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Amazed and happy. My memoir ‘Last Days’ came first in the Fish Short Memoir Prize. Deep respect to the other prize winners and all the entrants who put a slice of their life out there. Thanks Clem Cairns and all at Fish Publishing for running these competitions and keeping it real.

I love seeing my books in library. I like it even more that people are taking them out. But I really, really love those plastic dust-covers!

Transports me to my childhood when I walked to the village library, kicking through leaves (was it always autumn?) with the prospect of taking out eight library books, laden with the Gollancz yellow-cover thrillers and mysteries I was returning – kept safe from my grubby hands in their thick plastic dust-covers – and weekends buried in the imaginations of Arthur C Clarke, John Wyndham, Victor Appleton (second series including Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster), Dell Shannon (the writer not the singer, Del)), and the wonderful Ray Bradbury.

I have just read ‘Tender is the Flesh’ back-to-back with Stanley Tucci’s ‘Taste’ (which I loved) and quite honestly you could swap premises and they would read the same – human waxes lyrical over eating animal; human waxes lyrical over eating human.

So, yes, “Tender is the Flesh” is about cannibalism – legal, legitimised and sanitised cannibalism. The conceit is questionable: a global virus has made all animal meat uneatable, so over time people turn to eating people – or rather ‘heads’ that are bred for butchering. It may be, of course, that the virus is a myth and it’s just a way of managing overpopulation. Who knows? I say it’s a questionable starting point, but perhaps if you live a meat-oriented country, such as Argentina, the relentless urge for meat is not so far-fetched.

But we all know how dystopian fiction works so let’s go with it and enjoy Agustina Bazterrica’s wonderful writing and characterisation. This is old-school dystopia that would happily sit alongside post-war satirist writers from the forties and fifties.

The subject matter is a tough read. Really difficult. Certainly, in the early chapters I felt repulsed by what I was reading and in the hands of a lesser writer it might have descended into something more gratuitous and sensationalist, but not here. Good writing can and should confront the darker areas of the human condition. As PG Wodehouse said: ‘… there are two ways of writing novels. One is making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going deep down into life and not caring a damn …’

This novel goes all the way down.

I am conflicted about recommending this book. I think it’s fantastic because the writing is so good and it has contributed to my world view. I see food programmes and books like “Taste” through a different prism now. Perhaps, “Tender is the Flesh” is the first book I have read where I can truly empathise with the animal world. But also, I know, there will be readers for whom (and forgive the pun, I have tried to resist, honestly) this subject is too strong to stomach.

So all I can say is that I’m glad I read it and perversely I’m left with an image of the final scene in “Animal Farm”. To quote: ‘The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.’

“Tender is the Flesh “by Agustina Bazterrica. Published by Pushkin Press, Nov 2020.

With Bonfire Night just around the corner – well, in a few days, I don’t think time goes round corners does it, or does it? Tricky thing time. I remember when I was young the summers seemed – anyway, yes, as I was saying, with Bonfire Night just around the corner and An Other’s Look at 85% and just needing an extra pledge or two, I thought I’d put out this seasonal video.  Hope you like it.

Remember Remember Video.

An Other’s Look is now 75% funded. If we were on the London-to-Brighton bike ride we would now be seeing signs for Ditchling Beacon… which means the last push will be hard and I might fall off.

So with just 25% to go I need some help to get this book over the hill and down to the finish line.  If you’ve been thinking of supporting An Other’s Look but haven’t, then please do. If you know someone who might like An Other’s Look, please send them a link to my Unbound page. If you are a mysterious wealthy benefactor or a hitherto unknown distant relative with pots of money or Dr Evil looking for a way to atone for your past misdemeanours, or you just can’t bear these messages any more, then please give me a push.

It’s been a journey. I’ve approached everybody I know to the point that I am best avoided. I’ve handed out so many leaflets that people now give them to me. I’ve emailed, messaged, tweeted, and posted to the extent that I’ve become more virtual than real. I’ve given talks, readings, been on the radio, made videos, written articles, clung to people’s ankles – and 103 fabulously wonderfully generous supporters have pitched in.

But this last hill still looks awfully steep.

To support An Other’s Look please click here.

 

 

The Wrong Story has been out in the world for a while now and it has attracted a number of reviews. Here are a few here (good and bad).

• https://whisperingstories.com/wrong-story-james-ellis-book-review/?platform=hootsuite
• https://ramblinglisasbookreviews.com/2018/05/09/blogtour-review-the-wrong-story-by-james-ellis-ellisidae-unbounders-annecater-thewrongstory-randomthingstours/
• https://seansbookreviews.com/2018/05/08/the-wrong-story-by-james-ellis-blogtour/
• https://blackbooks2017.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/blogtour-the-wrong-story-by-james-ellis-ellisidae-annecater/
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wrong-Story-James-Ellis/product-reviews/1911586114/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews