Paperback 6" x 9" 73 pages
ISBN
978-1-326-46749-4
Published November 2015
‘In his latest novella, Champion returns to the
distinctive territory of family, work and identity as experienced in
the aftermath of war in the grim, treeless, rubble-strewn terraced
streets of a still mono-cultural east London.
It tells the story of Ben Stevens as he
undergoes the rite of passage from boy to man, shedding light on a
long lost world of black and white television, rigidly defined
gender roles and, most importantly, the suffocating straitjacket of
class. This manifests itself in a myriad of ways within and across
social classes, from the forelock-tugging fawning sycophancy of
Ben’s father (“a man of few skills his instinct told him that to
survive he would have to defer”) through to the internalised codes
that differentiate the ‘respectable’ from the ‘rough’ working
classes and, most starkly, in the seemingly irreconcilable divisions
between classes.
Though informed by these serious, timeless,
even epic themes, Champion’s descriptive strength comes from his
exquisite minituarism and his ability to capture the intimate detail
of routine domestic settings. His characterisation is pretty
faultless too. Family aside, we get to meet a cast of ‘village
irregulars’ like Brilliantined bad boy, Vinny Duggan, Ben’s
sensitive cineaste soul-mate Johnny and frustrated crimper turned
greasy-spoon owner, Lou. There’s also a lovely cameo of a
narcissistic gym master that’s worth the cover price in its own
right.
Champion’s stark and sometimes disturbing
stories, told often with anger and a dust-dry wit, manage to reach
out to the general reader whilst also generating plaudits from
critics and peers. And he is not only prolific, he is near as dammit
pitch-perfect as he turns in yet another assured narrative that
effortlessly snares the reader and draws us into its grainy, lost
world.’
Chris Connelley, Hastings Independent (2015)
Ken Champion is an internationally published
writer, novelist and poet whose work has appeared in literary
journals in the US and extensively in magazines and anthologies in
the UK.
A volume of short stories, Urban Narratives
(2013), a novel, The Dramaturgical Metaphor (2014) and a
collection of poetry, Cameo Metro (2014) have been published
by Penniless Press Publications. A pamphlet, African Time
(2002), chapbook, Cameo Poly (2004) and a first collection,
But Black and White Is Better (2008, reprinted
2010) are published by Tall Lighthouse. He is a
South Magazine Profiled Poet and a reviewer.
A selection of his poems and fiction can be
found at The Poetry Library and at
www.kenchampion.org.uk
Ken lectures in sociology and lives in London.
