Contact:
info@trencavel.co.uk
New Books
The Fool
The Moon Glass
The Fire Lord Series
A Gothic Tale and other Short Stories
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The site was last updated:
27 November 2024
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The Fire Lord Series
S.J. Scofield
2024
ISBN 978-1-7384026-1-8 to 978-1-7384026-5-6
£7.99
The paperback and Kindle ebook are available from most Amazon sites around the world including:
UK Site: Amazon UK & US site: Amazon US |
The Key Bearer
On his 12th birthday Owen Shepherd is given a mysterious key which unlocks a gateway into a land ruled by elemental Wood magic and tree spirits. There he meets Finn, a young trainee Wood magician, who is fleeing a sinister void that is swallowing up the land.
Together they journey through the great forest of Dayah on a quest to right an ancient wrong and find the lost Sath, elemental essences that offer the only hope of saving both Dayah and Owen’s own world from a rising evil.
The Moonsinger
Owen Shepherd has returned home with the Wood Sath, but his triumph is short-lived. Peculiar environmental catastrophes continue to devastate the Earth and a sinister eye is watching over the Gateway.
His search for the next Sath leads him on a perilous journey into the Realm of the Water element, a world ruled by magic, illusion and enchantment.
The Midwinter King
Owen returns home with the Water Sath to discover that the Fire spirits are closing in fast and nowhere is now safe for him. Time is running out.
Together with his friends Finn, Raya and Arin, he embarks on his most challenging quest yet, journeying into the Realm of the Earth element, a world that has fallen under the spell of the Fire Lord and stands on the brink of destruction.
The Dreamwalker
Has Owen’s recovery of the first three Sath been in vain? Disaster has struck his own home and his secret has been discovered.
In a desperate bid to escape the Fire spirits, he and his friends flee into the Air Realm, a world where the boundary between dreams and reality vanishes and Owen must face his worst nightmare.
The Fire Lord
Only one Sath remains to be found. But this is the Fire Sath, the source of the Fire Lord’s power and his greatest treasure.
With the net closing in on him, and his own world in turmoil, Owen’s quest takes him into the heart of his enemy’s domain, the Realm of Fire, a Land ravaged by malignant magic.
Finally the destinies of Owen and Tamus are united and a story begun in the far distant past comes full circle. |
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The Fool
Edited by Liz Joyce & Tony Scofield
2024
252 pages. ISBN 978-1-7384026-8-7
£8.49 |
The Fool contains twenty-one of the best
short stories on the theme of The Fool
selected by the judges from a large entry
for the 2024 H.G. Wells Short Story
Competition. Stories are divided into
two groups: authors 21 years of age and
under and authors aged 22 years and
above and include works in the junior
category by Eshaaan Agarwal, Scarlett
Bailey, Celia Fournier, Jahdai Grey, M
J Harris, Annabelle McGrane, Ellie
Mead, Hector Reynoso, Molly Venus
and Anna Wang. The senior category
comprises works by Lior Blum, Matthew
Dickens, Colin Evans, Jo Holmwood,
Robert Maslen, Peter Poole, Keith Porter,
Lalitha Ramanathan, Clare Shaw, James
Skivington, Ian E Slatter, Rebecca Spillett,
Saria Steyl and Emily Waugh.
The paperback and Kindle ebook (£2.49) are available from most Amazon sites around the world including:
UK Site: Amazon UK & US site: Amazon US
(Use The Fool Joyce' as the search in the Amazon book section) |
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The Moon Glass
S.J. Scofield
2024
324 pages. ISBN 978-1-7384026-6-3
£8.99 |
Fourteen-year-old Ceri Morgan's life is
shrouded in mystery. With no family and
no past, the only certainty she has is that
once she lived in a world where magic was
real. When a strange letter brings her to
a fairy-haunted lake in Snowdonia, she
knows she is home. But she still has no
answers.
It is only when a mirror – the Moon Glass – takes her back through time, that she is
able finally to discover the truth about her
past. But when she finds herself caught
in the middle of a sinister, occult plot, is
her knowledge of the future a blessing or
a curse? Is she able to change the course
of history, and can her actions in the past
bring back magic to the modern world?
The paperback and Kindle ebook are available from most Amazon sites around the world including:
UK Site: Amazon UK & US site: Amazon US |
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A Gothic Tale and other Short Stories
Alexander Tulloch
2024
149 pages. ISBN 978-1-7384026-7-0.
£7.99 |
Sandor and Janos, a couple of ne'er-do-wells from a village in Transylvania, always on the lookout for the main chance, can't resist the promise of enough gold to keep them in luxury for the rest of their lives and set out to rob the mysterious visitor who shows up one night in the local inn. But things do not turn out as they expect. Eupraxia, Dracula's mother, puts in an appearance to scupper their plans and bring the Gothic tale to a scary conclusion...or does it? The reader is left wondering if the would-be robbers have had a lucky escape or if the evil beauty has other plans for the hapless pair.
Other stories in this volume invite the reader to question such problems as the senselessness and hypocrisy of war; the internet used as a time machine and whether or not it just might be possible for us to communicate with those who have 'passed on.' Or, perhaps more importantly, whether or not those who have 'passed on' have found a way to communicate with the living. And where do dreams end and reality begin? On a more mundane level, themes such as redundancy, keeping fit and the unexpected results of a bad hangover provide fertile ground for the author to explore and the reader to ponder.
The paperback and Kindle ebook are available from most Amazon sites around the world including:
UK Site: Amazon UK & US site: Amazon US |
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Motion
Edited by Liz Joyce & Tony Scofield
2023
178 pages. ISBN 978-1-7384026-0-1.
£7.50 |
Motion contains twenty-one of the best
short stories on the theme of Motion
selected by the judges from a large entry
for the 2023 H.G. Wells Short Story
Competition. Stories are divided into
two groups: authors 21 years of age and
under and authors aged 22 years and
above and include works in the junior
category by Pritha Halder, Yuen Tong
Law, Gloria Mesa, Radiyah Nouman,
Charlotte Moran, Thalia Peterson,
Kantaphat Pinaree, Catherine Saunders,
Tessa Shutter, Sarah-Kate Simons and
Allison VanHuysen. The senior category
comprises works by Steven Jackson, Anna
Linstrum, Ashia Mirza, Neong Chee Kein (Arthur),
Mary Onions, Katie Rizzo, Kerry Ryan,
Jarick Weldon and Keltie Zubko.
The paperback and Kindle ebook are available from most Amazon sites around the world including:
UK Site: Amazon UK & US site: Amazon US
(Use 'Motion Joyce' as the search in the Amazon book section) |
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Switch
Edited by Liz Joyce & Tony Scofield
2022
136 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-9-3.
£5.49 |
Switch contains thirteen of the best
short stories on the theme of Switch
selected by the judges from a large entry
for the 2022 H.G. Wells Short Story
Competition. Stories are divided into two
groups: authors 21 years of age and under
and authors aged 22 years and above
and include works by Kim A Bigelow,
Amanda D'Errico, Sasha Gill, David
McVey, Stephen O'Reilly, Adrian Paul,
Susannah Rickards, Jamie Littlewood,
Katie Farrell, Ryan Lee, Ginny Martin,
Amelie Roscoe and Adriana Tihan.
The paperback and Kindle ebook are available from most Amazon sites including:
UK Site: Amazon.co.uk US site: Amazon.com
and more. (Use 'Switch Joyce' as the search in the Amazon book section) |
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Mask
Edited by Liz Joyce & Tony Scofield
2021
232 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-8-6.
£8.49 |
Mask contains twenty-one of the best short
stories on the theme of 'Mask' selected by
the judges from a large entry for the 2021
H.G. Wells Short Story Competition.
Stories are divided into two groups:
authors 21 years of age and under and
authors aged 22 years and above and
include works by Jessica Brien, Clara
Chiu, Sophia Felsinger, Sarah Holm,
Mia Ramage, Sumedha Sengupta, Sarah-Kate Simons, Nathan Steward, Weiyen
Tan, Houssam Alissa, Fija Callaghan,
Peter Collins, Simha Haddad, Katherine
Haynes, E. S. Heffernan, Tony Hunter-Craig, Bethany Ridley-Duff, Lee Stoddart,
Sarah Townend, Dan Vanvik and
Stephen Webb.
Order this book
Only UK orders are accepted from this site. To order from anywhere else in the world please use amazon.co.uk: Maskpbk
Also available soon as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Vision
Edited by Liz Joyce & Tony Scofield
2020
232 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-7-9.
£7.99 |
Vision contains twenty of the best short
stories on the theme of Vision selected by
the judges from a large entry for the 2020
H.G. Wells Short Story Competition.
Stories are divided into two groups:
authors 21 years of age and under and
authors aged 22 years and above and
include works by Priyadarshini Barua,
Utshaa Basu, Isabel Burns, Hannah
Jennison, Tesni Penney, Tabitha Rubens,
Dewi Schmidt, Matilda Stepek, Lucy
Thynne, Gemma Al-Khayat, Elou Carroll,
Ian Critchley, Matthew Dickens, Alwin
George V, Newton Grange, Rhiannon
Lewis, Susannah Rickards, Paul Sherman,
Francine van den Berg and Ali Wilding.
Order this book
Also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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The Colours of Virtue
Elizabeth Medler
2020
96 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-6-2.
£7.99 |
This book sketches some of the qualities and virtues we all need for living
life well and coming closer to our own Self, whose raiment is pure white and
yet contains all the colours of the rainbow. Each offering is accompanied
by a meditation which hopefully will go some way towards unfolding its
significance and make it relevant to the reader. Rather than being read as a book
from beginning to end in linear form, you can dip into it as often as
you like and let the page fall where it will.
Order this book
It is also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Time
Edited by Liz Joyce, Tony Scofield & Lee Stoddart
2019
184 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-5-5.
£7.99 |
Time contains twenty of the best short stories on the theme of Time selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2019 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works by Kirsty Balfour, Natalie
Boal, Hiya Chowdhury, Sinéad Donaghy,
James Huang, Meg Lintern, Laura Maria
Steel Pascual, Bethany Ridley-Duff,
Shelby de Rond, Krystal Song, Lee Amoss,
Charlotte Bracey, David Bradley, Frances
Brindle, Cheryl Buck, Lesley Bungay,
Beverley Haddon, Matthew McDonald,
Saritha Rao Rayachoti and Fiona Salter.
Order this book
Also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Peace
Edited by Charles Bain Smith
2018
192 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-4-8.
£7.99 |
Peace contains nineteen of the best short stories on the theme of Peace selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2018 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works by Martha Boyd, Hannah Fagan, Martha Grogan, Marcus McCabe, Jake Muttitt, Bethany Ridley-Duff, Hope Thompson, Rere Ukponu, Abaan Zaidi, Rosie Andrews, Jake Blandford, A V Bruce, Zachary Godin, Bobbie Allen, Mary Onions, Wendy Riley, Nicola Thompson and Diane Wisdom.
OUT OF PRINT
Also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Draw up a Chair
Edited & compiled by Elizabeth Medler
2018
94 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-3-1.
£7.99 |
These short stories show that in times of great need, we are supported. This support comes in many ways - through mentors, family, friends, strangers and sometimes from unseen Guardian Angels. These radiant beings drop shining pearls into the pool of our minds, prompting us to act or refrain from acting. Sometimes we are guided to say or do things which may seem illogical at the time but, with hindsight, prove to be just the right thing. Again we may have been mulling over a thorny problem. These stories and accompanying exercises will help you to relish the joy of living.
OUT OF PRINT
Also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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The Quarry
David Unsworth
2018
44 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-2-4.
£4.99 |
Curated over many years, 'The Quarry' explores the construction of identity through a deeply emotive, poetic collection. Dream-like and visceral, this personal work is built on life's waterways, a raging confluence of currents, stretching away into the future, resolved, and their directions chosen.
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Light
Edited by Charles Bain Smith
2017
181 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-1-7.
£7.00 |
Light contains twenty of the best short stories on the theme of Light selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2017 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works by Hazel Atkinson, Mina Bixley, Malak Elsouri, Grace Howarth, Kaylene Jackmore, Francesca Kennedy, Elizabeth Kuiper, Laura Steel Pascual, Sithara Ranasinghe, Ashira Shirali, Alex Reece Abbott, Dianne Bown-Wilson,
D R D Bruton, Mark Howard, Anthony Howcroft, Robin Jones, Sally Lane, Anne Petrie, Louise Rimmer
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Also available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Casa da Branca
By Rosie Vidovix
2017
209 pages. ISBN 978-0-9955730-0-0.
£7.99
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Desperate circumstances force Branquinha, a sensitive, intelligent and fun-loving girl, to work in a brothel in a gold-mining village deep in the Amazon rainforest.
Far from her beloved mother, life is made bearable for her by the company of the other women in the house, the friendship of Zulmira, the kindly cook, and gay bartender, Murilo, but there is also the sadness lurking in the women's personal lives, the violence which can erupt at any moment, and, of course, the men.
How will Branquinha survive in one of the most dangerous and inhospitable places in Brazil?
Based on real stories, Casa da Branca gives an account of life in a land where social conventions are of no significance and people make their own rules.
Available as a Kindle download from Amazon
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Space
Edited by Charles Bain Smith
2016
184 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-9-5.
£7.99 |
Space contains twenty of the best short stories on the theme of Space selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2016 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works by Holly Cartwright, Caitlin Evans, Grace Haddon, Eve Lytollis, Charlotte Mullen, Laura Steel Pascual, Alice Sargent, Allison Stevick, Emma Strutt, Jake Trimmer, Victoria Wang, Hilary Dean, Wei-Li Chin, DJ Dingham, Kate L. Jefford, David Norman, Anne Petrie, Michele Sheldon and Diane Wisdom.
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Available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Born of the Island and Other Sea Stories
Edited by Rosie Unsworth
2012
246 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-1-9.
£7.99 |
Born of the Island and Other Sea Stories contains twenty-two of the best short stories on the theme of The Sea selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2012 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors under the age of twenty-six and authors twenty-six years of age and over, and include works by Angus Nesbit, Anastasia Bow-Bertrand, Sinéad Stoddart, Akiho Schilz, Sophie Lister, William Jarrett, Holly Ice, Daisy-Mae Perkins, Karl Mercer, Michele Sheldon, David Griffin, David Shonfield, Mike Umbers, Pat Ashford, Hummel C. Addams, Mel Fawcet, Don Nixon, Andrew Campbell-Kearsey, Fabian Acker, Rik Thomas and Anthony Hulse.
OUT OF PRINT
Available as a Kindle download from Amazon
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Flight
Edited by Rosie Vidovix Unsworth
2013
196 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-3-3.
£7.99 |
Flight contains twenty-one of the best short stories on the theme of Flight
selected by the judges from a large entry
for the 2013 H.G. Wells Short Story
Competition. Stories are divided into
two groups: authors under the age of 20
and authors aged 20 years and above and
include works by Sithara Ranasinghe,
Matthew Thurgood, Lottie Pyper,
Benjamin R. Davies, Jonathan Wood,
Rebecca Hamilton, Jasmine Ayoubi,
Joshua Lambert, Edward Butterfield,
Emma Hollands, Christopher Campbell,
Sheila Liggett, Diane Wisdom, K.
Lockwood Jefford, Paul Burns, Cathy
Lennon, Jade Moulds, Sue Healy, Steven
M. Dodd, Lee Stoddart and Hermione
Laake.
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Available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Financial Crisis - The Black UMP
Edward Creto
2014
138 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-4-0.
£6.99 |
There will always be financial crises. There is an infinite field of potential crises in which we have a camp surrounded by a fence. A new crisis sometimes gets into the camp so we chuck it out and repair the fence. If we discarded money and the financial system then we would have no financial crises but we would find ourselves encamped in a different field surrounded by different problems. These fields are just life seen from different angles and problems cannot be resolved until we all agree what the problems are.
This is about the crises in the camp from 2007 onwards including the Subprime Crisis, the Eurozone Crisis, and unconventional monetary/fiscal responses. It is preceded by some essential background. I have tried hard to make it as concise, clear and simple as possible. It is for anybody interested in the subject and with the ability (with a little effort) to understand it.
Unconventional Monetary Policy (UMP) refers to new, untested policies introduced by Central Banks and governments to stabilise and manage the financial sector and the economy during the crisis. It is not clear how to exit UMP. We may be inside an Unconventional Monetary Policy black hole – a black UMP.
This is the second expanded and revised edition of The Black UMP.
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Available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Fortune
Edited by Liz Joyce
2014
192 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-5-7.
£7.50 |
Fortune contains twenty of the best
short stories on the theme of Fortune selected by the judges from a large entry
for the 2014 H.G. Wells Short Story
Competition. Stories are divided into
two groups: authors 21 years of age
and under and authors aged 22 years
and above and include works by Esther
M. White, Sithara Ranasinghe, Gemma
Talbot, Alexandra Jessop, Will Jarrett,
John Noden, Rosie Carter, C. Jay Divine,
Gabrielle Corry-Mead, K. Lockwood
Jefford, Emma Norry, Adam Colton,
Catherine Higgins-Moore, Craig Smith,
Giselle Evans, Fabian Acker, Amy Licence,
Alex Reece Abbott, Ikhtisad Ahmed and
Melanie Whipman
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Available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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We Simply Didn't Know What it Would be Like
An Anthology by the Children of Folkestone and Beyond
2015
74 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-7-1.
£5.00 |
The children of Folkestone schools and beyond have produced, letters, poems, diaries, paintings and short stories to illustrate the role of women in the First World War. The project used the material to produce a show at St Mary and St Eanswythe Church in Folkestone. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go the church fund.
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Class
Edited by Liz Joyce
2015
286 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-8-8.
£8.50 |
Class contains twenty six of the best short stories on the theme of Class selected by the judges from a large entry for the 2015 H.G. Wells Short Story Competition. Stories are divided into two groups: authors 21 years of age and under and authors aged 22 years and above and include works by Georgia Bozianu, William Carroll, Esmé Ford, Holly Friend, Lowri Mathias, Marcus McCabe, Julia Mun, Lauren Ross, Molly Watkins, Cassandra Yong, Dorothy Bruce, Eve Chancellor, Catherine Higgins-Moore, Anne O'Brien, Anne Padley, Daniel Penfold, Thomas Pitts, Auriel Roe, Eleanor Ross, Dave Shonfield, Anstey Spraggan, Lee Stoddart, Thomas Wadsworth, Melanie Whipman and S. Zatland
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Available as a Kindle download from Amazon |
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Glebeings End
By Olivia Minerva
2012
229 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-0-2.
£7.95
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"Inspector Hoskins says it's a genuine medieval settlement!" Police Constable Avril Lee couldn't contain her awe. "You know," she continued, marvelling volubly, "I had never before actually seen Glebeings End; in fact, until that big fire, when the Mainwaring house burned down, I never even knew this place existed! Then Glebe Close got built where the old house was... Ten houses where one used to be, we heard it was… And now all this other stuff has happened!" She paused a moment, then added, almost accusingly, "But before the upset and everything, you must have been tucked away here for hundreds of years!"
To Marlys, it sometimes felt that way.
As she put it to Myrtle, over the teacups, "We go for decades without a ripple of scandal or disquietboring each other to deathand then, suddenly, Doreen collapses and dies at her front gate, the dogs are found slaughtered, George disappears with a woman in a new Subaru and we get two most ghastly murders!"
Myrtle's riposte "Doreen could not help dying" was probably true, as far as it went...
Available as a Kindle download from Amazon
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Paddlesworth Court Farm
M.J. Cross
2016
182 pages.
£8.99 |
Paddlesworth Court Farm 1866-1966. A History of the Cross Family and Farm Diaries
The story of Paddlesworth Court Farm and the Cross family who
farmed it for over 100 years from 1866. Farm diaries covering
the years 1927 to 1966 give a detailed account of the changes
in agricultural practice following the Second World War, the decline
in pastoral farming (the selling of all pigs and eventually of
the dairy herd but not the sheep) and the increasing cultivation
of cereal crops brought about by social, political and economic
forces.
Available from the author. Email for ordering details: info@trencavel.co.uk |
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Buttoned-up Shapes
Poems by George Tardios
2015
84 pages. ISBN 978-0-9572485-6-4.
£7.99 |
George Tardios vividly portrays Cypriot characters and ancestors
in this image-filled portrait of his mother's village, as it used to be.
The poems gradually become autobiographical as they move to
England, where his mother emigrated in 1935.
George Tardios was Director of Totleigh Barton, the Arvon Foundation's first residential creative writing centre in Devon. Has had poems in six 'PEN/Arts Council Anthologies' published by Hutchinson; the 'Puffin Book of Salt Sea Verse' edited by Charles Causley; 'The Way To Write', J. Moat & J. Fairfax (Elm Tree Books); 'English For Me', Eric Boagey (University Tutorial Press); 'Apple Fire', and 'On Common Ground', Jill Pirrie (Bloodaxe Books, and WWF).
A collection of poems, 'BullSong' was published by Charlotte Press. Recently, poems in 'Cadences' (European University of Cyprus), and 'The London Magazine'.
Participated in 'Poets in Schools' scheme and tutored creative writing courses for the Arvon Foundation.
Organised the first 'National Poetry Competition' for the Poetry Society at Earl's Court, and for the Arvon Foundation. Judged the BBC2 'South Bank Show' Poetry Competition.
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Review by George Lucas in London Grip Poetry Review
George Tardios’s Buttoned-Up Shapes has an untroubled, if never bland, relish for the earthly. A Greek-Cypriot by birth, Tardios uses his poems to record and often celebrate village and family life in a culture from which, though he now lives in London, still animates his memories. Photographs of local scenes and people, together with substantial explanatory end-notes, plump out the multi-dimensionality of Tardios’s collection. Like so much Greek art, like so much Greek experience, Buttoned-Up Shapes comes across as a blend of the comic, the tragic, and the fatalistic. If there are moments when Woods’ poems summon up the shade of Cavafy, Tardios’s work, in powerful comparison, is reminiscent of Kazantzakis, of the Cretan’s bare-chested, unflinching acceptance of all that happens to happen.
And yet the word “acceptance” is too passive, too genteel even, to do justice to the full-throated note that Tardios at his best, or most characteristic, habitually sounds. Reading his work you’re aware of how judicious, how risk-free, much Anglo-phone writing by comparison seems.
The sea rang
round my seven white years.
I listened to the horizon
Careful To catch Aphrodite’s song.
Perhaps some miracle
(“Intitiation at Paphos.”)
It isn’t fair, you want to mutter. We can’t listen to Aphrodite’s song. It isn’t ours to hear. Still, even Greek poets have to know how to address the history with which they’ve been as much burdened as blessed. Village life in particular can be oppressive and Tardios refuses to sentimentalise. Hence his notating the casual or anyway tolerated cruelty to animals; hence, too, his acknowledgement of how rejection inevitably comes to all who fall foul of convention, of rules they can do nothing to follow.
Elders blamed his parents
Mother dead Father in the hills with sheep ….
As locals foretold he was expelled from school.
The whole village crossed to the other side.
(“Swollen River”).
I doubt that any one of us born into Northern European cultures can ever fully comprehend the near-laconic fatalism of these unyielding, implacable lines.
It would, however, be quite wrong to give the impression that this collection is dominated by failure, let alone defeat. “And still the grass eternal springs.” John Clare’s great assertion speaks from and to a readiness to more than endure which, though most recognisable perhaps in the long, trampled-on history of peasantry, is discoverable elsewhere. Hence, Tardios’s long poem “Ioulia and Francos”, which celebrates, or anyway attests to, an indomitable persistence of two lovers against the rebuffs they have to endure. And another long poem, “So I’m Told”, perhaps the finest in the collection, is vivid with the particularities of lives remembered, the rhythmic fluency of its narration giving it a strength beyond the merely notational:
Under this shivering light, earth exhales night-time heat.
Herbal warmth enfolds us both like wings
Pilgrims to a sun-scorched land asleep
In the middle-sea of middle-earth –
Rancid goats, hiccupping donkeys, potent cocks
Beds laid on flat mud-roots --
Pointing defiant fingers at the Muslim coast
Morning, street-sellers chant their wares,
An isle of wonders ripe with noises.
This, and other poems in Buttoned-Up Shapes, are, in their atmospheric density, reminiscent of the prose tales of the nineteenth-century master, Alexandros Papadiamantis, bringing onto the page the vivid quality of Greek island life, its rough, grainy texture, though Tardios, perhaps by virtue of writing in verse, knows better than did Papadiamantis where to let well alone, where to stop. Great stuff. |
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