Colin Ward: Writer
Creative, Copywriting & Consultancy
Featured Reviews
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Star Ratings are my own personal rating.
The Lights Went Out and Other Stories
Fiona Cooke-Hogan
It’s always hard to know what to expect when you first pick up a collection of short stories. Has the writer connected them all with a theme? Are they all the same length? Are they all the same style?
Fiona Cooke-Hogan’s collection is a refreshing range of length, style, theme and tone. Some of the tales are a matter of only a few pages - kind of “micro-stories” - which in their own right are swiftly enjoyable. It would be too easy to say or bemoan that their narratives don’t develop, but then they aren’t supposed to. They are little glimpses into characters’ lives made whole by their ambiguity: given just enough detail to see, but leaving plenty of space for the reader to expand.
A number of the stories are clearly about relationships and a number seem to happen in a car journey. That in itself is a great device because it means the characters have nowhere to go and must face their daemon/issue/partner...and often the weather.
Many of the collection have strong twists or surprising turns of events at the end. Sudden reveals of character identity also bring about an enjoyable energy to many of the stories, with good humour in no short supply. The stories are page-turners, but this collection made it so easy in a busy week to dip into for a quick story or two and go away to muse over it for a while.
Some real highlights have to be mentioned. “Darkling” is a wonderful story written in an old folktale style, much like a Charles Perrault. It is haunting in a way, mystical and with just the right dash of magic that carries intrigue throughout. Equally nodding in that direction but set in the modern day is “Cashflow,” which seems to carry a message that only unravels as the end approaches and the penny drops as to what has really happened.
The title story is a great read and it is totally clear why it carries the collection’s name. It’s one of those short stories that you can image I could see as a great short film. Just enough detail in the description and I had the world painted clearly. A great thriller tale that I love to read as a screenplay. One can imagine it being told by locals, embellished for the purposes of rumour, gossip and horror.
If there was any criticism of the collection it would have to be that it could have done with a once-over from a copy editor to iron out glitches here or there that jar against smooth reading in places. With stories of this quality the last thing you want is a needless error knocking you out of a pacey read.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the collection and recommend it for both casual readers and those who, like me, enjoy burying their heads in a good book written a writer with a great love for story.
Colin Ward
12/01/2016
Lights Burning Blue
Andrew Cullum
I will lay my cards on the table right away: this is a smashingly great novel that grabbed my attention and held it for the day it took me to read it!
The characterisation is rich and even though the writer has been carefully sparing on physical description – something I am glad he didn’t clog the pace up with – there is enough to form the characters and let the reader fill the gaps. The same goes for the descriptions of the spaces and world of the story. I have no idea how I built to such a vivid image in my mind but I guess it came from the carefully sketched details that I was allowed freedom to colour my own way. I love it when writers do that.
Being a man of the theatre myself, there were so many aspects of the story that I related to with great warmth and nostalgia, but this isn’t a novel that requires you to be an expert, or even know anything about theatre to fully engage in. If fact we even have that to share with the protagonist’s boyfriend (who is rounded just enough to help the story move along) whose relationship with our narrator is completely believable and of great value to the progress of the story.
And it is the story and the crafting of it that really captured me. Told in a wonderful style of multiple first person, even though there is a clear protagonist point of view, a “narrator” so to speak, the other characters and their differences are exciting, intriguing, funny and infectiously warm; and when needs be, dastardly sinister to add edge and poise to the thriller side. The twists, the turns, revelations and signposting kept me guessing and changing my mind throughout.
The book is paced just right – not too slow, not too fast. Any slower and it would have dragged, any faster and the complex array of little references, rich imagery, and themes in plentiful supply would have been lost. They all came to an ending with a sudden jolt of speed and a gasping “oh, I see now…” realisation in the denouement that fitted together like a grand speech from Poirot. (Okay, maybe not as grandiose as Poirot, and certainly not as verbose, but definitely matching in richness).
It is a relatively short novel, but that’s not a criticism as I feel the length is exactly right. Even though I could write plenty more about it I fear that I might include spoilers and rob a reader from enjoyable journey the book gave me for a day! As a thriller it has all the page-turning, cliff hanging tension it needs; as drama set in the theatre world it has just the right amount of practical detail to make it utterly believable; as a novel it reads like a beautifully directed play that whisks its audience away.
Andrew Cullum’s “Lights Burning Blue” was a pleasure to read, and carries the warmth of someone with an evident love of theatre, and the cunning of a writer with a great eye for mystery and thriller.
My only question to the author: when is the next novel coming out…?
Colin Ward
03/01/2016
