LOOKING AT LIFE FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE
THIS IS A BRILLIANT BOOK. The stories would very much have stood up as a collection of work in their own right but the extra and imaginative addition of the idea that there is a book that reads people adds to the brilliance. Brian Page, editor Mensa Magazine.
50 surprising and varied short stories to entertain and make you wonder...
A few, very short extracts...
BREAKING NEWS
I promise you, dear reader, I did not do it on purpose, I am unable to move, but as he got near Lucy, his foot slipped on my shiny and glossy cover as I laid on the floor. As he fell, his head smashed against the coffee table and he lost consciousness. His blood flowed onto the floor. Lucy froze as she looked at the man she had once loved, dying. Rather than call for an ambulance she made herself some strong, sweet tea and sipped it slowly. He was impotent now, unable to carry out any threats. She looked at the reddening of the tweed his jacket was tailored from and she recalled how he had persuaded her father to pay for clothes that he would wear to match the beauty and radiance of his daughter.
DIRTY BOOK
I was one of the few publications that Malcomb had read that did not have pictures of naked women in them...
I was glad when a new bed was bought and I was removed from the premises and given a home on the bookshelf of one of the actresses who had become too old to participate and earned a small living by scrubbing, dusting and washing the place after the films were shot. She found me with the debris from the old bed, took me away and I was able to comfort her in the only way I could; as a book for her to read.
CONFESSIONAL
He had me with him sometimes to fill the gaps between the sinners. His story is somewhat disturbing. There are lots of books in the single book, the Bible. I was an outsider.
When Mary Martin arrived, she was known to the priest, not only from her voice but from seeing her in church. She was young, raven haired, small in stature but big in chest. Alistair looked forward to her visits and when she appeared, he would take his tape recorder out and place it next to the screen where Mary would not see it.
'Oh, Father, I have sinned.' She said nervously.
'And the nature of your sin is what?'
'I am responsible for the deaths of three men this week.'
SWEATING IT OUT
He had undressed with reserve earlier, as had the other participants and put his clothes into a neat pile.
Looking around in the dim light he established that men and women made equal numbers if he included himself. They shared a range of ages.
And so, his journey began with a visit to a shamanic sweat lodge and there, unwittingly, his soul seemed to have become stuck in a place where his nightmares came to him for resolution.
He had reviewed the women for any that might be of interest to his libido, his sole motive for most things he did. One in particular caught his eye but she seemed detached and he had no apparent appeal for her. He thought that he would work on her later in the evening.
Please enjoy the book.
REVIEW Brian Page, editor of Mensa Magazine
This is a brilliant book. If you like stories with a twist, ones that reveal the vagaries of life in all it many forms then this is definitely for you. Very highly recommended.
