Handling Sex

Yes it is a tricky subject, the most rewritten parts of Scholarship were the parts where 'things happen'.

The question is what to include and what to omit?  Am I trying for the bad sex award or something more subtle?  There was also another overriding motive that led me to spend so much time on these parts was the desire not to produce an erotic novel but one that went deeper into what was going on in a relationship between two boys, part of which concerned their physical relationship.

It took numerous drafts before I felt I had the balance right between what was happening and what I wanted to say.  That meant editing out a lot of other encounters as I felt things were getting repetitive.  Whilst the other encounters were based on real life events, they did not take the story forward, in fact they waylaid the story and I felt gave the wrong impression about what the book was about.

I was reminded of this when re-watching one of my favourite films, Thomas Paul Anderson's 'Boogie Nights', which presumably had the same problem, how to make a mainstream film about the adult porn scene in California.  Director Anderson used dialogue taken from real porn movies to make it real and on screen it sounds so stilted it is very funny as Amber says to our hero Dirk:

"Let me check on something"

She pulls down Dirk's pants,

"This is a giant cock."

That dialogue took some writing, totally banal yet it tells you what is happening so for most of the film, you know you are in the world of the adult entertainment industry without having to digest endless sex scenes.

The Game British Bulldog

British Bulldog forms part of one of the key scenes in Scholarship.  Originally it was a small scene but I was encouraged to enlarge it by Buck Theorem in his editorial role.

British Bulldog is a violent game of 'it' with a somewhat complex set of rules.  See the Wikipedia entry.  We used to play it in the gym when it was too wet to play outside.  Two boys were chosen as the 'bulldogs' and their role was to capture boys as they tried to run past from one end of the gym to the other (to stay in the game you had to go from one end of the gym to the other each round).  The bulldogs territory was a line of mats lined across the middle of the gym, which you had to run over or climb past, hanging from the climbing frames each side of the gym.

If you were captured you became a bulldog, so as the game progressed, there were more and more bulldogs. The game was over when there were only two boys free.  At that point a new round would start with the bulldogs coming from the winners of the previous round.  Okay?  Follow that?

The result was a lot of noise as boys ran from one side to another and a lot of violence.  Violence was the reason why most schools banned the game so it is rarel played these days.

British Bulldog is played in the UK and in the old 'White Commonwealth'. However, very similar games are played in Germany and elsewhere in Europe with the name giving a clue to its origins. Wer hat Angst vorm Schwarzen Mann is the German name of the game, which losely translates as Who's afraid of the bogeyman? The origins of the game appear to be related to the Black Death, with the Black Death being 'it' and gradually building up in strength as the game goes on.

The picture is allegedly of British Bulldog but looks more like the more common game 'It'.  What may make it British Bulldog is that the two boys in the centre appear to be playing the role of bulldogs but as it is outside and informal, no territory is marked out for either side.

Who was Sacha?

No, I am not going to name names but rather respond to a question from a correspondent about who Sacha was in real life.

Sacha was the son of two parents who met at Oxford University.  Oxford was something that ran in the family as one of Sacha’s uncles was a senior academic at the University.

Sacha’s parents started their married life in Oxford. All three children (Sam, Peter and Sacha) were born in Oxford.  But when Sacha was a small boy the family moved and his mother stopped working to look after her expanding family with the aid of an au pair who looked after Sacha and Peter.

I never found out much about Sacha’s home life other than the family had a dog and that Sacha had the smallest bedroom in the house.  The one story Sacha told me about his home life was when he was left home alone one evening when his parents went out socialising.  Bored, Sacha decided to try the whisky in the drinks cabinet and then proceeded to drink himself senseless, passing out on the dining room floor.  Fortunately, this rare example of Sacha's more adventurous side was not discovered as he managed to creep back up stairs to his bedroom unnoticed.

Sacha and Peter were in constant rivalry throughout their childhood.  The stories of fights over football came from Sacha. Their rivalry came about as Sacha was the brighter of the two.  Peter was more artistic and used to paint and play the guitar and I suspect was destined to join the family business unless he escaped.  Peter left school at 16 and went to college as he was not cut out for academia.  

Post 'The Rocks' Sacha did well at his O levels with 4As amongst nine in total.  He went on to do four A levels in maths and the sciences.  Sacha told me that he was expected to go to Oxford, he probably did.  His parents were very keen for him to go to university and do well.  That was part of the reason why he was quite driven as his parents put a lot of pressure on him.

Beyond that I do not know what happened, but Sacha always struck me as a conformist so I imagine him out there, married with kids in a respectable job.  But sometimes life is not like that!

Amazon sales of Scholarship

When I wrote Scholarship, I always intended to publish it so in due course I took the option to publish via Amazon as well as elsewhere.

At long last (well I had not looked to be honest) I can report that sales at Amazon have started to trickle in.

So thanks to those who decided they wanted a paper version, that is how I always intended it to be read!

Scholarship at Amazon.co.uk

Scholarship at Amazon.com

The Custard Boys - coming to London

Now here is a thing, many people come to my blog as I wrote about John Rae's The Custard Boys.  It is one of my favourite pieces of fiction and for some reason, this blog is google's number one search result on the subject.

Although it has been filmed twice, I have never seen it as a wildly popular story but Glenn Chandler, creator of Taggart, has decided to put the story on the stage in London (The Tabard Theatre - Turnham Green) from 10 April to 12 May.  I am intrigued.  Details here Tabard theatre.

I'm King of The Castle

One of many books that came my way was this little gem about two warring boys.  Edmond Hooper lives happily in a large house with his father then his life is disrupted when a housekeeper and her young son Charles Kingshaw move in with them.

I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill at Amazon

Edmond is not happy and makes it very clear to his new supposed friend Charles, that he is not happy.  The result is a glorious battle of wits, a tale of childhood terror as Charles realises who is King of the Castle and who is not.

I will say no more other than to recommend it as a good read.  It has been filmed in French under the title under the title 'Je suis le seigneur du château' which is a wonderful version with added gloom and somewhat overwrought feel to the story.  


Alas it is no longer available on DVD but if you search around the web, you might be able to locate a copy.

Scholarship now on Amazon

They said it would take two months, and they were correct!

Scholarship is now available via various local versions of amazon:

Scholarship at amazon.com

Scholarship at amazon.co.uk

Scholarship at amazon.de

Scholarship at amazon.fr

It is still available at Lulu.com (see link to right)

2012 And a new Beginning

A new beginning sounds terribly trite at this time of year but over the last 48 hours, I have managed to evolve the plot of "The Island" further and also find, I hope, a proper title.

The title I am keeping quiet about at the moment but it was called for as of course someone (in fact Ian Hislop's wife) has already used "The Island" so I now have to give the island a name.  I avoided the obvious one and looked at various avian themes but all were taken - except the obvious one.  So that, for now, is what it will be called.

As for the plot, well I have 60 odd pages of disconnected prose.  This has come about as I am following the advice to plonk down text as it occurs to me and not get too worried about how it hits the page. Some of it will be rubbish but some of it will be usable.

The plot itself is continuing to evolve but I have now developed a non-linear concept as our hero's past comes back to him gradually.

Also important (to me as a geographer) is I now have a proper mental map of the island.  It's based on a rasher of back bacon.  Simple but for me it works well with the location (and did I mention the presence of pigs?)

More later on some atmospheric Island set films.