I have set up a Reddit account. You can find my content by going to http://www.reddit.com/user/newauthoronline. I hate the fact that each time one posts on Reddit it is necessary to solve a visual Captcha and there is no audio or other alternative to the dratted thing!
I have just finished reading Stolen Girl by Katie Taylor and Veronica Clarke, http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AWR8RL0?ie=UTF8&ref_=oce_digital. The book relates the true story of how 13-year-old Katie Taylor is groomed by a paedophile gang and systematically raped and used as the gang’s sex toy. The book opens with Katie trick or treating with her brother Andrew and her father at the age of 10, however this innocent pastime is replaced only two years later by horrific sexual abuse.
Katie is bullied at school and has a low opinion of herself making her an easy target for the paedophile group lead by Zeb. Zeb and the other men who abuse Katie ply her with alcohol and drugs to loosen her inhibitions. They claim to love Katie but their sole aim is to sexually abuse her. The final straw comes when Zeb asks the 15-year-old Katie to become a prostitute (thus far she hasn’t received money but Katie has, as mentioned above been plied with drugs and alcohol). Katie is so shocked and frightened by the suggestion that she confides in her school’s councillor who alerts the police. Following a wait of 2 years the 18-year-old Katie sees Zeb and several other of the gang’s members sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, however she is bitter that a number of the men who abused her are found not guilty.
The book raises two sensitive issues, that of paedophilia and Asian sex gangs. While stating that the majority of Asians deplore the sexual abuse of children the authors make it clear that all of the men who abused Katie where of Asian origin. Katie’s story is horrific and is wholly credible. However we should, if that is possible put her experience into context. Most Asian men do not abuse children and (as the authors acknowledge) are horrified by paedophilia. Also it should be borne in mind that the ongoing investigations into allegations of child abuse surrounding the late Sir Jimmy Savile relate primarily if not exclusively to alegations made against white European males. The bottom line is that people of all races commit acts of paedophilia and they should be condemned irrespective of their ethnic origin. I recommend this book.
In February 2013 I published Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution by Barry, a brutal pimp in the city of Liverpool. Sam meets Peter and the two of them are soon besotted with one another, however Sam feels that she can not confide in her lover that she is, in effect a sex slave. The revealing of Sam’s secret life near the end of the book leads to profound consequences for all concerned.
In a 4 star review of Samantha a reviewer writes
“Some of the strands haven’t been tied up at the end and maybe that’s just what the author intended”, (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00BL3CNHI/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1). The reviewer is right, that is precisely what I intended. It would have been easy to write an ending in which Samantha and Peter walk off hand in hand into the sunset to live happily ever after. It would have been easy but it would not have been credible. Sam has lied to Peter by telling him that she works as a nurse. He is, quite naturally angry and upset when he discovers the truth. Any hope of a relationship between Sam and Peter is dependent on them rebuilding trust, perhaps this is possible, perhaps not. The truth is I don’t, as the author of Samantha know the answer to that question hence the “loose ends”! Life is not a fairy tale. It is messy and complex and the ending of Samantha reflects this fact.
I have created a dedicated page with links to reviews of my books. You can access my reviews here http://newauthoronline.com/reviews-of-my-books/
Yesterday I discovered a new poetry blog which I recommend http://emilyspoetryblog.com/. The blogger quotes poems and goes on to provide her own analysis. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Emily Bronte’s The Night Wind and W H Auden’s Time Will Say nothing.
Kevin
In December 2012 I published The First Time, a collection of short stories. The main story, The First Time deals with Becky, a young graduate who enters the world of prostitution as a professional escort in order to pay off her credit card bill. I explore the consequences of Becky’s decision both for Becky and her fellow escort and friend Julie.
As with Becky the young student (I’m not sure whether this should be former student), Emma Gould enters the sex industry due to running up a large debt. However Emma’s story is fact while The First Time is fictional albeit based on extensive research into the world of sex work. With Becky it is her taste for the good things in life (expensive consumables and pricey restaurants) which cause her to enter into debt. In Emma’s case her problems stem from an addiction to alcohol.
The First Time deals with the world of outcall escorting (I.E. where a client pays for the escort to visit him (or her) in their home or hotel room. Escorting is, on the whole safe as escorts or their agencies check out via the phone book that people are who they claim to be prior to a sex worker visiting them. In contrast Emma Gould prostituted herself on the street which poses far more dangers. Street prostitutes are subject to far more acts of violence and, sadly, in some instances death than are outcall escorts. Emma survived to relate her experiences in the Daily Mail but many others haven’t.
For the article on Emma Gould please visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307253/Pretty-student-Emma-Gould-admits-turning-prostitution-help-fund-alcohol-addiction.html. For my book, The First Time please see http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00AIK0DD6. For a review of my latest book, Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution in the city of Liverpool please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00BL3CNHI/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
The founder of the book shop Waterstones, Tim Waterstone, is launching a new service, Read Petite which will allow subscribers to read serialised novels and short stories on their mobiles and other mobile devices. Healthy competition in the world of ebooks can only be a good thing and it will be interesting to see how Read Petite competes with big players such as Amazon and Apple. For more on the story please visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307354/Dickens-goes-digital-Waterstones-founder-revives-serialised-novels-e-book-store-Read-Petite.html
Every working day (in my case Monday-Friday) I take both the train and London underground to get into the office. During my travels I hear a number of anouncements advising travellers to mind the gap between the platform and other important matters. Having a quirky sense of humour I can not help but think up alternatives to these anouncements some of which I have given below. First is the correct announcement followed by my alternative rendering:
Original Anouncement – mind the gap.
My version – mind the gap for the gap can not mind you.
Original announcement – Smoking is prohibited Anywhere on this station
My version – smoking is positively encouraged anywhere on this station
Original announcement – Please do not leave unattended articles on this station. Unattended items will be removed and may be destroyed.
My version – Please leave unattended articles on this station. Unattended items may be removed and distributed to random strangers.
In his poem, In Memory of W B yeats, the poet, W H Auden wrote
“For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.”
Auden is one of the 20th century’s greatest poets, I do, however take issue with his view that poetry (and writing more generally) makes nothing happen.
In Oliver Twist Dickens portrayed the English poor law in all it’s brutality. He laid bare the cruelty of the workhouse and the corruption of those who, like the fictional Mr Bumble the Beadle grew fat by abusing the system. Oliver Twist is unremitting in it’s highlighting of the abuses perpetrated by Bumble and his ilk, however Dickens humour also helps to ensure that the novel remains widely read to this day. Who can forget his description of little Oliver daring to ask for more gruel in the workhouse? Dickens was not responsible for bringing about the abolition of the workhouse, however Oliver Twist undoubtedly stirred the conscience of Victorian England, indeed the novel continues to move our conscience in the early years of the 21st century.
To take another example, George Orwell’s terrifying portrayal of totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four, a world in which much of the population of Oceania is constantly observed by the telescreen, influenced and continues to influence those who oppose totalitarianism. Although a man of the left Orwell has been cited by people of both left and right in defence of pluralism. Auden’s view that “poetry makes nothing happen” was not shared by the regimes who banned Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and his much shorter novel Animal Farm. The former Soviet Union and other authoritarian states believed that writing can make things happen, why else would they have prohibited the works of Orwell and other critics of authoritarianism?
Doubtless the greater prosperity enjoyed by democratic societies had a profound impact on the populations of Communist societies. Despite the attempted jamming of western media pictures of life outside the Communist bloc did penetrate behind the iron curtain. The inhabitants of Czechoslavakia, Poland and other states which came under Soviet influence wanted consumer goods, however the intellectuals among the populace desired freedom and the writings of Orwell, Kafka and others kindled in them this desire for democracy.
In conclusion it can be said that Auden is right in the sense that writing in and of itself makes nothing happen. However the influence of authors such as Dickens and Orwell should not be underestimated. When combined with political and economic forces words can (and are) powerful tools for good or ill.
They found him lying face down in his bath. Donna, the barmaid in the Grapes where the elderly man had been drinking on that fateful Saturday afternoon,informed WPC Margaret Thomas that, to the best of her recollection he had consumed at least 10 pints of lager. The post mortem revealed a blood alcohol level consistent with Donna’s testimony and there being no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident a verdict of accidental death was returned. As his friends remarked
“Poor Stan must have banged his head on the bath, lost consciousness and drowned”.
—
George hated the bathroom. Nothing unusual about that one might say and, indeed as a small boy he shared with his friends a detestation of cleanliness. Playing football, getting caked in mud was all tremendous fun but washing constituted barbarism perpetrated on children by unsmiling adults. In the case of his friends bath time meant gentle cajoling to enter the water. If they refused to wash then their parents driven to distraction might, to howls of protest take hold of the recalcitrant child and soap him from head to toe with imperial leather. Years later George’s friends smiled as they recalled bath time, not so George.
Have you ever felt the cold enamel of a basin as it touches your face? Yes very possibly you have my dear readers. Let me rephrase the question, have you ever felt strong hands holding your head under water? Have you felt the panic rising in you, the terrible unspeakable fear that you would drown? Have you wondered why man does evil unto man? I hope that the answer is no. Little George could unfortunately answer yes to all these questions. He lived in terror of the man. Outwardly charming, the life and soul of the party. He was such a charmer was Stan, no one would have dreamed that he was abusing his step son. Oh reader is that really the case? Shouldn’t someone have seen the terror in George’s eyes when Stan was in the room? Some no doubt remarked on the fact that when Stan was absent how George seemed happy and relaxed. Had someone acted then would Stan’s fate have been averted? Would he have died peacefully in his bed rather than struggling for breath as his lungs filled with water? Perhaps we should ask George but he, like Mccavity wasn’t there, or was he?
