Book Review: Carrie by Stephen King

Never has the phrase ‘fear the wounded animal’ been more apt than when discussing the title character of Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie.

A teenage misfit who is the butt of her more popular classmates jokes and the sufferer of draconian parenting from her uber-religious mother, Carrie has something astonishing brewing inside of her that is set explode on the biggest night of the school year – the school prom.

As her classmates arrive unaware of their unpopular peer’s special ability, us, the readers, are at this point fully briefed on the protagonist’s telekinetic abilities.

King readies us for the climax utilising scientific documents, eyewitness accounts, retrospective interviews and newspapers cuttings in titbits throughout the story so that by the time prom night comes we are braced for the action with a front row seat.

The account of Sue Snell, a classmate of Carrie’s considerably higher in the popularity food chain, is genuinely remorseful of Carrie’s erstwhile treatment at school and the story is ultimately one of caution.

Carrie appears weak, defenceless and cannon fodder for bullies but possesses power beyond the comprehension of all those around her.

Her story prompts us all to wonder if the odd kid who everyone made fun of at school is quite as harmless as they at first seem and a reminder that extraordinary abilities often come in surprising packages.

How Carrie deploys her phantasmagorical powers is, of course, to be discovered in the climax, which King teases us toward masterfully.

Rating: 3/5 A short read with no shortage of tension.

Only vision will keep Blackpool FC supporters watching in numbers

Having ended their campaign with the feeblest of whimpers in a 3-0 home defeat to Gillingham last Saturday, Blackpool can now begin planning for next season and the dawning of a new era.

With new owners expected to arrive in the summer, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Blackpool supporters for the first time since 2012 will enter next August with some semblance of optimism ahead of the new season.

The Blackpool Supporters Trust have come out and asked supporters to back their side ahead of the new campaign and set a target of 10,000 for season ticket sales.

Not a laughably unrealistic target. But given the offering of football that has been served up to supporters since their return to Bloomfield Road, the number seems a little on the high side.

A mullering at the hands of a team in Gillingham who finished seven points worse off than them was the final damning evidence – if any more was needed – that this Blackpool side are a long way off being a team supporters will flock to Bloomfield Road to watch.

To anyone who has been watching the Seasiders regularly since the departure of the Oystons, the result was by no means a shock. In previous home outings ‘Pool have needed a last-minute own goal to equalise against Southend, who only stayed in the division on goal difference; and two late goals to scrape a draw against Plymouth, who were relegated.

Indeed, the only home game they have managed to win following the departure of the Oystons was courtesy of a last-minute winner against ten-man Fleetwood Town.

All of this would have probably been much more tolerable for Blackpool fans had there been a bit more fun along the way, but the style of play, which since the Southend game seemed to slowly desiccate from occasional bouts of football to relentless punting of the ball in the general direction of Armand Gnanduillet, has not only been ineffective, but a tough watch.

If whoever takes over at Blackpool really wants to have 10,000 home fans in the stadium on a regular basis then watching the Seasiders needs to become fun again, as it arguably hasn’t been since the departure of Ian Holloway.

Though always fallible, the Tangerines under the manager who led them to the Premier League in 2010 always guaranteed one thing: entertainment, born out of their commitment to attacking football.

In the three full seasons he spent at the club, Holloway developed a brand of football that not only attracted reputable veterans like Kevin Phillips and Barry Ferguson but also exciting young talent via the loan market, two of the best being Jonjo Shelvey and Seamus Coleman.

The bold 4-3-3 formation they played made Blackpool (as farfetched a prospect as it seems today) one of the most feared teams in the Championship at the time.

The Bristolian went on record on numerous occasions saying that he wished to establish a blueprint for the future of the club, but with the Oyston family hardly running things with purely football in mind, it is unsurprising with hindsight that Holloway, seeing the chance of a legacy slipping away, left the club for Crystal Palace in November 2012.

In the ensuing years, Blackpool have been associated with nothing except perpetual chaos, but with new owners hopefully on the horizon, the Seasiders have a real chance to finally reinvent themselves and dispell the ‘that’ll do’ mentality cultivated by the Oystons once and for all.

Given the off-field flux surrounding the club, fans have to a large extent stomached the football given the circumstances, but make no mistake, another season of route-one up to Armand Gnanduillet every week and the club will be lucky to get 5,000 season ticket holders let alone 10,0000.

Whether Terry McPhillips is left in charge or a new man comes in for next season, there needs to be a vision for the future that is implemented on the pitch.

For a club of Blackpool’s size, determining that vision should for my money, be remarkably straight forward.

One, endeavour to play attractive football that will entertain supporters and boost attendances.

Two, invest in training and academy facilities in a bid to produce more academy graduates who either become sailable assets or first-team regulars.

Three, develop a recruitment policy which focuses on bringing in players suited to playing passing, attacking football.

Four, improve the playing surface so that the pitch is conducive to good football.

Five, aim to be challenging for promotion to the Championship within two seasons while implementing a passing, attacking style of football akin to that which Holloway created.

Such things are of course, easier said than done and with most clubs already lightyears ahead of Blackpool in terms of youth development and training facilities, it will be a slow build.

Things like training facilities and overall infrastructure may be rudimentary for most clubs but at Blackpool under the Oystons, they were neglected for years.

But with a clear vision and philosophy of where the club wants to go long-term, there is no reason why slow progress cannot yield success.

One need only look at Manchester United’s current plight to see the pitfalls the lack of long-term strategy can have and on the flipside, view the success of clubs of comparable size to Blackpool in Burnley and Bournemouth, to see the merits of having a clear identity as a club.

If the new custodians at Blackpool Football Club arrive with a clear plan and stick to it, then there is no reason why the Seasiders cannot finally emerge from the ashes of chaos and become a club that is not only successful, but one that their supporters will enjoy coming to watch once again.

Fleeting glory but no long term vision at Blackpool

Some victories in football are monumental, some victories keep a team ticking over and some victories paper over the cracks. Blackpool’s latest victory over Fylde coast neighbours Fleetwood Town most definitely did the latter.

From the first minute, the Seasiders made no attempt to play football punting the ball the length of the pitch at every opportunity. Manager Terry McPhillips afterwards claimed this was a conscious choice due to the poor quality of the Bloomfield Road pitch, a point that may have seemed more valid had his side not being doing virtually the same thing for the previous four home matches. The only difference between the previous home games and the Fleetwood game was that the home fans saw not even the fleeting attempts to play football they had seen previously, in the Tangerines’ most recent outing.

Giant Armand Gnanduillet stood up front and proceeded to miscontrol and misdirect more or less everything that came his way, the Blackpool midfielders often bystanders as the ball sailed repeatedly over their heads.

The Seasiders took the lead against the run of play via a Jay Spearing penalty which was quickly cancelled out when Fleetwood produced the best move of the match, working the ball wide before swinging in a cross which Ched Evans nodded home.

Mid-way through the second half Fleetwood were reduced to ten men but continued to play the better football until the final whistle, only to be thwarted in the 94^th minute when Blackpool’s umpteenth punt up the field found Gnanduillet, whose lob hit the post and rebounded to the feet of Nathan Delfouneso, who couldn’t miss.

There is an argument to say that McPhillips’s approach was vindicated by that goal and when the match is taken in isolation it is hard not to agree.

But with a little context the victory doesn’t quite look the great triumph McPhillips would have us believe.

Blackpool, a team who eight years ago were in the Premier League when Fleetwood were in the Conference North, made no attempt to outplay their opponents of much more humble origins and defeated them with a man advantage, in the dying seconds, courtesy of a hoof upfield.

The Blackpool fans may have been the ones celebrating on Easter Monday but looking ahead to next season it may be Fleetwood who have the brighter future.

Book Review: The Visitor by Lee Child

Being someone who reads it’s fairly standard for me to end the Christmas period with a few new books on my shelf. Among them this year was Lee Child’s The Visitor, part of the Jack Reacher series and although I thanked the sender graciously at the time, three months went by without me feeling the slightest impulse to open it.

That was until a recent ski trip on which I took it as my back-up in case I got through my first book before my holiday had ended. Going at the leisurely rate of one or two chapters at lunchtime every day, my first book lasted me until the airport ahead of the flight home. But faced with a six-hour wait at Geneva airport before my plane took off I decided to take the plunge into the world of Reacher.

In this particular instalment, Reacher works in tandem with the FBI to track down a killer who works with a mysterious lack of force and leaves their dead victims dumped in paint (as you do).

Truth be told I’m just not much of a thriller reader and I found the story though fast-paced, very one dimensional. I like my books to have a story outside the story and with this I felt as though there was very little beneath the surface to scratch through to, beyond Reacher’s pursuit of the killer.

That said, there was never any stage when I considered putting it down for good, despite the 509-page length and I was finished in days.

I put this purely and simply down to Jack Reacher, who there is no denying is an excellent protagonist.

An ex-military man, initially unshackled by the agendas of the established law enforcement institutions, Reacher is a straight-talking, hard-hitting badass who acts against injustice and nothing else, cutting through the investigative waffle of the bureaucrats he is paired up with on his mission like a chainsaw through jelly.

He cuts to chase in a way we all imagine we would, except he actually goes and does it and is probably way bigger, stronger and (even though Tom Cruise would have you think otherwise) taller than we are.

The Visitor is far from the best book I’ve read so far this year, in fact, it’s not even the best book I’ve read in the past month. But it was not without its entertaining moments and whatever you think of Child’s storylines you cannot help but tip your cap to him for creating a character in Reacher that many readers, quite understandably, can’t get enough of.

Rating: 2/5

Same ineptitudes yield different result for Blackpool

There is a rather a hackneyed quote attributed to Albert Einstein that says: “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” In modern times it seems to have been applied to near enough every domain imaginable, so I do feel somewhat lazy referencing it here. However, I can think of nothing more encompassing of what I have seen since returning to Bloomfield Road to watch Blackpool Football Club over the past month.

In the three home games prior to today’s clash with Peterborough – all of which had been drawn – the Seasiders, make no mistake, had ridden their luck. In the first game of the post-Oyston era, they needed a last-minute own goal to salvage a draw against struggling Southend United; in the following match against Doncaster Rovers they capitalised by scoring from a set-piece in a game where they created few chances from open play; and against Plymouth Argyle they could easily have been 3-0 down before a long-range effort and a stoppage-time overhead kick from their centre back eventually salvaged a 2-2 draw.

In each game there has been a consistent problem: a dearth of creativity and a lack of cohesion to the Seasiders’ play, with the defenders and midfielders taking the easy option of thumping a long-ball upfield far too often.

Having been most fortunate of all in the last home match against Plymouth, it would seem logical to think that Blackpool may look to their alter their approach, having narrowly escaped defeat in two out of the last three home matches relying on long balls, crosses and set pieces to build their play.

But against Peterborough United – a side with several players intent on either putting their foot on the ball and dictating the game or dribbling past opponents – Terry McPhillips’s side did exactly what they had done with extremely limited success in the previous three home matches and against superior opposition, they were punished with a 1-0 defeat.

In a way, Einstein’s quote is not totally applicable, Blackpool did achieve a different result from the previous three home outings. But it was not the one they were looking for.

Book Review: Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell

Shining a light on the grim and desperate with a brutal honesty characteristic of its writer, Down And Out In Paris And London documents George Orwell’s dalliances with poverty as a young, struggling writer carving out the most marginal of existences first as a dishwasher in various Paris hotels and then as a tramp roaming the streets of London.

In typical blunt fashion, Orwell pulls no punches when describing the conditions and lives those who he meets find themselves trapped in and shows empathy rather disdain towards the homeless. He makes the point that homelessness is a trade that a person falls into just like any other, the difference being that unlike most trades it offers no hope of prosperity and escape from struggle, just endless, enervating slog to obtain crumbs of civilisation. It is an existence that Orwell having lived it himself describes as robbing a man – the vast majority of homeless people then and now are male – of some of the most crucial components of a fulfilling life namely: sustenance, as the homeless live in perpetual hunger; a total lack of contact with the opposite sex, as no woman will contemplate a relationship with a homeless man; and the opportunity to do fulfilling work, as the majority of homeless people are forced into idleness queuing for long hours to ensure they can obtain a shelter for the night.

Though at times a damning critique of the failings of both French and English society the book is not without hope, which is perhaps best embodied by Bozo, the street artist Orwell encounters in London who maintains that art and creativity remain in one’s head whatever their circumstances. Given what Orwell achieved as a writer, Bozo’s words seem particularly poignant and encourage us all to ponder how many more great artists are currently sleeping rough across the world today.

If the injustice of poverty irked Orwell back in the 1930s, one can only imagine what he would think of today’s world in which we have self-driving cars but still no solution to providing housing for all. His accounts of the squalid conditions of poverty, the stifling impact it has on life, yet also the salient potential of those who fall victim of it, still hold huge relevance today and the fact that they do, given the development we have seen in the world since the book was published, is more alarming than the most wretched description Orwell gives in his prose.

Rating: 4/5

Not always pretty reading, but essential nonetheless. Orwell’s clarity and frankness are unrivalled and like most of his work, Down And Out In Paris And London still holds huge relevance.

Excitement but no play off Tilt for Blackpool

With the play offs still at least a mathematical possibility, the Blackpool supporters returning to Bloomfield Road on Saturday for the first time since their emotional homecoming three weeks ago came largely to find out the answer to one question: was the previous weekends 4-1 victory at bottom club Bradford City the beginning of surge towards the top six or a quirk of a goal-fest aided by weak opposition?

The answer was provided within four minutes as visitors Plymouth Argyle exchanged a few swift passes, took the lead and began to cruise as the Seasiders served up their most turgid offering since their boycotting fans had returned to support them.

Having failed to muster an effort on target in the second half and with manager Terry McPhillips making uninspiring like-for-like substitutions, Plymouth added a second with seventeen minutes left.

At that point the odds of a Plymouth third looked shorter than those of the home side finding the net once and when ‘Pool goalkeeper Chris Mafoumbi tipped a free-kick round the post soon after, the game looked like nothing more than an exercise in damage limitation.

With fans heading for the exits full-back Marc Bola swung his weaker, right foot at a clearance and the ball flew into the bottom corner to give the Seasiders hope.

A late scurry for an equaliser ensued and in the second minute of an added five, the home fans were finally treated to a moment of quality that seemed to make the admission a little easier to swallow.

Just as there are lines in songs, scenes in movies and chapters in books which are so good they eclipse the entity they are part of; in football, there are moments that have the potential to override all previous conclusions drawn about a game. And as a supporter of a League One team, seeing your centre half score an over-kick in added time to rescue an undeserved draw is one such moment.

Scorer Curtis Tilt and the home supporters celebrated with a wildness that befitted the goal and the Blackpool fans just as they had done three weeks earlier, left Bloomfield Road with smiles on their faces thanks to a late equaliser.

A game that will be remembered for very little other than the final goal, the 2-2 draw with Plymouth served as yet more evidence to support the case that Blackpool will not make the play offs but will finish in the top half.

Book Review: A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

Trapped in a cruel, joyless world from which there appears no escape, teenager Billy Casper finds solace in his friendship with a Kestrel Hawk in Barry Hines’s A Kestrel for a Knave, a story which reminds us how the incontestable wonder of nature can inspire in even in the bleakest circumstances.

And make no mistake, Casper’s circumstances are pretty bleak. Fatherless living with his self-absorbed mother and oafish bully of a brother in a Yorkshire mining town, Billy despite his protests, seems destined for a life down the pit once his school days are over. If he is taken at face value, many would say that is nothing more than he deserves. Billy is far from a model student and frequently finds himself in trouble at school, he’s the typical good-for-nothing teenager you might tut disapprovingly at in the street. But when he meets ‘Kes’ and is captivated by her strength and grace, he becomes a scholar devoted to the art of falconry. The resourcefulness Billy shows when training ‘Kes’, demonstrates the potential every child whatever their background, has in them and as the end of Billy’s school days draw nearer, the mouth of the pit opening wider ready to swallow the young hero up forever, we find ourselves wishing we could somehow pause time for him, enabling him to stay in the fields with Kes forever.

Though the pits have long since closed, their absence in British society makes Billy’s story no less relevant fifty years on from publication. In fact, a case could even be made that a modern-day Billy Casper would face an even grimmer future than his predecessor. Life after school in post-industrial Britain offers contemporary Caspers work in warehouses, call centres and fast food restaurants, if they are lucky. If they are not, then they find no work at all.

A Kestrel for a Knave holds up a mirror to the harsh realities of British society some would prefer to ignore and is a reminder of how the odds are stacked firmly against so many children purely because of their birthplace.

The gruesome realism of Billy’s community jostles for attention with Kes ’s and nature’s ability to render us speechless to create a British masterpiece that challenges us to think twice before labelling the rough-looking kid we pass in the street as a ne’er-do-well.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Goalkeepers Are Different by Brian Glanville

Charting the rise of Ronnie Blake, an initially reluctant, makeshift goalie who blossoms into a topflight ‘keeper, Goalkeepers Are Different captures the pressure, elation and downsides of becoming a professional footballer through the insightful yet jovial eyes of the young shot-stopper.

Although Blake is as real as the First Division club he makes his name at (Borough United) he narrates with an unfrilly, honesty that has us believing every word and given that Glanville – the mind behind Blake – was a football correspondent for the Times and sat on the jury for the Ballon d’Or during the 60s and 70s when the story takes place, the chances that Blake’s experiences have been plucked from the sky seem as remote as the odds of Borough United winning next season’s Premier League. Underpinned by his creator’s intimate knowledge of the game, Blake tells all in an accessible yet authoritative manner as though you’ve just met him down the pub and asked him to tell you everything there is to know about being a professional footballer. This unintimidating, yet still lofty viewpoint from which we are told of French teams who faff around on the ball a lot; a Greek team who are dirty yet well-organised; and bottles (glass not plastic) being thrown from the Stretford End; is the book’s undoubted strength.

Nearly fifty years on from publication, reading Blake’s tales now is a refreshing look back at a much simpler time as although it is revealed a rise to prominence as a footballer nearly half a century ago was not without its glamour, the adventures of Borough United’s goalkeeper do nothing to rival his contemporaries in that department.

For a large part of the book, Blake lives with his parents despite breaking through the ranks at a top-flight club. Today Premier League academy players buy sports cars and mansions before they’re first team regulars. The idea of English football’s next breakout star living with his parents for a season after becoming a household name is laughable in the modern football world, which has pumped the glamour-sprinkled environment Blake inhabits with more steroids than a Mr Universe candidate.

Blake himself is by no means a monk as he tells us quite happily about purchasing of his first flash car, going away to Majorca and talks of women with the nonchalance of one who never has trouble finding a date. He embraces the riches the world of football offers him, his postman father a constant reminder of what life could have been had he not made the grade.

But Goalkeepers Are Different’s greatest triumph is that although the off-field distractions of professional football are not ignored, they never overshadow the glory or joy of playing the game. Blake might have a few quid in the bank and different women regularly on his arm, but ultimately, he is just the guy doing what most of us wanted to do when we were kids. Reading his story nearly half a century after it was released, one can only hope the same still applies to the Ronnie Blakes of today.

Book Review – War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Documenting the French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars through the eyes of a diverse array of characters including Russian aristocrats, generals and Napoleon himself, War & Peace is at worst a colourful history lesson. But in truth, the book masquerades as a war story and in reality, is a grand exploration of life putting a magnifying glass to nearly every emotion it is possible for a human being to experience.

Love, loss, jealousy, disappointment, infatuation, humiliation, pride and the quest for greater meaning are all examined with a backdrop of war, which serves as a constant reminder of the greater forces in the world that render all people however intricate and complex their emotions, ultimately powerless.

The star of Tolstoy’s extensive cast is undoubtedly Count Pierre Bezukhov the studious, overweight inheritor of an enormous fortune, who with his needs met for life, falls into a host of pits as he searches for a wider meaning to his existence. On his haphazard travels around Russia Pierre is captivated by beauty, consumed by a cult and taken prisoner, but whatever seems to befall him, he remains resilient. Dusting himself down from setback after setback, relentless in his pondering of why certain chains of events come to pass, Pierre always throws himself headfirst into his next decision without pretense. And it is this unabashed whole-heartedness while still occupying a social domain in which perception and image is everything, that sets Pierre apart from his fellow characters.

Pierre’s search for a wider to purpose to living is one that fundamentally every human being has embarked upon and it this coupled with Tolstoy’s delving into the complexity of emotions one encounters throughout life that gives War & Peace its timeless, legendary status. For a reader does not need to be an aristocrat to appreciate War & Peace any more than they need to be a war general, they simply need to be human.

Rating: 5/5

If you’re going to read a book a thousand-plus pages long, there’ll be few worth the effort more than this. A classic for a reason.