Paul Magrs

(28 April 2007)
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I didn’t quite walk around with my head buried in it, as this photo implies, but nearly …

This was a book that made me contact the author when I finished it, because of this little gem, near the end. They’re talking about setting a load of books free:

‘I’ve heard about this,’ said Simon. ‘Where they leave them in cafes and on buses and you pick them up, read them, leave your message and liberate them again, for someone else to find …

It also contains a show more sentence which sums up, for me, the style and content of a Paul Magrs book:

He was wooing her with gateaux and frothy mochas and the tender ministrations of his plastic hands …

Down to earth, rooted in reality, but with that twist of oddness. Although, actually, this is one of his least odd books. Simon, a classic orphaned YA hero, is living with his grandparents in a depressing small town. On one of their regular Saturday trips, he and his gran, Winnie, discover The Great Big Book Exchange, its eccentric owner and his Goth assistant, Kelly. Both Simon and Winnie forge new friendships, and then Winnie rediscovers an old one, too, in the pages of a book. As I said, this is one of Paul’s less magical books: to be honest, I prefer these, as I read even the very vampiry and witchy ones for the great believeable, earthy characters, often rooted firmly in the North East.

I galloped through this book this time, as I remember doing last time. It is a fairly easy read and with such lovely characters. I hope he writes about Simon again one day. Funny point of reference: the author, Ada, reminded me somewhat of Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel! Not such a monster, but a similar modus operandi … show less

This starts as an SF Little House on the Prairie but quickly moves on to become something far more strange and wonderful. It starts with the narrator, Lora, and her family eking a living from the land just outside a Martian frontier town. The first few chapters sketch in this version of Mars beautifully, adding SF touches to the transplanted Western story. Then things take a turn for the darker as the story unfolds and Mars proves not quite as dead as it seems…

As ever Magrs is a master of show more genre-mashing madness, stirring in elements which wouldn’t obviously go together and garnishing with familiar touches including literary homages and sentient furniture. His version of Mars is wonderfully idiosyncratic too, redolent of unconquered mystery and avoiding the pulp SF trap of homogenous alien societies – that said the Martian natives we do meet are fabulously spooky and so vivid they’re practically begging to be realised in other media. Topping all that off, Lora’s a strong narrative voice, an impressively different tone from the author’s usual prose.

The only frustration is that this is clearly the first in the series – there are a lot of wonderfully intriguing mysteries left hanging at the book’s end, leaving me wanting much more right now. In that sense, this is a fine start to a new series and I’m eagerly awaiting the chance to revisit this eerie, eclectic Mars again. show less

This is a strange, quirky but engaging book that I mentally retitled as ‘Strange Tales From Whitby, Told By An Even Stranger Person‘.

The story is told by Brenda who owns and runs a small B&B in Whitby. The book opens with Brenda introducing herself:

I love it here.

It’s the only place I could have settled down. I’ve never found a town like it, never in my long. long life

My name is Brenda. Hello!

Since the beginning of summer I have lived here, deliciously inconspicuous: just one more show more Bed and Breakfast lady in a resort that teems with Bed and Breakfasts Here, the streets are narrow and intricate; the rooftops are ramshackle and the wind is biting. The seagulls are as big as Yorkshire terriers and, for a good nine months of the year, this town is steeped in a thick sea mist… and that’s probably a good thing.

There are things here you don’t necessarily want to see.

Keep your head down, Brenda. That’s what I tell myself. Fry those sausages and eggs and bacon. Make those beds. Be welcoming. Be at home.

Any horror fan reading this is going to wonder if Brenda was drawn to Whitby because it’s a picturesque port on the Yorkshire coast, or because it was the port where Dracula’s ship the Demeter ran aground with not a soul aboard except the near-dead captain lashed to the wheel.

Whitby: picturesque seaside town

Whitby: where Dracula landed in England
To me, ‘Never The Bride’ read like a TV series of the strange and weird kind, aimed at gathering a cult following amongst those who are amused by the benignly bizarre and who enjoy uncovering genre references. Each chapter is a complete ‘episode’ in which Brenda and her friend and neighbour, Effie get involved with Whitby’s strangest visitors and residents, solving a mystery while moving the overall story arc forward. As the two of them discover the true price of visiting The Deadly Boutique for a makeover, or the downside of working as an elf at the Christmas Hotel, or the secrets the family staying at Brenda’s B&B is trying to hide or what a ghost-hunting reality TV crew will find in Effie’s antique shop, we gradually discover who Brenda really is and the legacy Effie has inherited from the generations of women who lived in Whitby before her.

The adventures are mild and amusing with some moments of tension. A bit how Dr Who was before the Doctor became The Oncoming Storm and The Destroyer Of Worlds. I liked Brenda. Effie can be a bit of a pain but somehow that made her friendship with Brenda more convincing.

By the end of the book, Brenda’s origin story and Effie’s legacy have been revealed and the two of them are established as the go-to team for dealing with anything weird in Whitby and we have reason to believe that there will be a lot of weird in Whitby.

‘Never The Bride’ made me smile. It was original and well-told, if slightly chaotic. I’m sure I’ll be back for more but this is the kind of series that I can’t read back to back without it losing its edge – like eating a whole box of chocolates in one sitting. show less

A collection of short Doctor Who stories focusing on Missy, aka the latest incarnation of the Master, the Doctor's old friend and long-term nemesis. Personally I adore Missy; I think she's enormous fun, and the best version of the Master since the original. So how could I resist?

To address each of the six stories included here individually:

"Dismemberment" by James Goss: Shortly after regenerating, Missy visits her favorite evil gentlemen's club, discovers she is no longer welcome as a show more member, and wreaks horrible vengeance on the people who kicked her out. There's some genuinely funny moments, and some darkly satiric sensibilities. And Missy gets some great lines. But the sheer levels of horror and gruesomeness to some of her actions actually made me feel a little uncomfortable by the end. I think this particular kind of villainous depravity might almost be a little over the top, even for Missy.

"Lords and Masters" by Cavan Scott: The Time Lords send Missy off on an assignment for them. They really ought to know better. I liked the concept of this one, and the way it offers up some rather dark little details about how things have been going on Gallifrey. I do wish the "companion" she was given for the job felt less two-dimensional, though. And it's genuinely a little unsettling to get a Doctor Who story like this where the Doctor doesn't get to show up to make things right in the end.

"Teddy Sparkles Must Die!" by Paul Magrs: A weird, weird little send-up of kids' adventure stories, featuring evil governess Missy and a magical talking teddy bear. I honestly can't quite decide whether this one is pleasantly ridiculous or just plain ridiculous.

"The Liar, the Glitch and the War Zone" by Peter Anghelides: An adventure in Venice featuring a damaged TARDIS, a temporal rift, and an army of angry space gryphons. But despite the fact that there's a lot going on here, I found it a bit dull. There's less good Missy dialog here than in the other stories, too. I did like her villainous plan to flood Venice, though.

"Girl Power!" by Jacqueline Rayner: An epistolary story, also featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Nardole, in which Missy hatches a plan that gives new meaning to the phrase "smash the patriarchy.". Now, this one was pleasantly ridiculous. Delightfully ridiculous, even. I was laughing out loud through pretty much the whole thing.

"Alit in Underland" by Richard Dinnick: This one is told from the POV of Alit, the little girl from the episodes "World Enough and Time"/The Doctor Falls," and is set during the period between those episodes when the Doctor is unconscious. I don't know that it's a bit from that story that really needed filling in, but it does give us the opportunity for a little more interaction between Missy and her previous incarnation, and I will never say no to that.

Rating: It's enough of a mixed bag that I'm going to call it 3.5/5, but the best stories are fun enough that I'd say it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the character. show less