The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce: book review

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce. Gollancz £12.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Graham Joyce’s latest is subtitled “A Ghost Story”, but with that certain uncertainty we’ve come to expect from many of the author’s novels. Are they really ghosts or are they memories from long ago, of a terrible deed? Is Rose really clairvoyant or is she a first-rate reader of people’s mannerisms? These and similar questions will remain unanswered in this review; you’ll just have to read the book and decide for yourselves.

Whatever your conclusions, there is no doubt that this is an excellent novel. The chief reason is that the characters are real. You really do engage with David, the narrator, as he experiences life as a holiday camp worker in Skegness during the summer heat-wave (and drought) of 1976, the year Britain was invaded by swarms of ladybirds. There are no cataclysmic events that threaten the world. But there are events that impinge upon David: his relationships with Terri and Nikki; his “friendship” with Colin (who may be a bit of a psychopath); his engagement with the far right and their fascists’ ideas; the hidden memories of his childhood and his father.

David is a student in the 1970s (when university graduates didn’t leave with massive tuition debts, when tertiary education was more egalitarian) and takes a summer job wearing a green-striped blazer, organising events and competitions for the holiday makers. This was a time before the masses flocked to the Costa de Sol and the like, when such camps were in a lingering decline. Apparently Graham Joyce did such work as a student and his experiences add verisimilitude to the novel. He adds in the acknowledgements that the characters he created are, indeed, fictional.

This is the second novel I’ve read recently which is set in a holiday destination – the other was Joyland by Stephen King.  And as with King, The Year of the Ladybird begins slowly and yet within a dozen pages the narrator has completely drawn you into this engaging story. Along with Some Kind of Fairy Story and The Tooth Fairy, this is one of Joyce’s best novels. And at £12.99 for the hardcover, it’s a steal: get the Ladybird bug and read this book.

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce is now available from Gollancz (£12.99 – a great price for a hardback novel):

“It is the summer of 1976, the hottest since records began and a young man leaves behind his student days and learns how to grow up. A first job in a holiday camp beckons. But with political and racial tensions simmering under the cloudless summer skies there is not much fun to be had. And soon there is a terrible price to be paid for his new-found freedom and independence. A price that will come back to haunt him, even in the bright sunlight of summer.”

Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce: book review

Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce. Gollancz £9.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

There is a marvellous creative-writing-workshop in-joke in this book. Tara explains to her brother Peter where she’s been for these past six months/twenty years (depending on one’s perspective). She tells him a long story. A chapter or so later Peter paraphrases this tale to his wife: the fairies took her.

Tara turns up on Christmas Day, dishevelled, in need of a bath. She appears exactly the same as she did twenty years ago, when she vanished while walking in the local woods. Her family had thought she’d been kidnapped, murdered, her body lying in a grave somewhere. Her boyfriend had been blamed for her disappearance although hard evidence was never found. And in those two decades they all mourned Tara and eventually came to terms with their loss.

Twenty years on she’s back. But to her, she’s only been gone for six months, living in a commune, of sorts, in that other place, with the fairies (although they hate that moniker). She was trapped there for those months, unable to cross back until the stars were correctly aligned. Tara’s abductor fell in love with her but she didn’t reciprocate; all she wanted to do was return to her world.

Now she is back. Of course, almost no one believes her story. It is up to us, the reader, to decide if she is fabricating the events in order to hide a dark secret. And as Graham Joyce has done so well in previous novels, he drops in huge elements of ambiguity: is the story real or is it all in the mind? Did she run off to Scarborough or somewhere, or perhaps join a circus?

Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a well-crafted novel. Graham Joyce wonderfully weaves into it the people affected by Tara – those who knew her twenty years ago, and the new arrivals: Peter’s wife and their children. Tara’s boyfriend makes a couple of discoveries. Her parents do their best to cope. The children are bemused. The psychiatrist has his own agenda. Peter is infuriated. And Mrs Larwood … I’ll not say more for fear of leaking the plot’s subtleties. All of these folk are brilliantly portrayed – they leave the page as fully-formed adults and children. In the Author’s Notes, Joyce says his own children put him in his place – I bet they did.

You can probably deduce that I loved this novel. It flows with humanity, humour and pathos. I’d be amazed if it doesn’t move you. I rate Some Kind of Fairy Tale amongst the author’s best works, along with The Tooth Fairy, Smoking Poppy and The Facts of Life. Graham Joyce is one of our finest writers who sits happily in both the fantasy and non-fantasy arenas. One hundred percent recommended. (Incidentally, a tenner for a hardcover: a bargain.)

Joyce & Aaronovitch: new books

Two of the highlights to look out for this month from Gollancz:

Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (£9.99): “It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected phone call from his parents … He arrives to discover that they have a visitor, his sister Tara. Not so unusual you might think, this is Christmas after all, a time when families get together. But twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back and as the years have gone by with no word from her the family had assumed that she was dead.”

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch (£12.99): “Peter Grant is learning magic fast. And it’s just as well – he's already had run ins with the deadly supernatural children of the Thames and a terrifying killer in Soho. Progression in the Police Force is less easy. Especially when you work in a department of two. A department that doesn't even officially exist. A department that if you did describe it to most people would get you laughed at. Now something horrible is happening in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up the tube system that honeycombs the ancient foundations of London.”

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies by Ian Edginton and Davide Fabri. Wildstorm (Titan Books £14.99)
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Yet more zombies! The undead are everywhere, it seems, breeding like flies. Do I really want any more? However, Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies is a jolly jaunt through Victorian London, a city besieged from within by the undead, created by a particular evil mastermind (guess who). Holmes and Watson are called to Scotland Yard to help solve a case, that of a man pronounced dead -- but now very much ‘alive’, a monster craving human flesh.

The secret service warns the great detective off but Holmes being Holmes… Well, you know that wouldn’t work. And so he and Watson climb down into the tunnels far beneath the city’s streets, only to encounter an army of revenants. They are rescued by that other great mind, Mycroft Holmes, and an elite contingent of the British Army.

And over dinner at the Diogenes Club the full story begins to emerge, about a comet and an earlier outbreak of the undead. And Holmes’ nemesis is still alive (well, sort of) and controlling an army of the undead. It is up to the fearless duo to re-enter the necropolis that was London and put an end to yet another evil scheme…

I was in two minds about buying this graphic novel. I had read the first issue of the monthly series on initial publication and dismissed the series. I was wrong to do so and I’m glad I bought the book. I love Ian Edginton’s script -- Victorian detective story, steampunk science fiction and, of course, zombie horror. The dialogue works well; you could easily imagine 19th Century gentlemen talking and acting as depicted, albeit in a subtly altered alternate reality. And Davide Fabri’s artwork illustrates it to perfection. It thankfully avoids excessive lingering details of death and destruction and zombie decay, using these images when necessary and thus causing greater impact. Full marks.

John Kessel saves my sanity and wins an award

OK, an exaggerated claim. Yes, Kessel did win an award (more on this below) but not because of services for me. I mentioned a few posts ago that post-World Fantasy Award judging, I found it hard to find stories and novels that captured my imagination, and that I was starting an awful lot of books but finishing few of them. Well, the other day I pulled from my 'to-be-read' book case John Kessel's collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence (Small Beer Press, $16.00). And wow! Fantasy fiction once again has hooked me.

The Baum Plan consists of 14 stories published over the years 1998 to 2008, including one original to this volume. The opener, the title story, tells of Sid and Dot, two not-very-good criminals. Sid, recently released from prison, teams up with Dot, again, and they head off to raid a house that, according to Dot, holds a fortune. The house itself doesn't. But a weird trip takes them to a surreal place where their dreams may be rewarded. Just the first paragraph was sufficient to engage me -- and from then on I was captured by Kessel's assured fiction. He writes with an elegance similar to that of Graham Joyce; it's straightforward, clear, sparkling, and unencumbered.

And so it progresses throughout the book. The last story in the collection is 'Pride and Prometheus'. It doesn't take an Einstein to guess which two literary greats meet in this gorgeously funny story of love and redemption. A suitably strange mix -- and a poignant tale.

And the award? I am delighted to report that 'Pride and Prometheus' won the Nebula Award for best novellete, recently announced. Other award winners include Ursula Le Guinn for Powers in the novel category. Find out more here. And if you want to learn more about John Kessel (you should), go here.

Three Ways to Snog an Alien: book review

Three Ways to Snog an Alien by Graham Joyce. Faber (2008) £6.99
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

A terrible cover. Looks like chic lit for teenage girls. But get past that and you’ll find a wonderful exploration of teenagers in love. At first I was reminded of the Matheson story ‘The Trouble with Julie’; but Joyce has very much his own voice and his own compelling story to relate.

Doogie falls for the new girl Angelica. Naturally, for kids of his age, there’re the usual taunts about Doogie loving Angelica. Nevertheless, they go on a date – for an ice cream in a local café. But he sees something disturbing, something that convinces him that Angelica is an alien. And now he’s on the look out for all things weird. The girl’s parents’ strange behaviour only further confirm his suspicions.

At home, Doogie does what we all would nowadays. He Googles the Web. He soon encounters a group of on-line conspiracy theorists who concur with him. Doogie is sucked into an investigation, armed with pointers to prove Angelica’s alien nature. He is warned that the investigation could prove highly dangerous.

But at the same time, Doogie is using the Web to search out dating tips, on how to handle women. The conflicts these two threads create are very amusing. Made me giggle out loud a few times.

If I didn’t know better, I’d suggest that Graham Joyce was writing from experience (well, to all teenage boys, girls are unfathomable, anyway). But – big but – Joyce adds that element of ambiguity. Doogie’s question is fully answered. Or is it? Are Angelica and her parents aliens? Or are they just strange? I’m not telling here.

I am a great fan of Joyce’s writing. He writes crisply and engagingly, with no superfluous words. He has a knack of creating very real people. They have normal lives, in normal towns and cities. And then he shifts reality ever so slightly, using that conflict to create perfect fiction.

Joyce’s previous young adult titles published by Faber are TWOC and Do the Creepy Thing. Read them all.