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Line Dancing Review
“Its an East Anglian thing.” So says Julie Myerson in her foreword to this collection of short stories and those four words sum up the collection of tales, some funny, some frightening, some even disturbing that fill this volume. Though trying to define a collection of individual and intrinsically unique stories is difficult, the overall impression that I get as I come away from this book is how atmospheric and sinister a place East Anglia can be.
There are of course the obvious scary tales such as M. R James’ Oh Whistle and I’ll come to you my Lad, a story of discovery and horror. The nightmarish linen faced demon that confronts professor Parkins in his room is all the more reviling because of the way it gropes blindly for its caller, when it feels the pillow where only just recently Professor Parkins’ head rested a chill ran down my spine, and the setting of the long lonely beach and the half forgotten ruins creates a distinctly supernatural atmosphere.
Then there is the haunting The Lost Housen by Mary Mann, this disturbing story with its twisted streams of horror and violence plays out in a claustrophobic village, where gossip and superstition have forced people into more secretive lives. The bizarre ending plays on the mind, how can one man’s evil cause misery and pain to run through so many others lives? It is a tale that still plays on your thoughts long after you have read the last paragraph.
Some of the stories are sinister in another way, though not overtly horrifying or ghostly, an ominous vein of secretive and furtive thoughts runs beneath the surface. Such as What the Sky Sees, which not only relates a tragic instance of a moment’s misdeed leading to a life of misery, but relays this as though the main character is confessing to the sky that watches him day and night. The imagery in this story, the blues and greys of summer and winter skies is brilliantly presented, poetic almost. Whilst reading it and looking out the window into a dusky evening I knew exactly what the author meant, how looking to the clouds can send the ground spinning out of view, and yet also create the sensation of an over-dominating sky watching us, it is almost a spiritual sensation.
Similarly I feel the coast of East Anglia is perfectly presented in Two Children, this story is all about the atmosphere of the shoreline; how it feels after it has been stormy, and the picture the words bring to mind is a rough sea, almost alive, and grey skies encircling the landscape. The sky and sea are combined to make a malevolent entity from which their hapless victim has been thrown.
But not all the stories portray East Anglia as a dangerous, unforgiving place. George Ewart Evans The Shield had me laughing and was a respite amongst the grim tales of despair and death. He summed up East Anglians with precise accuracy and the characters within the story remind me of people I have met and spoken with; it’s a tale of village pride and also of cunningness, one man’s clever deception that was absolutely wonderful to read. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Yet still I come back to the overall problem of defining this book; it is neither entirely a horror, or a comedy, or a ghostly or tragic book. I return to Julie’s words, for they best sum up what I feel about this book “its an East Anglian thing.” The theme that runs through this book is our landscape, our skies and our sea. This short collection conjures up all aspects of this unpredictable and amazing county, and that is what makes it such a readable compilation.
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