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Dark tales for dark evenings

Cherries and other tales - by Ian Thomson


Ian Thomson demonstrated his story-telling ability in Come Away, O Human Child and other Tales, and in Cherries, he continues to show his versatility, sharp observation and wit.

The five stories that comprise the collection each have cherries in them somewhere. Their importance ranges from the central to the incidental; indeed, in at least one, the reader has forgotten about them until they suddenly appear. This is not a literary Where’s Wally? but a clever device to link otherwise unrelated stories.

While there is a darkness to them – death and murder lending themselves to subdued tones – what distinguishes the stories is that their characters are so like people we have known. They all ring true, yet are not stereotypes.

The reader is repeatedly rewarded with wry observations, biting asides or a snigger of recognition: “He brought a particularly Welsh kind of misery to his conversation” (“The Pier”). Or, Paul’s first loves, (“Cardigan”) and his relationship with his sister; the tenants of Tanya’s building (“Cold Sweat”), or the very title of “Mansfield Retail Park” and its subsequent conspiratorial banter with the reader.

“Mansfield Retail Park” is described as a “gay romance in the style of Jane Austen” and the combination of the narrator’s (Toby) self-deprecating humour and the propriety of Jane Austen’s language make this a perceptive and amusing story of the problems of love.

The title story, “Cherries”, resonated with me as when I left the aircraft carrier that had been my home for two years I travelled from Cannes to Avignon where the final 200 Picasso paintings were on show. I spent a night there and bought a kilo of cherries (not for €29.50; this was June, not April with its shoures soote) that I ate over the next few days, including on the west-bound Orient Express to Calais. The intimate description of the city and the feeling of freedom away from England are well-captured and gently lull the reader into well-deserved false security for the tart ending to the collection.

These are accomplished stories written with a sureness that makes them more than a treat to read, providing both sustenance and substance.

Thomson is a writer worth watching, and we are promised a novel in the new year.

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