The Seven Pillars of Nonsense

The Seven Pillars of Nonsense is a collection of 86 short stories from the outstandingly, err... outstanding, imagination/s of Michael Roselaar.

Some are so short that post-modernists would declare them to be flash fiction. Which is just a way to describe them as being very short stories or in some cases, very, very short stores.

We hear of as dog that doesn't bark, because it does, technically speaking, exist. Though can more than hold its own doggy end up in a conversation. There's moree from Dr Magnus Fell throughout the book, so do please pay attention!

There's Albert the independent scientific adviser, who waxes lyrical (or otherwise) about pogonophra, the restaurant that very commendably specialises in food, there's a murder in Colchester, or is there?

There's quite a lot from Clifford, a man of great erudition and even greater depth of thought, trips to see the window on the world by the wonders of Fenestrology,  the disadvantages of seeking out or worse, finding expert advise and what happens when historians go bad. Well, have you heard of Sidney "the World Wide" Webb? Did you know he never owned a computer? And what about the Fabians?

The interesting thing about this wonderfully bizarre collection of short stories is that they are written at a 45% degree angle to real life. You think you know some of the stories, but you can't actually be certain, it's like you are reading them in a fun house distorting mirror and suddenly realising that you know or think you know the story you are reading.

It's no good. I can't explain any more, but I do know that you'll love these stories as much, if not possibly more, than I have loved them. Especially the play Harry Stophanes and the Birds. And the copious and highly illuminating footnotes. So please buy as many copies as you can for yourself and your family.

 As an aside I think this will make an excellent book to take on holiday with you.

It's published by The Book Guild at a highly reasonably £8.99.

Chrysalis

Chrysalis is a novel from Jeremy Welch.

Sebastian is a man of his times. He is self-absorbed and works a a financier. He his floating through life, not satisfied with his lot, he seems unable to make any positive decisions following a catastrophic error of judgment when he was a young officer serving in the armed forces in the war in Iraq.

Suddenly he finds himself without a job. He turns to Zoe, his former lover, for advice and assistance.

Zoe believes that Sebastian needs to get back in touch with his passion for writing.

As a result of her advice he leaves Britain for Holland where he lives in Amsterdam and makes an effort to finish off the novel that he started, but abandoned, whilst he was a student.

By this method, he thinks, or rather he hopes, he will be able to rekindle his zest for living.

He becomes friendly with someone called Chrysalis,  the unusual and compelling owner of a travelling spiegeltent (a large tent for entertainment purposes) filled with a cast of some very interesting entertainers.

The spiegeltent cast present to him a glimpse pf a life that he desires for himself. But his old problem, the crippling curse of indecision, is the only thing that is holding him back.

However, his normal air of passivity is thrown to one side when he sees that a prostitute is being assaulted and he rushes in to defend her.

This one out of character incident opens up a portal into the seamy underside of Amsterdam and perhaps, in a someone circuitous route, to the pathway to his redemption?

It's a very well written story that makes sense of PTSD, modern life and sex trafficking.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.

Ellen Lives On

In Ellen Lives On, new author Lynda Haddock has written a very important booked aimed at the Young Adult (YA) market.

The novel is not only a debut for Lynda, it is also a first in another and more compelling way. It is probably the first novel (well, the first in a long while) that deals with the concept of the suicide of a parent and the devastating impact it can have on the lives of their children in a sincere and sympathetic way.

It's 19071 and Ellen is fifteen and is going through the usual traumas that afflict all children of that age, which we all went through in one way or another, male or female.

But then, Ellen's life takes a terrible and mindblowingly tragic turn. Her mother commits suicide.

This shatters Ellen's entire life and as a consequence of her mother's suicide, Ellen is forced by circumstances to fave up to sexism and bullying from her thoughtless peers.

Ellen realises that she needs to take matters inot her own hands and she takes flight to London. She eventually becomes involved in a women's rights group.

This gives her the opportunity to grow emotionally, to become braver and to stand up not only for herself but for all women.

The book is published by Matador at £7.99.

Laduma's immersive technology

Shelter Rock

Shelter Rock is an exciting new thriller from M. P. Miles.

The country of South Africa feels that it is beleaguered on all sides during the height of the Apartheid era.

Innocent young Englishman Ralph meets Elanza an heiress who has been made blind due to a disease. Elanza is politically well connected and she is seeking love.

Ralph suddenly realises that he has come across a massive South African secret.

Ralph vanishes whilst walking home in the midst of the continent and the only black secret agent employed by the National Intelligence Service, becomes involved in their lives.

It is the official mission of Angel Rots to use his unique skills to find Ralph. But does he have a hidden agenda? An old score to settle? If so, with whom?

He follows Ralph from Cape Town all the way to Cairo. Ralph always seems to be one step beyond Rots and so Rots begins to question what, exactly, is happening? 

Why is Ralph considered to be worthy of all this attention? What does Ralph know that is so important?

As a good secret agent, Rots knows how to seek out information. But what Rots discovers shocks him to his very core. It's something so huge that his loyalties and his beliefs are challenged. It's a secret that is so big that it could change the course of history.

The novel is well written and well researched. The characters, including minor characters, are all well drawn and depicted as sympathetically as possible.

It is published by Matador at £9.99.
 

The City Grump Rides Out

In The City Grump Rides Out, Stephen Hazell-Smith brings together a wide-ranging collection of articles that he published under the name The City Grump, his regular column in the online pages of Real Business magazine.

The articles are all humorous, highly witty and acerbic, shining a bright light on the business and the political landscape of Great Britain.

The City Grump became well known for exposing and rooting out the bizarre and absurd behaviour of the great and the good who were in control of the institutions of the country.

Over the past nine years he turned his mordant wit on those who, he considered, deserved it.

Hazell-Smith spent well over a quarter of a century working within the City of London, having a variety of careers, including a stockbroker's analyst, chairing a stock-brokerage concern, a PR company that specialised in financial matters and an Exchange.

He is still involved in chairing a range of venture capital trusts and investing his own funds in a number of start-ups.

He criticises the reemergence of Stalinist style leadership in political parties, the possibility that baby boomers are inherently selfish, the good that Margaret Thatcher did when she came into power, how it is knowledge that is, ultimately, a power for corruption, how the Davos elite got things so badly wrong and, in the end, proved to be such an abject failure.

Learn why and when Richard Branson should have started to avoid and shun the spotlight, how and why George Osborne brought shame to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer and why small is beautiful and big ugly in terms of business.

He also touches on what is wrong with Mrs May, and includes a compelling analysis on all things Brexit and European Union under the chapter £The Brussels Death Star." And why Blockchain might prove to be helpful.

At £12.00 this book is a must have if you feel you might like to know what happened, who did it and what is really happening at the moment.

An Author On Trial

An Author On Trial tells the story of Italian author Giuseppe Jorio.

Have you heard of Italian author Giuseppe Jorio? The probability is that you have not.

And there's a good reason for that for the sub-title of this book is: the story of a forgotten writer.

Written by his son, Luciano Iorio, the book tells the story of how, after he enjoyed considerable success with his debut novel, La Morte di un Uomo (Death of a Man) Jorio's career as a writer was virtually destroyed because he was prosecuted and put on trial no less than five times in the course of six years and eventually found guilty of obscenity for writing his novel Il Fuoco del Mondo (The Fire of the World).

Jorio was the first post-war Italian author to be given such a conviction and, uniquely, the only such author to ever receive a prison sentence.

Using the diaries that his father kept and reading through family letters from the time, Luciano Iorio brings to life the hidden story of what actually happened to his estranged father.

It reveals how biased, bigoted and prejudiced judges aided and abetted by illiberal and bellicose censorship policies (allegedly in order to "defend decency") of the ruling Christian Democrat Party, assisted by the Vatican, decided to make an example of Jorio, even if this meant they would have to twist and misapply the relevant legislation.

The book examines the terrible strains that the five trials and the prison sentence placed not only on Jorio and his work as a novelist but also the terrible strains it placed him other members of his family under, including his own son, Luciano.

As for the book, Il Fuoco del Mondo? it was never published.

It is a moving and illuminating book that pulls no punches as it examines all people involved in the scandal and spares no one, not even Jorio, who, it is acknowledged, had not been without fault.

It is published by Matador at £8.99 and will be a very useful book for anyone with an interest in 20th century literature.