No gadzookery, plenty of mud and blood - by Richard Wilcocks
It was a shabby affair, by
a poor northern road, in the May of 1214. That was how it all began, thirty
years ago. Often I wish to God I had been somewhere else.
 |
| Peter Morrison |
So begins Peter Morrison’s novella A
Lonely Road, a definite page-turner set in a time of political flux and shifting
loyalties. In the aftermath of violence on the York to Lincoln road, a young
advocate, Thomas Sturdy, comes upon a grave at the edge of the forest...
In Headingley Library yesterday, the author soon captured our interest by reading from the opening pages,
and later on in the evening picked out some really dramatic passages which had
us gripped, including one where the young protagonist is lured into a dark
corner of York Minster, grabbed round the neck and threatened with a knife by a certain William Scarlet.
There is plenty of mud and blood in this story, and no attempt to glamourise life
in the thirteenth century. Morrison is not a romantic medievalist. Robin Hood (Robin Locksley) plays a part only in
reports and memoirs, his life and activities as an outlaw described only in the
words of a kind of deposition, a document written by one of the very un-merry
men as part of a deal to save his skin. Lawyers are well used to such things,
then and now.
It is written in the English of today: Morrison was meticulously
careful in his choice of language, avoiding what professional editors describe
as “gadzookery” – the use, or overuse, of archaic expressions – and in his determination
to supply the reader with just enough period detail, in spite of the extensive
research. “It is too easy to weigh the story down with material like that,” he
told us. "It has got to move forward constantly and easily."
In fact, he told us much more about his methods, and about how A Lonely Road came into being, sharing
with us his initial enquiries, the way he sought out advice, not only from
friends (who usually simply flatter) but also from professionals who need a
fee, his polishing and revising and his relationship with the company (York
Publishing Services) which enabled him to enter the universe of
self-publishing, which is expanding all the time.
“It is not vanity publishing,” he said. “Steer clear of the companies
which offer that.” He was interviewed about his motives by YPS (“They
were happy to hear I was not in it for the money and not one of those authors
who thinks he has a killer manuscript to make a fortune.”), given plenty of
advice and some alternative cover designs. Apparently big publishing
houses usually do not give choices like that to the captive authors in their stables.
Novellas, he told us, are not treated with respect in this country. He
gave the example of Ian McEwan’s On
Chesil Beach, which appeared in 2007 as a ‘novel/novella’. Some reviewers,
and some readers, were outraged. Why was it “too short”? Were they worried
about not getting value for money? Are doorstep novels always the ideal? “The
Germans appreciate the value of novellas,” he said. “ They have a long history
of reading them.” He recommended that we read works by the London writer Gerald
Kersh (especially The Implacable Hunter)
and by the post-WW2 German writer Heinrich Böll. Böll’s The Train Was on Time (Der Zug war pünktlich) was picked out as
memorable.
A Lonely Road can be bought online (£3.99) from www.YPDBooks.com
Peter Morrison will launch a full-length novel – A Cause to Mourn – in 2019.
Audience comments
Inspiring to hear how you began writing and persevered, to self-publish
your novella
Really interesting to consider ‘the flaws of heroes’ and to put these
into historical context.
Looking forward to reading the book!
Enjoyed this interesting talk, thanks!
Absolutely wonderful!
Lovely clear speaking – very informative and put across beautifully.
Wish my husband had been here!!!
Most enjoyable.
Interesting talk. Peter Morrison’s novella needs to be more widely
known.
I shall follow up his suggestions about Heinrich Böll. Modern German
literature (in translation) should be better known here.
Seems like this is the better kind of historical fiction.
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