Never the Bride (radio play)

To date Paul Magrs has written nine novels featuring the dynamic duo of Brenda, a Whitby B&B owner with a past as unconventional as her present, and Effie, her junk shop owning, witch neighbour, six of which have been featured and praised here on Wyrd Britain.

This three part radio play version, starring Joanna Tope as Brenda and Monica Gibb as Effie, was aired on BBC Radio in 2009 and features the stories of, 'The Night Owl', 'The Vintage Costume Hero Ball' and 'Our Frank', which will be mostly familiar to readers of the novels but, for those who aren't, what you'll get is - if you'll excuse the horribly reductive analogy - Alan Bennett does Hammer Horror.  Magrs has an often gloriously silly imagination that is steeped in the classics of British sci fi and horror and his stories are joyous, celebratory, and occasionally vicious, mash-ups of said classics interlaced with that very British, bawdy 'Carry On...' sensibility - "I know what I'm talking about when it comes to people putting the willies up ya!" - and they are fantastic fun.

 

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Never The Bride (The Adventures of Brenda and Effie: Book 1)

Paul Magrs
Headline Review

Brenda has had a long and eventful life and she has come to Whitby to run a B&B in search of some peace and quiet. She and her best friend Effie like nothing better than going out for tea at the Walrus and the Carpenter or dinner at Cod Almighty and keeping their eyes open for any of the mysterious goings on in town. And what with satanic beauty salons, more than illegal aliens, roving psychic investigators and the frankly terrifying owner of the Christmas Hotel there are no shortage of nefarious shenanigans to keep them interested. But the oddest thing in Whitby may well be Brenda herself. With her terrible scars, her strange lack of a surname or the fact that she takes two different shoe sizes, Brenda should have known that people as, well, unique as she is, just aren't destined for a quiet life.

Magrs (pronounced Mars) is a Doctor Who writer (amongst other things) and it really shows as this whole book has a lightness and playfulness about it that made it compulsive reading with ideas straight out of the ‘Who’ grab-bag.

The (not a) Bride of the title is named Brenda and is the owner of a B&B in Whitby who, along with her neighbour, junk shop proprietor Effie, investigates strange goings on in her strange little town.  Brenda’s true identity becomes evident very early on in the proceedings and she is slowly revealed to have been ‘guided’ to Whitby to become the guardian of the place against the portal to Hell opened there.

Magrs makes use of War of the Worlds, Most Haunted (one of the most shameful programmes ever to appear on UK television) and Whitby’s most famous visitor and weaves them into the tapestry of Brenda’s world to produce a joyful, rollicking read full of good, old fashioned, unadulterated fun.

Buy it here -  Never the Bride (The Brenda and Effie Mysteries Book 1)