Cuddy

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R.F. Kuang, Sue Lynn Tan, Rebecca Ross, Kate Heartfield, N.E. Davenport, Saara El-Arifi, Juno Dawson and Sunyi Dean Beautifully written in a moving prose, this book recounts the legend of St. Cuthbert, his life, his death and his legacy. Myers characterisation is excellent and the stories overlap, interlink and echo off each other through the years. Some sections are written as poetry with typesetting enhancing the reading experience and others as play scripts with st Cuthbert a voice appearing from beyond the grave BENJAMIN: Well – world exclusive here – Shane Meadows’ adaptation is, in fact, more of a prequel to The Gallows Pole, so it is very different to the novel. The first time I met him, I told him that the story wasn’t even mine in the first place – it was merely my version of real events, real history – and now it would become ‘ The Gallows Pole by Shane Meadows’, and he should feel free to do whatever he wants with it. Shane is a true auteur, he has a singular vision, and he has taken it off in a new direction.

Several more sections follow in which we follow a young girl with her visions of a cathedral and her visitations from Cuthbert (AD995); we live in the shadow of that cathedral (Durham cathedral as we know it) with a woman (AD1346) whose husband is a famous archer but is also abusive and she falls for another, more gentle, man; we read the journal of an Oxford antiquarian (AD1827) as he travels to the north of England (which he despises) to witness the disinterment of a body in the cathedral; and we follow Michael Cuthbert in AD2019 as he cares for his mother and scratches a living as a labourer, eventually finding more stable work at the cathedral. Cuthbert is a central character linking the stories. But so is the cathedral. So much so that in one short section that is presented to us as a play, the cathedral has a speaking part. A dead person and an inanimate building are the central pillars around which the story flows. And, to a large extent, what we read is the history of the cathedral as it is built, corrupted, invaded and restored. And this story is told via a number of excellent and memorable supporting characters.Rating this a 3* read tells barely half the story. For a start, nothing about it is middling, or average. So perhaps even rating it all is a futile pursuit.

Cuddyis a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. I found the poetry of Thomas Hardy to be dismal and the prose of DH Lawrence to be overwrought – all those exclamation marks. Expressing this was probably the reason I failed A-level English. But I now recognise both as visionaries who saw far beyond the England they occupied. I particularly admire Lawrence’s novellas, The Fox and The Virgin and the Gypsy.

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Myers, Benjamin (3 January 2020). " 'I was half-insane with anxiety': how I wrote myself into a breakdown". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 3 January 2020– via www.theguardian.com. The final book is the story of Michael, a teenager labourer who in 2017 begins work at the cathedral among the repairs to the medieval masonry. This is Myers at his most modern and antagonistic. Take this short description of Durham’s early morning bus station, rank with the detritus of the night before: As the book moves from 687 to 2019 in centuries-long leaps, there are less obvious themes which run throughout. Where does one find inspiration, and why are some sources more powerful than others? Is the distance between the sacred and the profane really so great? When is historical inquiry illuminating, and are there times one should simply "let his story lie" undisturbed? Myers i

A polyphonic hymn to a very specific landscape and its people. At the same time, it deepens his standing as an arresting chronicler of a broader, more mysterious seam of ancient folklore that unites the history of these isles as it's rarely taught If all of this sounds too heady or terribly uninteresting, there is good news: The five narratives which contribute to the book's overarching story are excellent. The writing is extremely fine. There is plenty of wit, intrigue, conflict, atmosphere, character development, and good old storytelling to make this a worthwhile read. I am very glad this one found its way into my hands. Graham Masterton on the Night Warriors Series “I have always been interested in the significance of dreams. What is our brain trying to tell us, as we sleep?”Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages.