Byte the Book is extremely honoured to have Stuart Trotter join our Illustrators' Showcase. This image is the cover to his Scaredy Cat book. Scaredy Cat is available via Amazon here.
Stuart is a publisher and the creative director of Rockpool Children's Books, publishers of children's picture and board books. He is also an illustrator and has worked for most children's publishers over the last 30 years. He is currently the official Rupert Bear artist for the annual, published by Egmont UK.
Rockpool Children's Books intends to nurture new and established talent, and uses high production values to create inventive, inspiring, well-designed children's books that can be enjoyed by all ages. They have published 30 titles, 11 Apps iTunes, animated two of Sam Walshaw's Little Fairies, and are currently creating ebooks for all devices.
If you are interested in seeing more of Stuart’s work or if you are an artist wanting to offer your services in book illustration or design then please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com.
Review written by Tracey Sinclair
Buy Homicide:
Fans of The Wire will need no introduction to David Simon, but before he created The Greatest TV Show Ever Made, Simon was a journalist on the Baltimore Sun. Homicide: A Year on The Killing Streets is the result of his spending 12 months shadowing the Baltimore PD homicide department – and while it’s best known now as the book that sowed the seeds for Simon’s stellar TV career, it stands alone as a gripping and groundbreaking book.
Written with the fast pace and the slick prose of a crime thriller, Homicide is an unflinching look at the lives of the men (and it is mostly men) at the frontline of the ‘war on drugs’. It’s no polemic: it doesn’t canonise the cops or demonise the druggies; rather recognises that they are all caught up in the personal and social consequences of a State’s failing economy (there is, in the minds of both the police and the people, a clear distinction between drug/gang related crime that takes out those ‘in the Game’ and other crimes – the violent murder of a young girl which is the central 'whodunnit' of the story is seen by the whole community as abhorrent). Although as readable as any novel, the book is clearly grounded in fact: there are no easy answers, no obvious bad guys, and crimes go unsolved – this is the real life on the streets, not a sanitised Hollywood version.
Of course fans of The Wire (and its predecessor Homicide: Life on the Street) will get most from this book: it’s littered with familiar characters, and entire scenes from the TV series have been lifted, wholesale, from the text, eliciting smiles of recognition in what can occasionally be a tough read. But even if you’ve never seen the shows this inspired (though I’d urge you to rectify that at once) this is a thought provoking, riveting book that is impossible to put down.
Review written by Rachel Mann
Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot explores the interwoven lives of three college friends in their first year out of Brown University, in the early ‘80s. Madeleine Hanna is a Ivy League English major, a lit elitist who revels in Victorian narrative and abstruse literary theory. Oh, how I recognized her! Perhaps because of my identification with the character as she navigates advanced literary seminars, I found the first section of the novel deeply satisfying and amusing. Eugenides weaves together Madeleine’s romantic obsessions with her literary ones, as evoked by her relationship with Barthes’ A Lovers Discourse, a book that both broadens and disrupts her love affair with Leonard Bankhead.
Leonard, a manic depressive biologist, is the focus of the next section of the book, which brings the two lovers to Cape Cod. There, he works as a research grudge while alternately recovering from and regressing towards a state of mental imbalance. His story alternates with that of Mitchell Grammaticus, the third point in the love triangle, who travels the world while obsessing in equal measure about Madeleine and organized religion. Though the book does include a marriage, there is nothing traditional about the placement or implication of that event; this is no comedy with wedding bells at the end.
Eugenides excels at the exploration of character, and this novel felt like a thoroughly enjoyable exercise in revealing three intelligent people. If there is a flaw in the novel, it’s that despite the stimulating internal monologues, conversations, and letters shared by the protagonists, none of the three does much of great importance during the span of the story. The ending feels like a cop-out, as Leonard simply steps off stage. Madeleine and Mitchell are left to separate wanly, which is no surprise to the reader.
I feel very priviledged to be showcasing Aline P'Nina Tayar and her incredibly moving story 'Losing Touch', it's an absolutely stunning piece of writing.
Born in Malta and raised in Israel and Australia, Aline is the author of a memoir "How Shall We Sing?: A Mediterranean Journey Through a Jewish Family" (published by Pan Macmillan/Picador) and available to buy from Amazon here. She has just completed her first novel, "Island of Dreams" and is working on a collection of short stories.
If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories on this site or reading more of Kate’s fiction please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com.
Another brilliant writer on our site, Kate Ansell, and her short story, 'Emily Meets A Man Who Looks Like Hitler'.
Like everyone else, Kate has written a novel. It is about cats. She has an MA in Creative Writing, but would prefer you didn't hold that against her. She used to live by the sea, but doesn't anymore. As a result, she is having an existential crisis.
If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories on this site or reading more of Kate’s fiction please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com.
We've another great edition to the Byte the Book family: Talli Roland. Please take a look at her wise study of romance in the short story 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me'.
Talli writes fun, romantic fiction. Born and raised in Canada, She now lives in London, where she savours the great cultural life (coffee and wine). Despite training as a journalist, Talli soon found she preferred making up her own stories--complete with happy endings. Talli's debut novel The Hating Game
Review written by Tracey Sinclair
Orange award-winning novel Song of Achilles may have been ten years in the writing, but debut novelist Madeline Miller hasn’t wasted a moment of her time: this is a beautifully crafted, moving romance that will stay with you long after you finish it.
Classicist Miller brings all her expertise to bear in this retelling of the story of the Greek hero Achilles and his boyhood friend Patroclus. While there has been much debate as to just what the nature of their relationship was, Miller unashamedly treats it as an out and out love story, and it is this which makes the book so enthralling. We see their relationship blossom from childhood friendship to teenage infatuation to a mature and profound love that is so convincing that Achilles’ madness when his lover is taken seems not only believable but entirely understandable – the loss of such a love would indeed be too much for anyone to bear.
Miller deftly balances myth and realism in her evocative description of the Trojan campaign: this may be a land of gods and monsters, but it is also one of men and their failings, of brutal and bloody battles. She doesn’t flinch from recognising the horror of warfare, or the sorry plight of women in a world where even goddesses are trophies to be trapped and defiled. She captures, too, the feel of a culture where glory is all: so that while we may be frustrated by Achilles’ stubbornness over Agamemnon’s insult to his honour, we always understand – even if we don’t approve of – his resulting actions, even as they turn out to have such catastrophic consequences. While she may, at times, be overly fond of descriptive phrases, Miller’s prose is beautifully hypnotic, and she has crafted a gripping, compelling narrative; this is a book that you cannot put down even as you can hardly bear to keep reading, knowing that the lovers are hurtling to their fates. Rarely has there been a more worthy award winner, for in Song of Achilles, Miller has given one of literature’s greatest love stories the telling it deserves.
Another great edition to the Byte the Book fold, please take a look at Simon East's short story of dis-ease 'Sparrows'.
Simon recently completed a PhD at Oxford University and works there part-time researching molecular neurogenetics. He has had various items published in UK magazines, including the Forward Book of Poetry 2010. Simon has just completed a debut novel set in the nineteenth century, in which a stonemason acts upon his secret feelings for a young lady by undertaking a treacherous journey to create a spectacular monument to her. He has also written an illustrated book for young children, and is currently working on a second novel and a collection of stories.
If you are interested in showcasing one of your short stories on this site or reading more of Simon’s fiction please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com.
Buy this book
Review by Tracey Sinclair
He may be one of the bestselling British authors of all-time – and reputedly the most shoplifted one – but Sir Terry Pratchett is often dismissed by the mainstream press for being ‘just’ a fantasy writer. It’s true that his most famous novels, the Discworld series – of which Snuff is, impressively, the 39th – are set in a world rich with fantasy tropes; a world where dwarves, trolls and werewolves roam, where magic is rife and where one of the smartest characters is a talking dog. But if you can get past the sword and sorcery setting – and I can’t urge you strongly enough to try – Pratchett is one of the most humanist writers you will ever encounter, combining sharp humour and elegant prose with biting satire and political commentary to create a fantastical universe that manages to be amazingly cohesive and consistent, while also holding up a dark mirror to our own.
Snuff is no exception: it’s not for nothing that some of his more ardent supporters have called Pratchett ‘the new Dickens’. Superficially, it’s Discworld meets Downton Abbey, as the longsuffering commander of the City Watch, the resolutely working class Sam Vimes, (a recurring character in the series) finally agrees to go and visit the country seat of his posh wife Lady Sybill – but what could be a simple ‘city boy out of water’ laugh-fest becomes a far murkier tale of people trafficking and ethnic cleansing; the fact that the ‘people’ being trafficked aren’t actually human at all doesn’t lessen the impact of the book. It doesn’t shy away from big questions: how easy it is to classify the world’s unfortunates as less than human because fate has dealt them a harsher hand than our own; how simple it is to force certain communities or races to live in degradation then condemn them for trying to survive it. For Pratchett, there is one big crime, from which all others stem: the crime of treating people as a means, not an end, and while Snuff is often very, very funny, it also fizzes with a righteous fury that keeps you gripped to the end.
Though established fans, familiar with the rich backstory of one of the most beloved of Pratchett’s characters, will of course get more out of this book, as a standalone story it’s not a bad jumping in point for newbies – and if you’ve previously dismissed the Discworld series as ‘just fantasy’ novels, this might just be the one to change your mind.
We're really pleased to have the multi-talented author and reviewer, Tracey Sinclair, join Byte the Book. Her quietly menacing short story 'War of Words' is now live in our Writing Showcase, just click on the link here.
Tracey works as freelance copywriter, editor and legal directories consultant. A diverse and slightly wandering career has included writing fact sheets for small businesses, creating web content for law firms, subtitling film and TV and editing one of the UK’s largest legal directories. A keen blogger, she regularly writes for online theatre site Exeunt and science fiction site Unleash the Fanboy. She has published two small press books (Doll and No Love is This, both Kennedy & Boyd) but is dipping a toe in the self-publishing world with her new urban fantasy novel, Dark Dates (Cassandra Bick Chronicles)
You can read Tracey's reviews by clicking below:
Snuff by Terry Pratchett
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
She-Wolves - The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor
Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen
The Girl on the Stairs by Louise Walsh
Tower by Nigel Jones
The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
Bossypants by Tina Fey
When the Devil Drives by Chris Brookmyre
A Wanted Man by Lee Childs
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall
Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin
Phoenix: St Paul's Cathedral and the Men Who Made Modern London by Leo Hollis
It's All Greek To Me by Charlotte Higgins
Richard III by David Baldwin
Shakespeare's Local by Pete Brown
Redshirts by John Scalzi
The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Dark Matter: A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver
Home by Rebekah Lattin Rawstrone
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
In addition you can read a Byte the Book review of 'Date Dates' here and listen to a radio interview with Zoe Cunningham here.
If you are interested in joining our team of reviewers or reading more of Tracey's fiction please get in touch at info@bytethebook.com
