MEMBERS' BOOKS
Against the Current: Au Revoir to Corporate Life and Bonjour to a Life Afloat in France by Mike Bodnar
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Would you leave your job, sell your house, abandon your family and friends and move to France to live on a boat? With no income, and no idea what the next day would bring?
Probably not. But that’s what Mike and Liz did, choosing to cast off from corporate life to live on and travel the waterways of France.
They’re boarded by armed police, nearly lose their boat, and pull a near-drowned body from the water. With a blade against his neck, Mike’s fate rests on a soccer game, and he and Liz accuse a Frenchman of not knowing how to soil a bat.
This is their adventure, a book for anyone who’s ever thought they might like to just get away from it all, throw caution to the wind and see what tomorrow feels like.
Chuckle your way around France and join Mike and Liz as they go sailing on a notion… Click here for Mike's website and more stories.
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The Letters of Ivor Punch by Colin McIntyre
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In October 2014 Colin's debut novel won the prestigious Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award. It was a great achievement and nothing less than he deserved. Colin generously mentioned the Original Writers Group in the Acknowledgements, thanking us for being a safe platform to hone his early drafts.
The book has gone on to win much praise:
A truly original and enthralling novel. Ivor Punch is a magnificent creation and his story is mischievous, sad, funny and truthful (Stephen Kelman, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED author of PIGEON ENGLISH)
Tragedy and superstition hang over the characters like a mist, and the sea laps against every page... Beguiling tales built on secrets and sadness, each of them with a keen sense of place (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)
Witty, shocking, curious and wry, it is a multi-faceted novel that delights at every turn... A thing of genius and wonder. (WE LOVE THIS BOOK)
MacIntyre is a storyteller with a unique imagination and has created a genuinely heartfelt novel with some standout elements of dark comedy (THE LIST)
As a songwriter, Colin MacIntyre seems always to have been a natural storyteller. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before he turned his abilities to the longer form of the novel. It is fitting that the man best known as Mull Historical Society has crafted a story to which he has put his own name, yet it is a novel which owes so much to his roots on the island of Mull. Such powerful storytelling resonated strongly with readers at the Book Festival, making Colin a runaway winner in voting for the First Book Award (Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival)
He writes with a clarity of style (THE SCOTSMAN)
We meet a pioneering female writer, two fatherless boys, a man who fell from the sky and, of course, the prolific letter writer Ivor Punch (THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH)
The Punch family history is both fascinating and sad. The book is interesting, funny, has a famous cameo and keeps you reading, and it's only when you reach the end of the final chapter that the Punch family history falls into place... The characters are original, well-written, and it's one of those books you want to re-read after you've finished it (Judith Griffin New Books)
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The book has gone on to win much praise:
A truly original and enthralling novel. Ivor Punch is a magnificent creation and his story is mischievous, sad, funny and truthful (Stephen Kelman, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED author of PIGEON ENGLISH)
Tragedy and superstition hang over the characters like a mist, and the sea laps against every page... Beguiling tales built on secrets and sadness, each of them with a keen sense of place (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)
Witty, shocking, curious and wry, it is a multi-faceted novel that delights at every turn... A thing of genius and wonder. (WE LOVE THIS BOOK)
MacIntyre is a storyteller with a unique imagination and has created a genuinely heartfelt novel with some standout elements of dark comedy (THE LIST)
As a songwriter, Colin MacIntyre seems always to have been a natural storyteller. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before he turned his abilities to the longer form of the novel. It is fitting that the man best known as Mull Historical Society has crafted a story to which he has put his own name, yet it is a novel which owes so much to his roots on the island of Mull. Such powerful storytelling resonated strongly with readers at the Book Festival, making Colin a runaway winner in voting for the First Book Award (Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival)
He writes with a clarity of style (THE SCOTSMAN)
We meet a pioneering female writer, two fatherless boys, a man who fell from the sky and, of course, the prolific letter writer Ivor Punch (THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH)
The Punch family history is both fascinating and sad. The book is interesting, funny, has a famous cameo and keeps you reading, and it's only when you reach the end of the final chapter that the Punch family history falls into place... The characters are original, well-written, and it's one of those books you want to re-read after you've finished it (Judith Griffin New Books)
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The Definitive Account of the Great Train Robbery by Nicholas Russell-Pavier
£2.6 million stolen in 46 minutes, prison sentences totalling 378 years, 23 criminals, countless victims.
In the early hours of Thursday, 8 August 1963 at Sears Crossing near Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, £2.6 million (£45 million today) in unmarked £5, £1 and 10 shilling notes was stolen from the Glasgow to London mail train in a violent and daring raid which took forty-six minutes. Quickly dubbed 'the Crime of the Century', it has captured the imagination of the public and the world's media for fifty years, taking its place in British folklore. Ronnie Biggs, Bruce Reynolds and Buster Edwards became household names and their accounts have fed the myths and legends of 'The Great Train Robbery'.
But what really happened? This definitive account dismantles the myths and strips away the sensational headlines to reveal a flawed, darker and more complex story. The crime, the police investigation, the trial, two escapes from high-security prisons, and an establishment under siege are all laid bare in astonishing detail for an epic tale of crime and punishment.
Fifty years later, here is the story set out in full for the first time -- a true-life crime thriller, and also a vivid slice of British social history.
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In the early hours of Thursday, 8 August 1963 at Sears Crossing near Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, £2.6 million (£45 million today) in unmarked £5, £1 and 10 shilling notes was stolen from the Glasgow to London mail train in a violent and daring raid which took forty-six minutes. Quickly dubbed 'the Crime of the Century', it has captured the imagination of the public and the world's media for fifty years, taking its place in British folklore. Ronnie Biggs, Bruce Reynolds and Buster Edwards became household names and their accounts have fed the myths and legends of 'The Great Train Robbery'.
But what really happened? This definitive account dismantles the myths and strips away the sensational headlines to reveal a flawed, darker and more complex story. The crime, the police investigation, the trial, two escapes from high-security prisons, and an establishment under siege are all laid bare in astonishing detail for an epic tale of crime and punishment.
Fifty years later, here is the story set out in full for the first time -- a true-life crime thriller, and also a vivid slice of British social history.
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'Truth Games' and 'Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones' by Bobbie Darbyshire
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Truth Games (2009) is a serious comedy about sex in 70s London. After the hippies and before the yuppies, between the advent of the Pill and the onset of AIDS, between the 'summer of love' and the 'winter of discontent', the newest game in town was sex. Click here to purchase
Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones (2010) is a page-turning comedy of errors that plays with truth and illusion. An innocent meeting of a reading group sparks a series of bizarre events. Three troubled people, driven by loneliness, vanity and revenge, hurl themselves on Inverness public library to find that nothing is as they expect. Click here to purchase
"Fantastic story telling, with wonderful characters who you soon feel you’ve known for ever. Set in the 1970s between the advent of the pill and the onset of aids, Truth Games explores the complex relationships between a group of friends in the long hot summers of 75 and 76 and the winter in between. Cleverly observed, the book has laugh out loud moments interspersed by episodes that challenge you to examine your own behaviour when dealing with close friends and those not so close. For those who remember the 70s Bobbie Darbyshire conjurs up lots of memories, from the clothes we wore, to the things we ate and the parties we threw. For those who don’t remember the 70s don’t be put off. There’s as much here that’s as relelvant today as it was back then. The nature of friendship and fidelity between friends as well as between partners. Page turning stuff. Thoroughly deserves a 5 star rating!" Posted on Waterstones Website
Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones (2010) is a page-turning comedy of errors that plays with truth and illusion. An innocent meeting of a reading group sparks a series of bizarre events. Three troubled people, driven by loneliness, vanity and revenge, hurl themselves on Inverness public library to find that nothing is as they expect. Click here to purchase
"Fantastic story telling, with wonderful characters who you soon feel you’ve known for ever. Set in the 1970s between the advent of the pill and the onset of aids, Truth Games explores the complex relationships between a group of friends in the long hot summers of 75 and 76 and the winter in between. Cleverly observed, the book has laugh out loud moments interspersed by episodes that challenge you to examine your own behaviour when dealing with close friends and those not so close. For those who remember the 70s Bobbie Darbyshire conjurs up lots of memories, from the clothes we wore, to the things we ate and the parties we threw. For those who don’t remember the 70s don’t be put off. There’s as much here that’s as relelvant today as it was back then. The nature of friendship and fidelity between friends as well as between partners. Page turning stuff. Thoroughly deserves a 5 star rating!" Posted on Waterstones Website
Glowfly Dance by Jade Gibson
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"An extraordinary tale of migration, love and loss."
Based on a true story, Jade Gibson’s Glowfly Dance focuses on the perspective, resilience and survival of children, and the failure of society to shield women from violence while protecting the perpetrators.
In a story peopled with intriguing characters, exotic landscapes and lush description, Glowfly Dance depicts the complexity of domestic violence and its devastating impact on the entire family. The novel was shortlisted for two international literary prizes in its unpublished form, and reviewers have described the book as both harrowing and beautiful.
Told from the perspective of Mai, a young girl of mixed heritage, the story spans three continents and deals with issues of migration, identity, women’s refuges, abuse of women and children, law courts and violence. It exposes flaws in the ability of the authorities – legal, social, psychological – to protect, and thereby raises questions on policy and social responsibility. In depicting the failure of the law and society to protect women and children in danger, the novel aims to stimulate debate and ultimately bring about awareness and positive change.
Gibson says, 'I have written a prize-shortlisted book on a childhood life story of domestic abuse and violence that encompasses intimate partner femicide. I would like to share this story with you, which I fully believe will help save women in similar situations in the country through spreading much-needed awareness, and the survival and resilience of children.'
Published in October 2015, Glowfly Dance has been featured in the press and at book fairs and talks, including the Sunday Times, Business Day, Kingsmead Book Fair, Open Book, Nancy Richards’ SAfm literature show and Artscape Women's Festival, among others. It has been formally certified by the Department of Education as useful for education on domestic violence, and was longlisted for the Barry Ronge Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Glowfly Dance is available in bookshops in southern Africa, and as an e-book.
The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children is an international awareness-raising campaign that takes place every year from 25 November to 10 December.
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'City Awakenings' by Colin Macintyre
Congratulations to Colin on releasing his new album "City Awakenings". The Guardian's Mark Beaumont gave it four stars out of five and wrote "Don't call it a reunion: although it's been seven years since the last Mull Historical Society album This Is Hope, they were always the cover for one man's work, Hebridean alt-pop eccentric Colin MacIntyre. Mull's early albums stood out for their charming melodic oddities – MacIntyre played "seagulls", sampled tube announcements and favoured dog-in-wig artwork – and for his air of the parochial and unusual, coming across on stage like a faintly psychopathic Father Dougal. That sense of sanitarium serenade still lingers at tonight's mainland comeback show – MacIntyre tells of the great-grandmother who claims she saw John Wayne on Balamory's high street and digs out early track Public Service Announcer, a song about "considering mass contamination of British Telecom" built on a telephone ring rhythm.
But thankfully his demons seem vanquished; the material from new album City Awakenings is largely bereft of that bristling mania, instead awash with comfort, joy and metropolitan dazzle. With their early period touches of quirky folktronica nabbed and vastly upscaled by Tom Vek and Patrick Wolf, the modern Mull embrace simplicity: the lushness of Thameslink or the life-affirming pop of The Lights and Watching Xanadu, which, 10 years on, is still the catchiest tribute ever written to a 1980 Olivia Newton-John film about roller-skating Olympian muses.
MacIntyre exudes the inclusiveness of island life, too. When he phones his sick uncle to dedicate You Can Get Better to him or plays a solo ballad about his great-grandfather lost to the first world war without knowing he was a father-to-be, we're absorbed into his extended family as if Bush Hall has become a sub-branch of Mull post office. By the time the mariachi signature song Mull Historical Society entreats London to "Join us!", we are queueing up to renew our memberships."
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Border Crosser by John Rico
Congratulations to Johnny on the publication of his book 'Border Crosser'.
“A timeless story of confounded youth and its eternal struggle for meaning, this book may well signal the birth of a titanic new voice. . . . [Rico’s] precise, evocative prose balances pathos and humour with an almost destructive compulsion for honesty and so much frustrated wit that, even at his most naked and sensitive, he holds nothing sacred.” Publishers Weekly
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“A timeless story of confounded youth and its eternal struggle for meaning, this book may well signal the birth of a titanic new voice. . . . [Rico’s] precise, evocative prose balances pathos and humour with an almost destructive compulsion for honesty and so much frustrated wit that, even at his most naked and sensitive, he holds nothing sacred.” Publishers Weekly
Click here to purchase