what are the motives for these crimes? The clock is ticking for Tony and Carol — and the death toll keeps rising!

Exit Music (Ian Rankin)

It’s late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town – and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack – especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far?

Friend of the Devil (Peter Robinson)

When Karen Drew is found sitting in her wheelchair staring out to sea with her throat cut one chilly morning, DI Annie Cabbot, on loan to Eastern Area, gets lumbered with the case. Back in Eastvale, that same Sunday morning, 19-year-old Hayley Daniels is found raped and strangled in the Maze, a tangle of narrow alleys behind Eastvale’s market square, after a drunken night on the town with a group of friends, and DCI Alan Banks is called in. Banks finds suspects galore, while Annie seems to hit a brick wall—until she reaches a breakthrough that spins her case in a shocking and surprising new direction, one that also involves Banks.

Then another incident occurs in the Maze which seems to link the two cases in a bizarre and mysterious way. As Banks and Annie dig into the past to uncover the deeper connections, they find themselves also dealing with the emotional baggage and personal demons of their own relationship. And it soon becomes clear that there are two killers in their midst, and that at any moment either one might strike again.

Savage Moon (Chris Simms)

The body of a woman with her throat ripped out is found on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. She is discovered in an area where numerous sightings of a mysterious big black cat have been made. When analysis shows the hairs caught under her nails are those of a panther, it’s assumed the animal has killed its first human victim. But then a man DI Jon Spicer is investigating as part of an entirely different case is murdered in exactly the same way. Only this time the body is found in a secluded car park – a popular gay rendezvous far closer to the city centre. Soon DI Spicer finds himself hunting a killer dubbed The Monster of the Moor, a creature whose stealth and savagery strike terror into the local population and way beyond it.

Then it rained and rained and rained. Arghhh

So I had to take a taxi.

In the last week purchasers of two of George Orwell’s books, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four, have suddenly found that the books have been removed from their Kindles and their accounts reimbursed the outrageous $9.99 charged for the books.

There used to be one good reason not to buy a Kindle, but this now gives me two reasons:

You don’t own what you buy

OK the reason that the books were withdrawn, removed, deleted, erased, eliminated or de-Kindled is that the publisher has decided that they do not want to sell electronic versions of these books. Fair enough. In future no copies of these books should be sold. But these have already been sold.

From Friday the 17th of July, the ‘De-Kindle Day, Amazon should have put the block on the books, removed the books from the catalogue and that would have been that.

But what is objectionable is that the many people have paid their $9.99 for one of the books. They have downloaded it. They maybe half way through reading the books. As they have bought the product then they should be entitled to use the product.

The publisher and Amazon should have been professional enough, business like enough and ethical enough to accept that they had entered a legal contract:

1. with an offer to trade, the Amazon online catalogue
2. an agreement, obviously both Amazon and the purchaser went through the purchasing process without mishaps
3. a consideration, Amazon charges the purchaser’s credit card, the purchaser gets the book

In addition Amazon and the publisher must have had a mutually beneficial contract or Amazon would not have had e-book version of the books.

Now if the purchaser had gone to a book shop and purchased a book, which maybe sold at a discount, which the publisher decided was wrong. Would it be right for someone from Amazon to climb through a window into the purchaser’s house, remove the book and leave a pile of money in its place. I think not.

E-books are drastically overpriced

Kindle and other e-reader systems are aimed at selling electronic versions of books with all sorts of levels of security. So when you have an e-novel or e-business book it is difficult to transfer the book to other systems in the way that a p-book, book printed on paper, can be handed around or lent to others.

If you look at the price of these main stream e-book sales we find that they are priced, generally, only slightly less than a conventional p-book. E-books costs are low compared to a p-book costs as that have to be printed, stored, distributed, put onto shelves into book shops, with high commercial rents and business taxes, managed by dedicated employees, who get paid, admittedly a pittance.

The publishers and the distributors of e-books are clearly exploiting, unreasonably, the early adopters of this e-reading technology. The are holding back the development of this new technology as many, such as myself, feel the whole thing is overpriced.

Implications

I am deeply concerned that this move by Amazon will be the start of a trend. If Amazon gets away with this, then others will follow.

Nobody reads the terms and conditions of software downloaded on their computers. Once a package is installed on a computer, laptop or mobile phone you just use it.

However, if condition in the small print section 199, paragraph XiV, clause c which states the the vendor, large, greedy corporation, has the right to remove said piece of software:

1. after three years, unless payment is made
2. providing purchaser does not use a competitor’s software
3. annoys vendor’s support team

Conclusion

Amazon has changed the rules. E-books bought through the Kindle are no longer a direct sale. The sale can be terminated at any time by Amazon and the poor bloody user has no other option but to accept it.

Commercial e-books are over priced and the greed, and short sightedness, of publishers and distributors are harming the development of the e-book market.

Picture Credits
Image on Flickr by UnusualImage
Almost 9,000 quality images of quality graffiti.

“Frank McCourt’s gentle, understated voice throws into relief the admirable humour, spirit and humanity of the people who made the degradation of his childhood bearable.” Gramophone 1/11/97

“It was Frank McCourt’s year and his reading of Angela’s Ashes on audio tape is the best reason I can think of for taking a long car journey.” Irish Times 25/12/97

“Frank McCourt’s reading is captivating from the first moment. Felicitous writing and harsh voicing combine to make an apparently dismal story absolutely hilarious.” Evening Standard 22/12/97

Frank McCourt had spent most of his life working as a school teacher in the US, and enjoyed fame only after retirement with the publication of Angela’s Ashes in 1996.

The book was instantly popular with both critics and readers, winning a Pulitzer Prize and selling millions of copies.

Lecture by Frank McCourt Teacher Man

A film adaptation was released in 1999 starring Robert Carlyle and Emily Watson.

Angela’s Ashes

“Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood,” writes Frank McCourt in Angela’s Ashes. “Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.” Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren’t so great back in the old country either–not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting clichés about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty, and frequent death and illness, and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt’s able hands it also has all the makings of a compelling memoir.

His other books

Tis
The sequel to Frank McCourt’s memoir of his Irish Catholic boyhood, Angela’s Ashes, picks up the story in October 1949 upon his arrival in America. Though he was born in New York, the family had returned to Ireland due to poor prospects in the United States. Now back on American soil, this awkward 19-year-old, with his “pimply face, sore eyes, and bad teeth,” has little in common with the healthy, self-assured college students he sees on the subway and dreams of joining in the classroom. Initially, his American experience is as harrowing as his impoverished youth in Ireland, including two of the grimmest Christmases ever described in literature. McCourt views the U.S. through the same sharp eye and dark humour that distinguished his first memoir; race prejudice, casual cruelty and dead-end jobs weigh on his spirits as he searches for a way out. A glimpse of hope comes from the army, where he acquires some white-collar skills, and from New York University, which admits him without a high school diploma. But the journey toward his position teaching creative writing at Stuyvesant High School is neither quick nor easy. Fortunately, McCourt’s openness to every variety of human emotion and longing remains exceptional; even the most damaged, difficult people he encounters are richly rendered individuals with whom the reader can’t help but feel uncomfortable kinship. The magical prose, with its singing Irish cadences, brings grandeur and beauty to the most sorrowful events, including the final scene, in which Angela’s ashes are scattered over a Limerick graveyard. –Wendy Smith

Teacher ManMcCourt has a compulsion to tell us the story of his life, but he does it so well — modulating beautifully from ventriloquistically exact repro teen-speak to rhapsodic meditations on his midlife crisis — that one couldn’t possibly want him to stop. I wish I could have been in one of his classes.’ Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Sunday Times ‘This memoir about teaching is unlike any other I have read: relatively mundane events and incidents shine against that backdrop of that pathetic, abused child.’ Francis Gilbert, Sunday Telegraph ‘Damn entertaining!McCourt is a master racouteur.’ Washington Post ‘McCourt’s many fans will of course love this book, but it also should be mandatory reading for every teacher in America. And it wouldn’t hurt some politicians to read it, too.’ Publishers Weekly ‘As good as writing gets about teaching and learning and finding yourself through writing.’ USA Today ‘Heart-warming.’ New York Times ‘McCourt has an undeniable gift for turning a phrase.’ Boston Globe

Philip Pullman and many top authors are now refusing to visit schools.  The reason: another government scheme.  This one requires all people who work with children to be vetted, and they will have to pay a £63 fee for the priviledge.

Philip Pullman called the plans “outrageous, demeaning and insulting” to authors, who do a great deal of work with schools. The scheme would also affect all other visitors to schools to give talks.

The Independent Safeguarding Authority was created to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. It was set up after the horrific murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by school caretaker Ian Huntley in 2002.

However, as author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce points out: ‘As an author you’re never alone with a class. There’s no possible reason for this, unless it’s a revenue-raising scam.”

Pullman states: “”It seems to be fuelled by the same combination of prurience, sexual fear and cold political calculation.” He believes the legislation will have a longer-term effect in that it will damages in a much deeper way ‘the trust and social cohesion’ we ought to be able to rely on.

Children’s author Adele Geras called the scheme “lunatic”. She asks that the legislation is changed to make exceptions for people who see large groups of children, which are supervised by teachers. These visitors would never be left alone with children and so there would be no risk. She says that she will pay as she enjoys visiting schools.

The scheme will anger many authors and will mean that children will be deprived of meeting real life authors, a strange way to encourage reading and literacy.

While I accept that it is logical that anyone working within a school should be checked, I believe that there should be an exception for supervised visitors.

The Home Office has confirmed that the ISA scheme would apply to authors visiting schools, but has made no comment on the authors’ concerns.

Links

Philip Pullman on Amazon

Frank Cottrell Boyce on Amazon

Adele Geras on Amazon

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As the urgency of the story increases, so does the film’s palpable sense of paranoia, inviting favorable comparison to All the President’s Men. While Pacino downplays the theatrical excess that plagued him in previous roles, Crow is superb as a man who retains his tortured integrity at great personal cost. The Insider is two movies–a cover-up thriller and a drama about journalistic ethics–that combine to embrace the noble values personified by Wigand and Bergman. Even if the details aren’t always precise (as Mike Wallace and others protested prior to the film’s release), the film adheres to a higher truth that was so blatantly violated by tobacco executives seen in an oft-repeated video clip, lying under oath in the service of greed.

While Russell Crowe is truly the star in this film, one certainly cannot overlook the outstanding performance turned in by Al Pacino. Pacino lives up to this movie’s expectations, and provides wonderful depth in his character. The pure sarcasm in several of his lines leaves you laughing inside. Watching Al Pacino is a delight- and in the end, you hope he not only wins the right to produce TV as he sees fit, you are hoping that his character gets a raise!

Lastly, we cannot forget the performance of a veteran actor, Christopher Plummer. Plummer shows sides of Mike Wallace that you imagined were there, but have never been able to see. Plummer gives the movie a perspective – and plays the depressive Mike Wallace with amazing elan. In the end, you forget that Mr. Plummer is an actor – you begin to think that the real Mike Wallace is the true actor!

This movie is as well-built as it can get. The cinematography and direction give this film a captivating magnetism. There are no slow phases – you remain glued to the storyline from the beginning till the end. The sets, the tone, the music – all blends together like a great suit – well-tailored, warm and satisfying. Michael Mann reels you in, and does not let go. He takes you on a wild ride- your heart races, your eyes tear, your palms sweat, and you are forced to wriggle in your seat. He does his job, and he does it really well.

What happens when you are a powerful multi-millionaire and have everything you ever wanted? While you and I might feel this as desirable, for Nicholas Van Orton, played by Michael Douglas, it is quite boring to the extent of being miserable. He is a rich, divorced, and dreadful investment banker whose 48th birthday reminds him of his father’s suicide at the same age. However, Nicholas’ brother Conrad Van Orton, played by Sean Penn, bought a gift for Nicholas on his 48th birthday, an invitation to play “The Game”. From this point onward the rather slow beginning of the movie helps us to more fully understand how boring and awful Nicholas’ life is, and further provides an excellent contrast with what happens later in the movie.

Nicholas is in a very upscale restaurant when a waitress (Deborah Unger as Christine) spills wine on his shirt. Christine is fired by the restaurant manager and leaves, very upset. Before you can grasp the moment, a waiter rushes by Nicholas’ table and drops off a note that tells Nicholas’ to follow the girl. Thus starts the roller coaster ride.

Within moments Nicholas finds himself involved with an apparently dying man, then just as quickly he finds he is being chased by the police, and police dogs, and things just get worse and worse. The list of things to which Nicholas is subjected is too long and would leave you with no surprises.

Nicholas tries to figure out how to make all the action and events to which he is being subjected stop. Nicholas can’t handle the loss of control. Further, the chaos of his experiences seems to follow no pattern or order. Eventually Nicholas gets back to where he thinks it all began for a showdown with the characters that he has discovered are all merely actors. The ending of the story will almost surely have you stunned and amazed.

There are several lapses in credibility, but unless you are an obsessive control freak (sort of like Nicholas Van Orton, for instance) you’ll likely consider the lapses minor. This movie ultimately is an intelligent thriller that relies on action only when necessary to heighten Nicholas’ fears and to pull him deeper into what begins to seem like a deeply nefarious conspiracy. The most difficult part of this movie is the relatively slow first part. However, some patience at this stage will pay dividends later – what you learn in the first part helps you to understand Nicholas and to be drawn more fully into the series of chaotic situations depicted in the later part. Nothing can be taken at face value in a world turned upside down. Sympathy with Nicholas and his situation is indispensable to fully appreciate the end of the movie. This is indeed an intelligent thriller that relies on intelligent plot versus guns, fast cars and special effects. Douglas is great at conveying the sheer panic of his protagonist’s dilemma, and The Game remains a thinking person’s thriller that grabs and holds your attention.