He Was a Most Peculiar Man

Hi Mick,

I found myself sat with the characters listening in on their conversations. It's utterly absorbing, all the more so because of the perfection of the accented dialogue.
I have to say that this is my kind of book.. thought-provoking philosophy at it's core, which appears to be derived from the experiences gathered through life. I always enjoy reading unique perspectives on things, no matter how small. My favourite line thus far is quite near the start, "The mill, the bloody mill, the rotten mill that takes our days and nights, and grinds our bones to make the owner's bread, and what's on the table today mother, what grub can you muster up from your own sweat." I thought that was very poetic and in all honesty, one of the most enjoyable lines I've ever read.

Starred and will shelf it soon enough!

Adam

In terms of the writing, the language, the attention to detail and the authenticity, I think you’re very much on top of things. It reads very well and you have an excellent sense of flow.

In terms of narrative and throughline, it felt a little flat. The setting-out of the world in every day fashion is clearly intentional, you want us to see life as it really was, but you do so in an objective manner, rather than dramatic. He observes coldly and at a distance (or that’s how it appears), which makes it harder to engage with.

How much that’s a part of the style you’re going for I’m not sure. He is sort of a ghost visiting the past, so maybe you want the dead-eye account of operations, like a spy reporting back from behind enemy lines.

Making it dramatic isn’t particularly hard (and I don’t mean melodramatic of the “Come quick, there’s trouble down t’mill” variety). Take the scene where he arrives at work and the foreman sets up his machine for him. It’s simple and straightforward and gives us a good idea of his job, his place, his environment etc, but it isn't dramatic. Now, say you had the same scene but the foreman said something to the effect: You’ve been watching me all week, let’s see you set it up today.

Him under pressure, boss watching, messing up and sorting himself out or whatever, becomes a dramatic, tense, suspenseful moment. It still tells us what he does and how the machine is supposed to be set up, but it does so through the main character (bringing him into the story rather than being just an observer) and it creates drama. Because in order for there to be drama you need something in opposition, something tangible to come up against. And that feels absent at the start of the story, just a vague sense of life is hard. That doesn’t mean you need explosions and the end of the world, it just means the kind of shift of perspective I’ve shown above.

I think you also overdo his sense of disillusionment. No that it shouldn’t be present, but him telling us he’s had enough of working himself to death isn’t necessary. We can see for ourselves the kind of life it is, him bluntly stating it is a little on-the-nose and it lessens reader involvement by drawing conclusions for us, and leaving no room for subtext.

The other thing I would say is that when you refer to events in the past or in the future you immediately turn it into exposition. Like when his father refers to having sorted out the girls’ complaint at the meeting or his mother reminds them to avoid the rent man, by reporting events you take away their immediacy and their effectiveness. So him telling us everyone gives old Knockers a quick squeeze when they get their biscuit is nowhere near as effective as him looking up from his machine and seeing it happen.

Overall the sense of time and place is great. His vivid recollections feel very authentic. But a tweak in the narrative structure to make it his world, rather than the world around him, would bring the reader closer to the heart of things, in my opinion.

He Was a Most Peculiar Man is an elegantly written piece of literary fiction. The characterization is extremely strong, which is nice given that the characters, particularly with Ernest, are very ordinary. Some books take ordinary people and put them in extraordinary circumstances, but this one, how do I put it, puts ordinary people into ordinary circumstances, and the results are surprisingly mesmerizing.

If the excellent characterization is one thing people will love about this novel, the other is the sense of place. Author Mick Hanson must either be an amateur historian or a fantastic storyteller, or perhaps both. Chapter six with the prison scene is particularly good. How does someone know how prisons of their time collected waste products from prisoners? Perhaps Hanson did research on this subject or perhaps he made it up. But it seems perfectly reasonable, so either way, it’s just another fine example of the storyteller’s art.

I think books like this are why people read literary fiction. They let us see the world through another’s eyes, present us with strong characters, make us think about our own situation and also entertain. I can see a lot of parallels and a lot of wisdom that could be applied to today in He Was a Most Peculiar Man. Given that there are some light modern day references sprinkled throughout, I believe this was the author’s intention.

Stars and much respect go to this novel. Literary fiction fans will eat it up, and I suspect that those who enjoy a good, brooding story will as well. It should prove popular once published.

John Breeden II
Old Number Seven

Beautifully lyrical and visual: full of long-distance and more intimate scenes that gives this book considerable depth, interest, and social insight.

A dying man looks back over his life, the detail coming back to him in sharp waves. The sounds, the scenes, the social mores of industrial West Yorkshire, from the late 1930s onward are captured in this interesting and well-written book. The sharp class divide is particularly well described in the factory scenes (at meal times), in the school - where the working class lads are prepared for manual labour - and in other telling ways:
" It was only when Julie smiled at me, and put her finger ...to her lips that I realized I was slurping my tea, and chomping on the ...bread and jam, like a cow chewing its cud' (ch. 3).

The sense of period and place is emphasised with contemporary references - the Cagney quote from 'White Heat', for example, and the apt use of the Henry Reed (a Yorkshireman) poem: 'The Naming of Parts', to connect with the monotony of the factory job: to become the 'Making of Parts' ! The undiluted Yorkshire working class dialect of that period (now softened by television & influx of many other tongues) is captured well, as is the grip of the Church of England.

I liked this book enormously and was reminded of Terence Davies's autobiographical work, 'Distant Voices, Still Lives' although Mick Hanson has his own distinctive voice for recalling the past. If you like books with contrived and fast-moving plots it is not for you. But if you enjoy, as I do, the slow unfurling detail of real lives, I recommend it to you.

Mick,

The poignant voice and setting of your writing reminds me of an American writer John Steinbeck and his book the Grapes of Wrath. It’s a gift to see the struggles of others through their eyes. You do it so very well, drawing the reader into a world that is afflicted by a drought of hope. Hope is not gone - it’s just not in abundance. Through your thoughtful rendering of words, the reader can see and feel the difficult times, but like generations upon generations have done before, your characters will live a life that others can learn and draw strength from. Highly starred.

Dianna Lanser
Nothing But The Blood

Original and creative.
The voice of the MC is so deep and new that it grabs the reader.
I like the idea for your story very much.
It develops well.
I enjoyed the first two paragraphs the best. I don't know there is just a creative style to them.
Good work and best wishes.

Shelby Z./Driving Winds

P.S. Please take a look at my pirate adventure Driving Winds.

Hi Mick
This is very good. I read right through to the end.
If you are looking for improvement suggestions, the only writing issue was some occasional lapses into overwriting (such as ‘Time, what do I know of time?’ and ‘marking the poignant misery ...”). Just in some isolated places where some editing could help.
There were some very nice touches as well: such as the headmaster who ‘glided across the hall like a fat undertaker.’
You mentioned not much happening, but I didn’t get that sense. There were so many little stories laced in that it kept the whole thing moving along.
You managed to work a lot of detail in without overdoing it. I am guessing the story draws to some extent on your own experiences. The world you painted rang true, though it’s one I only know about through hearsay.
Reading it shook loose a few memories of my own though, such as working a timeclock job at a factory, and dripping sandwiches.
For someone with so much to say, the personality of the narrator emerged quite slowly - I guess because so much of what he said was directed outward. That was something else I liked about it. It helped avoid any navel gazing - which might have been a risk for a story told from the viewpoint of a prison hospital bed - and in itself it was an indication of his personality.
All the best for it.
Maurice

i agree with the comments below. narration drags. but somehow the story still moves with good descriptions and savvy of the era...
j

interesting detail of post WWII personal depression.

In terms of the writing, the language, the attention to detail and the authenticity, I think you’re very much on top of things. It reads very well and you have an excellent sense of flow.

In terms of narrative and throughline, it felt a little flat. The setting-out of the world in every day fashion is clearly intentional, you want us to see life as it really was, but you do so in an objective manner, rather than dramatic. He observes coldly and at a distance (or that’s how it appears), which makes it harder to engage with.

How much that’s a part of the style you’re going for I’m not sure. He is sort of a ghost visiting the past, so maybe you want the dead-eye account of operations, like a spy reporting back from behind enemy lines.

Making it dramatic isn’t particularly hard (and I don’t mean melodramatic of the “Come quick, there’s trouble down t’mill” variety). Take the scene where he arrives at work and the foreman sets up his machine for him. It’s simple and straightforward and gives us a good idea of his job, his place, his environment etc, but it isn't dramatic. Now, say you had the same scene but the foreman said something to the effect: You’ve been watching me all week, let’s see you set it up today.

Him under pressure, boss watching, messing up and sorting himself out or whatever, becomes a dramatic, tense, suspenseful moment. It still tells us what he does and how the machine is supposed to be set up, but it does so through the main character (bringing him into the story rather than being just an observer) and it creates drama. Because in order for there to be drama you need something in opposition, something tangible to come up against. And that feels absent at the start of the story, just a vague sense of life is hard. That doesn’t mean you need explosions and the end of the world, it just means the kind of shift of perspective I’ve shown above.

I think you also overdo his sense of disillusionment. No that it shouldn’t be present, but him telling us he’s had enough of working himself to death isn’t necessary. We can see for ourselves the kind of life it is, him bluntly stating it is a little on-the-nose and it lessens reader involvement by drawing conclusions for us, and leaving no room for subtext.

The other thing I would say is that when you refer to events in the past or in the future you immediately turn it into exposition. Like when his father refers to having sorted out the girls’ complaint at the meeting or his mother reminds them to avoid the rent man, by reporting events you take away their immediacy and their effectiveness. So him telling us everyone gives old Knockers a quick squeeze when they get their biscuit is nowhere near as effective as him looking up from his machine and seeing it happen.

Overall the sense of time and place is great. His vivid recollections feel very authentic. But a tweak in the narrative structure to make it his world, rather than the world around him, would bring the reader closer to the heart of things, in my opinion.

What a beautiful story! I've wanted to have a look ever since Jue recommended He Was a Most Peculiar Man in the forums. My father was born in the Calton in Glasgow in 1925, so I felt a strong connection to Ernest and his experiences. My dad served his apprenticeship at Harlan and Wolff, and then went off to fight the Jerries himself. As horrific as slum life was, he told his stories of once getting a flashlight for Christmas, of the marvelous camaraderie of the neighbors with great fondness.

I've read just two chapters and may stop by for more later.

Wishing you the best of luck
~AudreyB

He Was a Most Peculiar Man

This is my extremely late return read, and I apologize for how long it took to get this to you.

The first thing that caught my attention was the (as promised) lyrical prose. It's well-written but stops short of being over-written. My favorite line was the sentence that ended, "...nothing grows but washing lines and babies." I love when the tiniest of details such as that can create a perfectly clear vision in a reader's head.

From there, I'm afraid I became a little confused. I understand the advantage jumping back and forth through time and space can have for characterization and tension, but I didn't feel as though the jumps were clear enough. I was disorientated a few times and had to remind myself where the MC was. Unfortunately, I felt that the clues regarding space and time were either too subtle, or simply missing altogether, and the amount of effort I had to put in to figure things out kept me from engaging in the narrative as often as I would have liked.

I want to add here that others seem to have handled the shifts just fine, so it is completely reasonable that I may be a sub-par reader and expecting to be spoon-fed. I am not sure if this is true or not, but I do want you to take my opinion with a grain of salt. :)

I thought you handled the death of the father exceptionally well, and the mother's grief was not only believable but palpable. I was also intrigued by the MC's response to it. At first glance he might have seemed passive about it, but with a closer look, I feel he was occupying himself with the care of his mother and somewhat stifling the sharpness of his pain. The fact that I am guessing and insinuating so much regarding your characters is the typical response to classic lit fic, which I love, so bravo on writing such an emotionally-driven and through-provoking novel.

I wish you the best with this.

-Katy
The Promenade

He Was a Most Peculiar Man is an elegantly written piece of literary fiction. The characterization is extremely strong, which is nice given that the characters, particularly with Ernest, are very ordinary. Some books take ordinary people and put them in extraordinary circumstances, but this one, how do I put it, puts ordinary people into ordinary circumstances, and the results are surprisingly mesmerizing.

If the excellent characterization is one thing people will love about this novel, the other is the sense of place. Author Mick Hanson must either be an amateur historian or a fantastic storyteller, or perhaps both. Chapter six with the prison scene is particularly good. How does someone know how prisons of their time collected waste products from prisoners? Perhaps Hanson did research on this subject or perhaps he made it up. But it seems perfectly reasonable, so either way, it’s just another fine example of the storyteller’s art.

I think books like this are why people read literary fiction. They let us see the world through another’s eyes, present us with strong characters, make us think about our own situation and also entertain. I can see a lot of parallels and a lot of wisdom that could be applied to today in He Was a Most Peculiar Man. Given that there are some light modern day references sprinkled throughout, I believe this was the author’s intention.

Stars and much respect go to this novel. Literary fiction fans will eat it up, and I suspect that those who enjoy a good, brooding story will as well. It should prove popular once published.

John Breeden II
Old Number Seven

Firstly, thank you John for your kind words, I'm very pleased that you enjoyed reading these few chapters. With regards to the "slopping out" this was happening in most British prisons of that era. In fact Durham Prison as only in the past decade stopped the practice, having had WC's installed in the cells. I knew of this practice also as a boy, when my friend's dad got sent down and served his time in Armley Prison in Leeds. My friend was quite proud that his dad used to do it in a bucket. Boys ...

He Was a Most Peculiar Man is an elegantly written piece of literary fiction. The characterization is extremely strong, which is nice given that the characters, particularly with Ernest, are very ordinary. Some books take ordinary people and put them in extraordinary circumstances, but this one, how do I put it, puts ordinary people into ordinary circumstances, and the results are surprisingly mesmerizing.

If the excellent characterization is one thing people will love about this novel, the other is the sense of place. Author Mick Hanson must either be an amateur historian or a fantastic storyteller, or perhaps both. Chapter six with the prison scene is particularly good. How does someone know how prisons of their time collected waste products from prisoners? Perhaps Hanson did research on this subject or perhaps he made it up. But it seems perfectly reasonable, so either way, it’s just another fine example of the storyteller’s art.

I think books like this are why people read literary fiction. They let us see the world through another’s eyes, present us with strong characters, make us think about our own situation and also entertain. I can see a lot of parallels and a lot of wisdom that could be applied to today in He Was a Most Peculiar Man. Given that there are some light modern day references sprinkled throughout, I believe this was the author’s intention.

Stars and much respect go to this novel. Literary fiction fans will eat it up, and I suspect that those who enjoy a good, brooding story will as well. It should prove popular once published.

John Breeden II
Old Number Seven

I wonder if you are old enough to remember WWII (i.e."The War"), you capture so much of the sight and sound of the era, and of the Bradford, Bingley, Leeds area. Great writing, no unnecessary frills but very evocative. Going on my watchlist, and starred.
A few points, offered more as proof-reading aids than criticisms:
Your long pitch is fine, but the short pitch undersells--I passed the book up several times and wish I hadn't.
Chap 3 has a confusing reference to the Great Depression and Wall St. collapse (just after WWI) between references (e.g. to Churchill) to the post WWII era. Did you mean an older generation remembered the post WWI era?
Chap 4. para. 6, 'giving' for 'given'--a typo? (In an earlier chap. you have 'their' for 'they're').
Chap 5. para 4, it's not clear until rather late that they are in church (or the churchyard) when Ernest is being condescended to.
Great description of Ernest's awkward 'tea', and his cleverness at watching to see what's correct, and lovely description of Ernest's Mam, and his dad for the little we see of him.
Good luck, Anne.
p.s. Would you take a look at "Polly" if you have time. Relatively lightweight approach, but you might be interested.

Hi Mick,

I found myself sat with the characters listening in on their conversations. It's utterly absorbing, all the more so because of the perfection of the accented dialogue.
I have to say that this is my kind of book.. thought-provoking philosophy at it's core, which appears to be derived from the experiences gathered through life. I always enjoy reading unique perspectives on things, no matter how small. My favourite line thus far is quite near the start, "The mill, the bloody mill, the rotten mill that takes our days and nights, and grinds our bones to make the owner's bread, and what's on the table today mother, what grub can you muster up from your own sweat." I thought that was very poetic and in all honesty, one of the most enjoyable lines I've ever read.

Starred and will shelf it soon enough!

Adam

This is such a highly emotional story. The first chapter in particular sets the scene for the rest with an accurate description of poverty and the way people used to live. You paint a very vivid picture of the effects that this had on people and the misery they endured. My own family were mine workers from Yorkshire so I know how accurately you are reflecting things. Your style of writing is excellent and you make the story fascinating rather than just a tale of woe. I would be grateful if you could take a peek at my novel as it too is a very emotional story. Well done. Six stars.

Kim (Pain)

I love the dialect. Would “water” be “watter”, I wondered to myself. You know, this is really good. I like the way it dismisses, “hope beyond the dirt and grit”. There simply was no hope. You’ve described the roots of the modern UK working class, the one we have now in suburban imprisonment, facing a de-unionised, unregulated future.

Is that a Hawker Siddely factory by any chance? Reminds me of Fairey Engineering, in Stockport. This is the beauty of Historical Fiction. It makes you think. I was brought up in Manchester, and I was horrified to find that companies like Courtaulds still owned vast tracts of dereliction, and that manufacturing hadn’t actually “died out” as we were led to believe, it had just been moved to places where they could exploit and poison without worrying about unions, regulations, and working conditions. Gosh it made me angry. It was the first big lie I learnt about. Anyway, don’t get me going. Well done, Mick. Backed. That's Lowry’s self-portrait I believe.

Reading the first chapter,I could not wait a minute putting this on my shelf. What an extraordinary beautiful text. I will read more.
There is something common in most books I love here: an inner silence, clarity. no pretense -the writing just flows out of itself and shares from the heart. I feel privileged by taking part of it. the text has no hooks: i don't feel I owe it something.
6 stars and backed
Leelah Saachi
When fear comes home to love

I read your first chapter.

General comments: A touching, gritty start. A sharply-defined, observant and wise central character. Vivid descriptions that genuinely evoke the era. A compelling sense of place. Well-crafted tension. Appropriate pacing that never failed to hold my interest.

Specific comments on the first chapter:
1) "Better out than in lad ... " Comma after 'in.' When you address someone in dialogue, offset their name or title with a comma. There are more cases in this chapter (and probably in the manuscript) where you address someone in dialogue, but don't offset their name or title with a comma.
2) Hyphenate 'steam powered.'
3) 'All we saw were the grey, depressing, streets; ... ' Remove the second comma.
4) 'Bandits at 10 o'clock!' Spell out numbers 1-99.

I hope these comments help you further polish your all important first chapter. These are just my opinions. Use what works for you and discard the rest.

Would you please take a look at "Savannah Oak" and let me know how I might improve it?

Have a marvelous day.

Al

Hi Mick, well I've read the first chapter and intend to read all you have up, but thought I'd step in with a comment or two before I read on. This is great! A real fly on the wall peep at real life in this era. You've got the dialect spot on, and I'm sure even the yanks on here will understand it :) This reminded me so much of my nanna and grandad, and the tales they would sit for hours and tell me. Tales of dodging the rent man, scrubbed lino on all floors and toilets down the yard, shared with the neighbours. They also told me tales about Albert Pierpoint, the last hangman, who used to live in Clayton, where they lived. I remember well, my grandad telling me about how women got banned from the WMC's on Sundays, and his club wouldn't allow women at all in the main bar, they had to sit in the 'snug'. His favourite saying was 'Oh aye.'

A lot of people on here don't like regional dialect and will tell you it's better just to use the odd word to indicate it. Take no notice. This is keeping it real, and I love it. Incidentally, the first part of chapter one; the end of life scenes and the memories of Ernest's mother dying, were done brilliantly. Amid your descriptive scene setting about beautiful surroundings, was this grim reality check. The stark contrast of vibrant life set against the cold certainty of imminent death. Genius. A line that really shook me was 'The scream of a mute is horrible.' The imagery of that will stick by me forever, I think.

In my opinion, Mick, you have something really special here and I've no doubt you'll find a home for this with a good publisher. I'll be back with more when I finish it. By the way, I loved your reference to Bridlington :) Although I was born and brought up in Bradford, I moved to Bridlington in my twenties, to give my kids a better life. xx

Beautifully lyrical and visual: full of long-distance and more intimate scenes that gives this book considerable depth, interest, and social insight.

A dying man looks back over his life, the detail coming back to him in sharp waves. The sounds, the scenes, the social mores of industrial West Yorkshire, from the late 1930s onward are captured in this interesting and well-written book. The sharp class divide is particularly well described in the factory scenes (at meal times), in the school - where the working class lads are prepared for manual labour - and in other telling ways:
" It was only when Julie smiled at me, and put her finger ...to her lips that I realized I was slurping my tea, and chomping on the ...bread and jam, like a cow chewing its cud' (ch. 3).

The sense of period and place is emphasised with contemporary references - the Cagney quote from 'White Heat', for example, and the apt use of the Henry Reed (a Yorkshireman) poem: 'The Naming of Parts', to connect with the monotony of the factory job: to become the 'Making of Parts' ! The undiluted Yorkshire working class dialect of that period (now softened by television & influx of many other tongues) is captured well, as is the grip of the Church of England.

I liked this book enormously and was reminded of Terence Davies's autobiographical work, 'Distant Voices, Still Lives' although Mick Hanson has his own distinctive voice for recalling the past. If you like books with contrived and fast-moving plots it is not for you. But if you enjoy, as I do, the slow unfurling detail of real lives, I recommend it to you.

Mick,

The poignant voice and setting of your writing reminds me of an American writer John Steinbeck and his book the Grapes of Wrath. It’s a gift to see the struggles of others through their eyes. You do it so very well, drawing the reader into a world that is afflicted by a drought of hope. Hope is not gone - it’s just not in abundance. Through your thoughtful rendering of words, the reader can see and feel the difficult times, but like generations upon generations have done before, your characters will live a life that others can learn and draw strength from. Highly starred.

Dianna Lanser
Nothing But The Blood

Hi Mick
Just stopped by and love your pitch, your content sounds gritty and compelling. I can't wait to get under the skin of Ernest, starred and watchlisted to check out very soon.
regards
Sheila

Nice writing - lose the quotation, it always comes across as didactic and preachy - on WL

JS

Angela's Ashes gone to war?? I love a book that can take you away, plant you in the middle of it. Feel as if mine is sheer mental floss after reading some of this. See you have written a few novels... Hmm. Perhaps the difference between being published or not is a good, good editor. What I read is dark, and I wonder how much of it i would / could take if I had the time to read more. I daresay I would buy this for the sheer imagery, authenticity, which so few can pull off well, if an old fashioned book editor had been through it first. Read an interesting article about the top five differences in epublishing and printed, and basically, 1 is editing, 2 is editing, 3 is.... Best of luck.

I've read chapter 2 and I love your imagery. Reading of how war affected different countries is enlightening while at the same time very easy to relate to.

"My isolation felt like a dark silent jungle, the clamoring solitude of a thousand years blowing through my heart..." It's gems like this that will hook the reader, Mick. The sentiment is so genuine and compelling. You have a talent for literary fiction.

War is war regardless of the nature of the battle. It doesn't always involve mortar and assault rifles. War occurs between the different levels in the status quo. War is sometimes within oneself. Just the same, some are subject to belligerence and persecution on account of their religion, just as you mention with that ignorant butcher's kid. You do a great job of expressing the trickle down effect of it all. Your subject matter is very relevant and many people will be able to relate to your writing.

I have to back this while I finish reading it. All the best, Mick.

This is lit. fic. at some of its finest and a major reason why I love it so much. It's the description that jumped out at me initially. A man, who I presume is Ernest's father, is watching his life slip away. It reminds me a lot of what I learned in History of Lockheed's and many civilians having to put in hours to help build the various military apparatuses here in the U.S.

You deliver on the points in your pitch throughout the first chapter and I immediately relate with the plight of your MC. It's tragic. At some points this brings to mind the modern day effects of chronic inflation but when you realize people have seen Much worse and have had to live in a perpetual state of hopelessness. It's a depressing thought but it's still very relevant today.

There are no cliche, contrived gimmicks here and this is what makes this much more than a contender for a spot on the ED. The description of the actual work in the factory is a great, accurate touch.

The line about there being a false hope of having room to flourish if one only conformed is a crock of bull we all feed ourselves at some point. This is all so Real and even though I'm American the dialogue doesn't throw me off at all. As a matter of fact it's amusing when I give it a voice in my head.

Will continue reading, Mick, keep up the good work.

I just read through the first chapter and I am quite impressed. This is not the kind of book I usually read, but your talent for writing literary fiction (something I could never do) is amazing. I only have two minor suggestions. The first is a little nitpicky, but you may want to check your formatting. There were several paragraph breaks that were obviously unintentional, it was a bit distracting. The second is pure opinion. I just found myself a bit bogged down within all the description in the beginning. It was written beautifully but I found myself wanting to get to the meat of the story. This may go complexly against your literary style, and if it does, feel free to disregard. Thanks so much for the read, I really enjoyed it. Many stars to you!

When I read something like this, I don't care if there's no story, if nothing happens, because, in a way, that is the story. Ordinary lives, plain voices, rare detail, and I fall backwards into an England I never knew, because I wasn't born then, but is still a part of me, indelibly, my Dad's Lancashire roots, my grandmother, all the unique quirks and oddnesses that Orwell celebrated; you honour it here, Mick, and bring it to mind most powerfully. Elegiac is the word that comes to me, poignant and gentle,. like your hero. I know there is much more to come, and I look forward to reading it.
Two small things - what is Wilfred Pickles doing there? He constantly pops up in a most disconcerting way. And 'cloths' should be 'clothes' throughout. Cloths are for dishcloths, lad!

I'm really enjoying reading this one. It's thought provoking and very well written. This is a great story, I'll be watching this one.

Good Luck,

Roy Earle, "Bad Men and Bad Odds"

'Is it true that the past is shaped by everything that never happened?' - is that yours? It's wonderful. I'm really enjoying reading this. At first I wondered at the sadness, the melancholy, but the writing was lovely. You also have some fine, believable dialogue and the gift of immersing me in the world of your story almost at once. Will be reading all the chapters, and giving good stars.

Well construcyed and masterly written. Gripping from the start.
Backed with pleasure, Laurence Howard, The Cross of Goa

Could you possible have aname like that and not be related to 'the' Wilfred Pickles? Conjureas up memoires of a great character with whom we were all familiar on TV and radio. evocative of that great war era in Britain. I'm Irish and my novel reflects an earlier time, in Ireland, which affected my family. Similar theme. if you have time plesae give it a look; Shades of Green' Will back yours. Thanks Mary

Beautifully written, atmospheric and thought provoking. I am fill of praise for your witten Yorkshire dialect. Six stars and on my watch list awaiting promotion but I have a bit of a back log so it may take a while. In the mean time I wish you the very best of luck with this engrossing story. Yours Bea

There's some really good writing here. but I think I would agree with Paul House - don't try so hard! Keep it simple and just tell the story. Let it speak for itself...Good luck!

Hi Mick
I have just read the four sample chapters of He was a Most Peculiar Man and would happily have continued reading - more please!
Your writing is lovely, flowing and visual. Ernst's musings on social injustice are thought provoking and compelling. Your characterizations of Ernst and Mam are strong.
The cover is memorable too
You might want to use the services of an editor to tighten up the punctuation.
Good luck with this book - it is very good indeed!
Barina
Fifth Season - Jonathan Barrett

Hi Wilfred, This evokes such atmosphere and it contributes to the mood of the narrator, coming in after the dialogue as selected and corresponding with the story. I also like the situations at home making parallels with the war outside. The lifestyles then are almost startling compared with the opportunities of today. And how the war, the father's death, is being experienced in this British town.
The writing is smooth and has a stream of thought. One issue I found was that it might be paragraphed more, especially when a new character is mentioned, like Eddy's wife.
An absorbing read! Starred and shelved - Katherine

Really stunning - a sort of borders Dylan Thomas.
Vivid in the descriptive prose, authentic in the dialogue.
The narrative prose is just right and one gets a feel for the MC's voice and time and place.
I think this is masterful.
Backed.

I enjoyed the first two chapters and will happily put this on my shelf. The only comment I can make that may be of any use to you is that I think that your writing flows more easily the less hard you try to write well. When you seem to be making a conscious effort to write I find the sentences slighly clumsy, an example being: "the celestial calligraphy of the heavens". On the other hand, when you write simply, it can be quite beautiful: "before getting their custard creams, or maybe they get their custard creams first". I am not sure whether I have expressed myself well. I do not wish to sound pompous. Either you will understand what I mean or you won't, I guess. After all, it is only a matter of taste in the end, isn't it?