London Falling

Paul Cornell 

Tor Books

The dark is rising ...Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack's murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law -- until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again.
As the group starts to see London's sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it.

I've read a few of Cornell's things over the years, mostly from the library when I've not found anything else which is not intended to be a slight against him but rather an observation that the titles on which he made his name as a comic writer - such as X-Men and Batman - aren't really to my taste. He did have a stretch on Hellblazer too but I was gone from comics by then and stayed gone for about 10 years.

I'm not sure why I'm saying any of this as what we have here isn't a comic but the first in a series of novels about a group of magic coppers. I think I'm probably just admitting to a tiny bias in that I really didn't like the other stuff but it had as much - if not more - to do with my disinterest in people dressed in spandex hitting each other as it did in the writing.

D.I. Quill and his small team of two undercover officers and an intelligence analyst are at the end of a long and complex investigation and about to make the score of their careers when the chief suspect is brutally murdered in custody, in plain sight of Quill and with no visible perpetrator.

Their investigations lead them in the direction of one particular old lady who possibly may have had a hand in a huge number of deaths stretching back further than seems possible. During the raid on her house something inexplicable happens and the team are plunged headlong, unprepared and ill-equipped, into an aspect of London that they'd previously been blissfully unaware of.

I must admit I struggled with this book. For the most part I found it to be a pretty ponderous read peopled by unlikeable characters. I almost gave up on it a few times during the first 100 pages or so but persevered after reading some online reviews that promised that it came to life in the second half, Well, I ploughed on and it did but not much. I found that with the exception of Sefton (one of the undercover coppers) I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. The story was laborious and resolutely dull with an identity problem about whether it wanted to be Neverwhere or The Sweeney and ended up not really capturing the spirits of either.

Comparisons will also be made to Ben Aaronovitch's 'Rivers of London' series and there are similarities but Aaronovitch has a wit and a lightness of touch that is missing here. Cornell's protagonists are all so serious that they must have appalling and permanent jaw ache from all the teeth clenching and the whole thing felt drab and unlovely and perhaps that's the point and I just couldn't see it which would be annoying.  This - the supernatural detective -  is a genre I like very much indeed.  I have a shelf full of this sort of stuff and desperately want to like this book and can see that there's something quite interesting buried in there, especially with their find at the end, but everything is all so down and maudlin it feels like it's pushing me away.

When I picked this book up I grabbed the other two in the series with it - they were on offer - so I may try at least the second one just to find out if there is something here and I'm just missing it.

Buy it here - London Falling (Shadow Police)

The Dark is Rising

Susan Cooper
Puffin Books

"When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back, three from the circle, three from the track; wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone; five will return, and one go alone.” 
With these mysterious words, Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavour is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding; Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined.

Book two of Cooper's series of the same name takes a slightly different tack to the first.  What we see here is a far more developed and cohesive storyworld than in the first. The Blyton-esque overtones are much less obvious and the story has considerably more depth.  

The core idea here seems much the same - there is an eternal battle between good and evil / the Light versus the Dark - and the old fella putting the kids at risk in the first is back recruiting yet another wee fella to the cause.  This particular tiddler though is a bit special as he's the last 'Old One', one of the protectors of the world, heir to their power and magic and the chosen one who will find and unite the six signs that will herald the victory of the light.

Cooper has created a whole mythology for these 'Old Ones' tying them into human events throughout history and incorporating folktales such as 'Wayland Smith' and 'The Wild Hunt' which in many ways means the back story is more well developed than the book story which again is a little too pat.  The 6 signs almost literally fall into young Will's lap and by the halfway point it's apparent that - whilst obviously - he's going to succeed in his endeavours he's also going to do so without any great expenditure of effort.  It's an unfortunate flaw as in all other ways this is a most enjoyable read filled to bursting with invention that left me intrigued to see where she is going to take her story next but also with the knowledge that the story may be a little too pat.

Buy it here -  The Dark Is Rising: Modern Classic

Rivers of London: Body Work

Ben Aaronovitch (author)
Andrew Cartmel (author)
Lee Sullivan (artist)
Titan Comics

Peter Grant is part of a very special London police unit. Full-time cop and part-time wizard, he works on rather unusual crimes - those that involve magic and the general weirdness that permeates London's dark underbelly.
His latest case begins with a perfectly innocent car on a homicidal killing spree - without a driver. But then, before you know it, there's a Bosnian refugee, the Most Haunted Car in England, a bunch of teenagers loaded on Katamine and a seemingly harmless wooden bench with the darkest of pasts.

I read the most recent of the 'Rivers of London' books the other day and enjoyed it thoroughly so I hopped online to check out when we could expect to see the next only to discover that a comic book version had snuck out while my back was turned.  It seems that there's a current, still in the pamphlet version, story also - called 'Night Witch' - but happily there's also an already collected older series too.  I think I was a lot happier to find this out than my bank account was.

Ben Aaronovitch

As is often the case with these side project things nothing overt ever really happens because it would impact to strongly on the main series and be missed by / confuse / annoy (delete as applicable) those who only read the prose books.  Now, this isn't something that I mind overly.  I quite like a more day to day story rather than an ever driving forward, it's all a big conspiracy, looming big bad, "Doom is coming! Doom I tells ya!" type deal.  There's a nod here to the bigger picture with two characters having a covert conversation, one of whom we see and one who we can only guess at.

The story here tells of the investigation of a drowning that leads Peter and Detective Constable Sahra Guleed off on a chase after haunted cars and Peter's boss Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale on a trip down memory lane to revisit a past he'd rather leave well alone.

Andrew Cartmel

As it's written by Aaronovitch it's no surprise that everything here feels right and the story is a solid 'Rivers...' piece even if it's lack of a novels page count means it is a little more slight than usual and I'm not entirely convinces that the two story strands really hang together entirely convincingly and they seem far too blasé about using their magic in front of civilians but I'm quibbling and besides the whole Nightingale storyline is worth it just for the final two panels.

Lee Sullivan

As a very welcome added bonus the book ends with a number of single page shorts called, in one case, 'Tales from the Thames' and 'Tales from the Folly' in the rest and a slightly longer one about the perils of bringing children into a magical environment called 'Sleep No More'.  These shorts are a lovely little opportunity to feature various cast members in joyously humorous vignettes.

I have a real affection for this series and discovering this extra book was an exciting prospect but as is always the case a new thing in a favourite series comes with an element of worry that it's not going to live up to it's predecessors.  Well, this one did whilst, thanks to Lee Sullivan's crisp and clean art, also adding a whole new visual element that, with the exception of Molly's cloth cap, matched the images in my head and I'm very much looking forward to the next collection.

Buy it here - Rivers of London: Body Work  
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NB - you can read our write-ups of the first 3 books in the 'Rivers of London' series here, the 4th here and the 5th here.

Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London 5)

Ben Aaronovitch
Gollancz

In the fifth of his bestselling series Ben Aaronovitch takes Peter Grant out of whatever comfort zone he might have found and takes him out of London - to a small village in Herefordshire where the local police are reluctant to admit that there might be a supernatural element to the disappearance of some local children. But while you can take the London copper out of London you can't take the London out of the copper.
Travelling west with Beverley Brook, Peter soon finds himself caught up in a deep mystery and having to tackle local cops and local gods. And what's more all the shops are closed by 4pm.


I really like this 'Rivers of London' series so it's a very good day when a new one comes into my possession.  This one is the fifth in the series and, quite literally, opens up a whole new world for police officer and apprentice wizard Peter Grant.

In this one Peter is taken far outside his London comfort zone as he's packed off to rural Herefordshire to check if there's any magical element to the disappearance of two young girls.  There is, of course, and the book details Peter's efforts to work out what the hell it is alongside his new country copper mate Dominic and his very good friend Beverley.

Along the way we get to meet one of Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale's old colleagues, Hugh Oswald and his intriguing bee obsessed grand-daughter and a whole new element of the magical world that Peter has got himself in the middle of.  There are occasional glimpses of the wider story with cryptic texts from the estranged Lesley but this one is very much a stand alone story and perhaps all the better for it.

I really like Nightingale and the whole Folly set-up and I would genuinely love Aaronovitch to explore the history of it in more detail somewhere but equally it's nice to see Peter off the leash and running on his own instincts and, for the most part, getting it spot on.

The story is loose limbed and lively so it doesn't ever feel like we're moving from plot point A to plot point B to C etc and the supporting cast, Beverley in particular, are engaging and interesting in their own right.

The book, because it's a Waterstones edition ends with a little short about a magical granny which is fun and the book closes with an ominous warning and a palpable desire for the next in the series to turn up soon.

Buy it here - Foxglove Summer: The Fifth PC Grant Mystery ...................................................................
NB - you can read our write-ups of the first 3 books in the 'Rivers of London' series here and the 4th here.

Injection (vol. 1)

Warren Ellis (writer)
Declan Shalvey (artist)
Jordie Bellaire (colourist)
Image Comics

A few years ago, a public/private partnership between the British Government and a multinational company saw five clever people placed in university-owned offices and allowed to do whatever they liked. It was called the Cultural Cross-Contamination Unit, and the idea was that it would hothouse new thinking and new patents. Five actual geniuses, all probably crazy, very eccentric, put in one place and given carte blanche to think about ways to approach and change the future. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
They did A Crazy Thing, which was referred to as The Injection. A mysterious Thing that they did in order to make the 21st Century better and stranger. It got out. It got loose into the fabric of the 21st Century, whatever it was, and now things are getting weird and ugly, faster and faster.  
So a few years have passed. They've all gone their separate ways, into separate "jobs" that allow them to follow and sometimes deal with the repercussions of The Injection. We are in the period where the toxic load of The Injection is at such a level that events that are essentially paranormal in nature are coming faster and faster, headed towards a point where humanity won't easily be able to live on the planet any more. Not a Singularity of glory, but an irretrievable constant blare of horror coming too thick and fast for anything to deal with.

Warren Ellis

I love Warren's work.  I gave up on comics in the early 90s, sold off the majority of my collection and blew the money on... well, let's just say I blew the money.  About 10 years later having cleaned up considerably I picked up a copy of the first 'Transmetropolitan' book in a HMV in Cardiff.  After standing there reading for 10 minutes (it's quite short) I left with it and the next 2 volumes in hand.  It brought me back, somewhat, into the fold and I will sing his praises to anyone who'll sit still long enough to listen.  So, pull up a chair and let me tell you why this book is an absolute must for all fans of Wyrd Britain storytelling.

Those of you familiar with Warren's work, in particular, 'Planetary' (and perhaps 'Global Frequency') will recognise in 'Injection' his love of playing with genre archetypes, making them dance to the subtly different tune that the current zeitgeist is playing.

Declan Shalvey

What we have is a team book which is, of course, a staple of comics and is a trope that Warren very much re-invigorated with his 'widescreen' superheroics on 'Stormwatch' and 'The Authority'.  Here though, as I mentioned earlier, it's his other, non spandex, team book that springs most readily to mind.  In that previous series his characters were dealing with the events and consequences of the 'fictions' of the 20th century.  They were investigating the genre staples that have defined modern tastes such as the superhero - both the pulpy variety and the grim and grrr version of the late 80s / early 90s - monster movies, noir, etc.  Here, his characters are concerned with an older and more deeply fundamental and, so far at least, decidedly British folkloric fictions;  they are accessing the stories behind the stories and are dealing with the impacts these stories are having on their lives and the country as a whole.

Maria Kilbride

'Injection' tells of a 'team' of four very distinct people who make up the 'Cultural Cross-Contamination Unit', a governmental think-tank that takes it upon itself to avoid the predicted death of innovation and the entropic decay of the 21st century by injecting a non-biological consciousness into the physics of the world to "make the 21st century more interesting".  Part spell, part AI the consciousness or 'injection' begins to serve it's purpose accessing and utilising the folklore of the British Isles to add that extra spice that the CCCU were so keen on stimulating especially at the point we join the story as it starts communicating with it's creators.

Robin Morei

The core (no longer a) team make for a pretty intriguing prospect.  A Holmes-esque investigator named Vivek Headland - immaculate, aloof and seemingly an utter control freak watching over his former comrades from his ultra-minimalist New York penthouse furnished with only a phone, a white devil, a very tall chair, a folding table and an inedible sandwich - Simeon Winters - a gadget laden super spy / assassin - Brigid Roth - computer whizz and creator of the aforementioned A.I. - Robin Morei - who is absolutely "not a fucking wizard" but is descended from a long line of cunning folk - and heading it all is "the only authentic genius most people will ever meet", Maria Kilbride who is trying very hard "to make up for a terrible thing she did".  They make for a very interesting quintet with Robin and Maria showing themselves to be, for me at least, fascinating characters as I'm always a sucker for an anarchic magician and a hard as nails rampaging scientist.

Obviously this is only the first 5 issues of a brand new series and Warren excels at teasing out his stories and keeping you guessing, hoping, wondering and hankering in equal measures.  As I said earlier I am a fan and I'll happily follow wherever he happens to take a story and this time out it's started in a place that rings every single one of my Wyrd Britain bells.  Like it's author, 'Injection' is steeped in the stories of the British Isles; the stories both ancient and modern that define that very British sense of the fantastical from the creatures of legend to the type of nightmares conjured up by an Etonian schoolmaster, from the detective fantasies of a Scottish physician to the pioneering scientist with his own Experimental Rocket Group and of an entire generation of post-war British authors who destroyed the world again and again and again.  This book bleeds them all but does so in a way that mixes them with Warren's voracious appetite for the new, the unique and the unorthodox and presents them alongside Shalvey and Bellaire's breathtaking artwork as a bold and beautiful re-invigoration that makes for an enthralling read.

Buy it here:  Injection Volume 1 (Injection Tp)

The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories

Joan Aiken
Peter Bailey (illustrations)
Virago

'I wish we'll have two children called Mark and Harriet. And I hope lots of interesting and unusual things will happen to them. It would be nice if they had a fairy godmother, for instance. And a phoenix or something out of the ordinary for a pet. We could have a special day for interesting and unusual things to happen - say, Mondays. But not always Mondays, and not only Mondays, or that would get a bit dull'

As a result of their mother's honeymoon wish, Mark and Harriet Armitage have a fairy godmother, a pet unicorn, and are prepared for anything life can throw at them (especially, but not always, on a Monday): hatching griffins in the airing cupboard, Latin lessons with a ghost, furious Furies on the doorstep, and an enchanted garden locked inside a cereal packet. Life with the Armitages can be magical, funny, terrifying - but never, ever dull.

My first experience of Joan Aiken's writing was with one of her Armitage family stories - The Apple of Trouble - in a horror anthology called 'Ghostly Experiences' published by Armada Lion and it would be fair to say I was gobsmacked!  The story was sprightly, inventive, beautifully constructed and above all fun.  Since then I've been actively hunting for more.

Ms. Aiken wrote Armitage stories throughout her life (which shows in the changing preoccupations of the children - Mark in particular) and they were published in various anthologies over the years but until now the only collection has been a US edition from 2008 (with the same title) that was far too expensive for my pockets.  So, a few months ago when it was announced that Virago were republishing it I was a very happy chappy indeed.

Well, it's here and so the question must be asked, 'Was it worth the wait?'
And the answer is 'Absolutely!  It's utterly joyous.'

On the occasion of her honeymoon Mrs Armitage finds a magical stone on the beach and makes the wish in the blurb above triggering a life filled with dragons, ghosts, unicorns, old fairy ladies, owls, hippogryphs, furies, cereal packets, curses, troublesome fruit, goblins, warlocks and adventure mostly, but not exclusively, on a Monday.

The Armitages - Mark & Harriet along with their parents - inhabit a world where magic and the supernatural are as common as a homemade nuclear reactor, domestic robots and a fancy dress prize that consists of 'a hundred cigarettes and a bridge marker'.  Their village is populated both by the fantastical - the tiny little Perrow family and various 'distressed old fairy ladies' - alongside the tweely mundane of kids books everywhere - the blacksmith and the village shopkeeper.  As such the extraordinary is very much commonplace for the Armitages.  It's still fun, and occasionally a little annoying, but is very much just the way things are and this makes the whole thing marvellous.

It's almost soap opera-y in it's slice of life snapshots but with a level of wit, imagination and fun that no soap could every achieve.  The characters are a little sketchy sure but this is a short story collection so do they need to be more?  The kids are adventurous, brave and resourceful, dad is solid and a bit fusty and mum is loving, kind and generous (and a little bit mercenary) and all serve to fill very familiar roles in what is a very familiar format; the kids magical adventure story.  It is Ms. Aiken's words that lift it out of any possible cliche though; her prose is elastic, her imagination dances and her audience is charmed.

The 25 stories presented here are fairly brief, staying just long enough to resolve their eccentric premises in often delightfully eccentric ways and together present a collection that offers a thoroughly enjoyable read that is very much of it's time whilst also being a book for all times.

Buy it here - The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories (Virago Modern Classics)

A Bundle of Nerves

Joan Aiken
Peacock Books

I first came across Aiken's writing in an anthology called 'Ghostly Experiences', which I loved so finding this was a real treat.

This is a collection of short stories of a ghostly, macabre or just plain darkly humorous bent all written in what I'm beginning to see as Aiken's light and playful written voice.

The tone of the book is set immediately with the brilliantly comedic and twisted 'Cricket' and 'The Man Who Had Seen The Indian Rope Trick', both of which feature tales of stuffy Englishness coming face to face with something 'other' and losing out.  Next up is a fun but insubstantial tale of music and obsession ('Do You Dig Grieg?') and another of lust and avarice ('Belle of the Ball') before the book hits a decided high point with it's sole science fiction tale, 'Five Green Moons', as an angelic alien visits a small British town looking for somewhere he can make his home.  'Smell' adds revenge into the mix before 'Furry Night' brings romance, sport, peril and lycanthropy to the table.

At this point we are only 7 stories in and with 12 still to go  - the next boasts the frankly unparallelled title of 'As Gay as Cheese' - we are already certain that it's going to be a ride unlike many others.  Indeed, as it transpires, over the 19 tales we are treated to an imagination that is playful, inventive, exploratory, refined, bloodthirsty, absurd and peerless.  I am fast becoming a devotee of the lady's work and as such cannot recommend this highly enough.

Magic and Marillion's Garden Party

I'm going to admit here right out of the gate that I've never been a fan. Marillion were always a bit floppy and fussy for my hardcore punk and industrial leaning tastes. I'm also going to admit that I used to try and wind up a Marillion obsessed ex-colleague by humming 'Kayleigh' whenever he passed and ending random sentences with the words 'Dilly, Dilly'.

Jon, if you're reading, 'Is it too late to say I'm sorry?'

There has though always been one little thing they did that has intrigued me; the slightly malevolent video for the song 'Garden Party', the second single from their debut album 'Script for a Jester's Tear'.

Buy it here -  Script For A Jester's Tear

The song itself is a fairly typical pop prog ditty of the type they made their name doing. The music is jaunty and filled with sharp stabs and busy synths overlaid by lyrics detailing the attendees and their behaviours at the titular party.
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Garden party held today
Invites call the debs to play
Social climbers polish ladders
Wayward sons again have fathers
Hello, Dad, hello, dad
Edgy eggs and queueing cumbers
Rudely wakened from their slumbers
Time has come again for slaughter
O on the lawns by still Cam waters
A slaughter, it's a slaughter

Champagne corks are firing at the sun again
Swooping swallows chased by violins again
Strafed by Strauss they sulk in crumbling eaves again
Oh God not again

Aperitifs consumed en masse
Display their owners on the grass
Couples loiter in the cloisters
social leeches quoting Chaucer

Doctor's son a parson's daughter
Where why not and should they oughta
Please don't lie upon the grass
Unless accompanied by a fellow
May I be so bold as to perhaps suggest Othello

Punting on the Cam is jolly fun they say
Beagling on the downs, oh please do come they say
Rugger is the tops, a game for men they say

I'm punting, I'm beagling, I'm wining, reclining, I'm rucking, I'm fucking
So welcome, it's a party

Angie chalks another blue
Mother smiles she did it too
Chitters chat and gossips lash
Posers pose, pressmen flash

Smiles polluted with false charm, locking on to Royal arms
Society columns now ensured, returns to mingle with the crowds
Oh what a crowd

Punting on the Cam, oh please do come they say
Beagling on the downs, oh please so come they say
Garden party held today they say

 
Obviously the above lyrics are copyright to whoever owns them - the page I copied them from didn't say who that was.
I'm printing them here purely for those who are unfamiliar with the song.
Basically, please don't sue me, I'm poor and friendly to dogs.

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The video features the band as a gang of rag tag 'Just William' types, all scruffy school uniforms and grubby knees, discovering the party and deciding to indulge in a spot of mischief. And this is where it gets intriguing as while there's an element of sticky bun pilfering and tying shoelaces together for the most part the mischief takes the form of several displays of sympathetic magic.

They make one Princess Diana looky-likey party goer faint by mimicking her and then holding their breath and another is made to fall from her wheelchair by tossing a bicycle into the river before the video ends with them face painted, stood around a wooden sigil glaring across the river at the party goers whilst the vicar crosses himself repeatedly at the sight and a gale blows up, sweeping both the party and the guests away.

It's all very Hammer, very Dennis Wheatley and very silly. It also seems massively out of character (and please remember I'm saying this as someone whose knowledge of the band is significantly less than minimal) as they always seemed a fairly wholesome bunch; more the types to attend garden parties than the types who would destroy them using supernatural forces but then as I now see it for the first time the singles cover artwork is fairly dark and like I said, what do I know.

Well, what I do know is it's fun. Garden Party was, way back in 1983 / 84, one of the very first music videos I'd seen and even though the music wasn't / isn't to my taste the content of the video absolutely mirrored what I loved (still love) in movies and has stuck in my memory all that time which probably speaks volumes about why I now write a blog called Wyrd Britain.

Unearthing

Alan Moore
Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout

This was an utterly astounding audiobook read by the man himself with music from a variety of experimental musicians including Justin Broadrick, Stuart Braithwaite & Mike Patton.

The story or let's say narrative concerns the biography of friend and fellow comic writer Steve Moore. It is an examination of both man and place and the very personal forms of magick that these things conjure up.

Steve Moore it transpires has lived in the same house his entire life. The house is situated on Shooters Hill in London and in typical Alan Moore fashion this location becomes as central to the narrative as Steve Moore is.

Steve Moore (R.I.P.)

As a biography it's a tale of a life defined by a series of obsessions - sci-fi, arcana, writing - that would, in lesser hands, be a fairly tedious read. In Alan Moore's hands however (and with the beautifully subtle background music) it becomes a lyrical and evocative dance through passion and loss, obsession and loneliness, creativity and magick.

Absolutely superb.

A Field in England

I'd had plenty of advice regarding 'A Field in England' before watching; watch it stoned, don't watch it stoned, watch it drunk, don't watch it drunk, watch it alone, with friends, late at night, turned slightly to the left, with one hand in wallpaper paste, etc, etc, etc. Way more advice in fact than opinions. Those tended to come along as fairly definite binary oppositions; "It's amazing!" or "It's awful!"

I've never been particularly good at taking advice though and being a typically arrogant zine writer or blogger or whatever we're called this week my own opinion is the only one that counts (that's not strictly true by the way - there're at least three other people whose opinions I tolerate). So, I waited till the time suited and dropped myself into Ben Wheatley's English field.

It's amazing!

Every shot is a beautiful thing as we follow our four - then five - Civil War era gentlemen as a man at the end of his rope meets a man at the end of his tether.

Reese Shearsmith as Whitehead

Cowardly alchemists apprentice Whitehead (Reese Shearsmith) is a man trying to live up to his 'responsibilities' to his master and locate some papers stolen by O'Neill (Michael Smiley). Along with two deserters - the pox riddled Jacob and the hapless (and very funny) Friend - they are 'guided' across the field by the brutal Cutler until they find O'Neill at the end of a very long rope.

From here on in as the psychedelic mushrooms forced onto the hapless trio by Cutler and O'Neill take them deeper down the rabbit hole the narrative begins to fracture at the same rate as their psyches. Magic, madness, mushrooms and mortality flow through each other until the tether holding Whitehead to his unwanted duty and the unfulfilling life it has brought him finally snaps.

Richard Glover as Friend

It isn't a perfect film. The sound is often muddy leaving much dialogue mired in a muffled gloop and the morphing visuals during the climax are a little hackneyed - but still fun. Like I said though it's beautiful to look at and often even fiercely brutal or bitingly funny. The ensemble cast are all at the top of their games and each entirely walks in their characters skins and whilst there's a part of me that thinks it wrong to point to any one actor in particular it is Richard Glover's fabulously understated Friend that really shone for me.

Finally, the soundtrack. So seamlessly woven through the narrative ambient soundscapes, folk songs sung direct to camera and incidental music that feels anything but. It is almost a character in it's own right so integral is it to the movie.

'A Field in England' is phenomenal achievement. For such a low key, undemonstrative and downright odd movie to be able to hold your attention so keenly whilst being quite so preposterous is absolutely to the credit and talent of all involved.

PS - In case you're wondering, I watched it at night, alone and sober but moving steadily towards drunk.

Broken Homes (Rivers of London 4)

And so we take our fourth visit into the magical division of the Metropolitan Police as represented by the triumvirate of apprentice wizards PCs Peter Grant & Lesley May and their boss and real, actual, genuine wizard Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale not to mention Toby the dog and Molly the housekeeper. This one is an absolute corker. It begins with a crash and a body and ends with a crash and a betrayal.

Unlike the third book in the series - 'Whispers Underground' - 'Broken Homes' is all about the bigger story which was made all the more fun after that other books avoidance of it. Here it's all about foiling the Faceless Man's plan and so Peter and Lesley find themselves shacked up in a high rise tower block trying to work out what interest it holds for their adversary.

The story absolutely tanks along with barely a moments rest. We are introduced to several of the other denizens of supernatural London - another river and a tree spirit - and also get to see a little - and I do mean a little - of the spring fair meeting of the various London rivers.

Aaronovitch has a clean and easy style filled with sneaky little references - my favourite here being an Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant one - and chatty asides that draw you in and make you feel right at home in this preposterous world.

I am loving these books and they've become my fun read; the one I look forward to because I know it'll be a right romp from start to finish and so long may they continue.

Buy it here:  Broken Homes: The Fourth Rivers of London novel (A Rivers of London novel)

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My write up of books 1, 2 & 3 can be found here.

'The Changes' Trilogy

Welcome to the Britain of The Changes. A Britain returned to a level of medieval peasantry by a sudden and inexplicable hatred of all machines that consumes most of the inhabitants.

Written by English writer Peter Dickinson and originally published between 1968 & 1970 tells three separate stories - originally in reverse chronological order - about life in this harsh new world.

In 1975 the series was adapted by the BBC into a 10 episode TV series which I'll talk about some other time.

The Weathermonger

"This is the time of The Changes -- a time when people, especially adults, have grown to hate machines and returned to a more primitive lifestyle. It is a time of hardship and fear! When 16-year-old Geoffrey, a "weathermonger" starts to repair his uncle's motorboat, he and his sister Sally are condemned as witches. Fleeing for their lives, they travel to France -- where they discover that everything is normal. Returning to England, they set out to discover why the country is under this mysterious spell. Only discovering the origin of the deadly magic will allow them to set the people free of its destructive influence."

This is the first of the trilogy that formed the basis for the 1970s TV series 'The Changes' although this one barely featured in the TV show at all except for a vague similarity in terms of the ending.

It's the sorry of two kids - Geoffrey and his little sister Sally - who are travelling through a Britain that is hostile, barbaric, superstitious and which has somehow regressed back to the middle ages in order to find the source of the problem. With the assistance of an ancient Rolls Royce and Geoff's (titular) weather magic the two plough their way across the country being attacked by wild boars, angry superstitious peasants and lightning whilst being pursued by a feudal lord and his pack of dogs.

It's a little romp of a book and I'm really surprised it isn't better remembered although I wonder if the drugs at the end had a part in that. Personally though I thoroughly enjoyed and I am very pleased to have the other two instalments here ready for reading.

Heartsease

At a future time in England when anyone knowledgeable about machines is severely punished as a witch, four children dare to aid in the escape of a "witch" left for dead.

The second in Dickinson's trilogy of The Changes is set an undisclosed amount of time before the first and features an entirely new set of characters.

What is almost immediately apparent here is that Dickinson has pulled back from the overtly magical nature of the first - no more weathermongery - and all that remains is the vague sense for 'wickedness' expressed by the repugnant Davey Gordon and of course the mortal terror and hatred of machines. The book is all the stronger for it too with the reigning in of the magic allowing a far more interesting and real story to unfold.

The story tells of the rescuing of a 'witch' - in actual fact an American sent to Britain to investigate The Changes - from a crude grave following his stoning by the villagers by 4 young people and their subsequent flight along the canals in the boat named in the title. It unfolds slowly and carefully marshaling it's energy until the children are ready to make their move at which point the pace is relentless and rollicking good fun.

I must admit to having been a little confused by the presence of the American though as in the first book it is established that those trying to reach Britain from outside were repelled by some force or went through The Change themselves. This does make him slightly incongruous but I wonder if Dickinson was feeling a little constrained by the 'rules' laid out in the previous book.

All told it's a lovely little read that takes it's time in the telling and does so to tell a more honest and human tale than the first.

The Devil's Children

After the mysterious Changes begin, twelve-year-old Nicola finds herself abandoned and wandering in an England where everyone has suddenly developed a horror and hatred of machines.

And so the story of The Changes ends...or begins. The third part - and the one with the most in common with the TV series - tells of young Nicky Gore and her travels with a group of Sikhs as they attempt to find a safe new home in this strange new world.

It's fabulous stuff with a story that's both tight and well paced. The Sikhs - who remain unaffected by The Changes - are portrayed as both extraordinary and ordinary. Their behaviour and mannerisms relayed and interpreted through Nicky's childish and retarded - thanks to the influence of The Change - viewpoint; her opinions softening as she gets to know, trust and like them and becomes more at home in their company.  Dickinson is unafraid of his characters and boldly displays prejudice and misunderstanding from all sides - overtly from the nearby villagers with whom the Sikhs begin trading, more subtly from the Sikhs, 'We are cleaner than Europeans.' He's also willing to have fun with them - the running gag with the Sikhs riotous discussions that invariably lead to the correct decision being made.

I've seen these books listed lately in reverse order - with this one as part 1 - but I'm very glad I read these in the order they were published as this was easily my favourite of an excellent series and a very nice way to leave this changed world.

The Owl Service

Alan Garner
(Armada Lion)

Something is scratching around in the attic above Alison's room. Yet the only thing up there is a stack of grimy old plates. Alison and her stepbrother, Roger, discover that the flowery patterns on the plates, when traced onto paper, can be fitted together to create owls-owls that disappear when no one is watching. With each vanished owl, strange events begin to happen around Alison, Roger, and the caretaker's son, Gwyn. As the kids uncover the mystery of the owl service, they become trapped within a local legend, playing out roles in a tragic love story that has repeated itself for generations... a love story that has always ended in disaster.

I've been wanting to give this one a read for a long time now but was waiting to find a nice old copy. I was finally able to track one down the other day (same edition as the one pictured) and jumped right in.

The story tells of a trio of teens and assorted adults in a house in a valley somewhere in mid Wales. The discovery of some old plates with drawings of owls on them links the three kids into an ancient story from the Mabinogion that has returned again and again to plague those of the valley.

It was an odd sort of read that left much unanswered - Why was Huw so respected in the village if he was simply one of the previous participants? Why had no one else spotted the fairly obvious solution to the problem?

There was little in the way of redemption at the end for the central characters and it made a nice change for it to be the more unpleasant of them to emerge as the hero.

An odd and intriguing book with a dark and uncompromising personality that leaves you feeling more than a little drained at the end.

Buy it here - UK / US

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'Rivers of London' - books 1, 2, & 3

The magical history of the UK is the gift that keeps giving as far as authors are concerned. From big obvious storyworlds like the Potter books, Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange...', Mike Carey's Felix Castor series or Alan Moore's 'From Hell'.
In his 'Rivers of London' books Ben Aaronovitch places the old magic of the UK into a modern context and we find ourselves in a London populated by elementals and ghosts where magic, long thought dormant, is now on the rise.
Having established himself as a scriptwriter and novelist for Doctor Who Aaronovitch has developed a quick and easy style that races along at full pulp speed and in the best Who tradition mixes the mundane with the extraordinary.  I bought the first of these on a whim because I really liked the cover art (I am a sucker for good cover art) and am now completely hooked.

Rivers of London

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

I've had this on the table for a while. I really fancied it but the modern setting kept putting me off. When I finally got to it though it really hit the spot. It tells of Peter Grant a newly minted London copper who gets pulled into a special department dealing with magical threats to the realm. As Britain's first new wizard in fifty years Peter is soon on a steep learning curve about both the how, the who, the where, the when and the why whilst also continuing to maintain his actual job and deal with a particularly nasty case that has landed in the collective laps of the Metropolitan police.

There are moments in the book when he rather gets ahead of himself (the vampires) and the book slightly runs out of steam a little about 100 pages before the end as the finale seemed very dragged out but it was a mostly satisfying ending. It very much reminded me of Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels which is hardly surprising but it has it's own identity and is a lot more fantastical. I'm pretty interested for book two.

Buy it here:  Rivers of London: 1 (A Rivers of London novel)


Moon Over Soho

My name is Peter Grant, and I’m a Detective Constable in that might army for justice known as the Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. The Filth). I’m also a trainee wizard, the first such apprentice in fifty years.
Something violently supernatural had happened, something strong enough to leave an imprint on the corpse of part-time jazz saxophonist Cyrus Wilkinson as if he were a wax cylinder recording. He's not the first musician to drop dead of a heart attack right after a gig, but no one was going to let me start examining corpses to check for supernatural similarities. Instead, it was back to old-fashioned police legwork. It didn't take me long to realise there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off the gift that separates great musicians from those who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they left behind is broken lives.
And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant – my father – who managed to destroy his own career. Twice.
Policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And, maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.

This is the second of these Peter Grant novels and like this first it was pretty good fun. Grant is investigating the death of a part time jazz musician. Along the way he makes the acquaintance of a new 'young' lady friend, forms a new band for his dad and discovers that there is a very dangerous black magician working some particularly bad magic around the place.

Through the course of the book we are introduced to more of the less ordinary denizens of London whilst we are also, along with Peter, schooled in the history of magic and magicians in the UK. I'm an absolute sucker for this sort of urban fantasy but am also quite sceptical and hard to please so it's got to be done right. I'm uninterested in superpowered, supernatural creatures simply roaming the streets, it's silly and it's cliched and more importantly it's naff. For me they need to be incorporated into the fabric of the mundane; to be simply another ethnic group within the city albeit an ethnic group with unusual genetics. Aaronovitch manages this excellently.

It's a cool little caper with some really nifty characters who have real presence on the page. The story is fun and action packed with a lively pace throughout and an ending that opens the way for all manner of intrigue to come.

Buy it here: Moon Over Soho: The Second Rivers of London novel: 2 (A Rivers of London novel)


Whispers Underground

A whole new reason to mind the gap.
It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher—and the victim’s wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom—if it exists at all—is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as “the Faceless Man,” it’s up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and—as of now—deadliest subway system in the world.
At least he won’t be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She’s young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah—that’s going to go well.

This third book about apprentice magician and copper Peter Grant finds him dragged into the sewers and underground of London whilst searching for the killer of a young American artist. There's also a side plot regarding the continued search for the 'Faceless Man' and the 'Little Crocodiles'

On the whole this one was a little bit slight. The big, overarching, story very much took a back seat to a romp around London's subterranean workings with introductions to some of the other less ordinary inhabitants of the city. I must admit this did disappoint me a little as I am very much liking the big picture and back story aspects and so this all felt a little quiet and, as I said, slight but it was still a very fine adventure romp that kept me turning the pages.

Buy it here:  Whispers Under Ground (A Rivers of London novel)