Dreams Never End by
Royle Nicholas Ed
pbk out November 04
(Tindal Street Press)
at £7.99
This is a small collection of ten 'noir' stories by three writers working out
of Birmingham; Andrew Newsham, Mick Scully and H P Tinker.
The back cover names Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Travel
and the Arts Council, who presumably commissioned or subsidised the
publication. As the title of one of the stories is 'Fucked up the Ass', times
have undoubtedly changed since I sat on the Literary Committee of one
of the Arts Councils!
The three authors, are undoubtedly competent writers and two are winners of various literary
prizes. The stories are certainly expressions of the grimy, sordidly
hedonistic urban life that 'the coarsening of society' has brought about
since the 'sixties. True, the times of Hogarth and Victoria were probably
equally grotty, but time has lent them a veil that is lacking over what is
being lived in our cities today. Some readers may enjoy this book, but
I'm afraid I'm not one of them.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Dreams Never End by
Royle Nicholas Ed
