For Whom The Book Tolls - Episode 3: The Consul From Tunis by Nicholas Foster
In the 3rd episode of our bookchat podcast ForWhom The Book Tolls, I discuss ghost and mystery stories ideal for Christmasreading with fellow Cumbrian writer Ken Ford-Powell.
You can listen to the podcast here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7kj1iZYCP4
We both absolutely loved Nicholas Foster’s The ConsulFrom Tunis, an impressive debut collection of subtly disturbing tales that willappeal to those who prefer their supernatural to be gore-free but soaked indiscomfit and anxiety of the most sophisticated sort. Foster pays hommage to MR James early on inhis collection, and his work is every bit as good as the master’s own.
In Foster’s collection a group of old university friendshold an annual reunion at a swish restaurant and, over the port, swap storiesof the uncanny. Suddenly, we’re not in Covent Garden anymore: war-time Greece,medieval Cyprus, the English Revolution and Byzantine slave-masters releasetheir unquiet revenants into post-prandial post-Brexit Britain. Difficult topick out brilliants from such a rich casket, but these moved and enthralled me.In ‘Ghosts in the Machine’ martyred sectarians of the English Civil War escapefrom hell to hack a City firm’s IT systems. The heroine of ‘Joining The Dance’,an art restorer in a post-Soviet Baltic state, is subtly ensorcelled by thehidden images of damnation in the fresco she’s restoring. And a high courtjudge’s career is derailed by the intervention of a witness summoned by forcesmore potent than the law that he serves in ‘The Hand of Justice’.
There are two things about Foster’s craftsmanship that liftthese stories above simply being highly accomplished. First, their widehistorical and cultural frame of reference always feels authenticallyexperienced rather than merely ‘well-researched’. Secondly, the tales arestructured as Chinese box narratives that disorient the reader just enough toleave you unprepared for the jolting manifestation of the uncanny: this isstory-telling as conjuring, in both the obvious senses of the word. I loved thiscollection. And I can’t wait for his next.
The Consul From Tunis is strongly recommended as theperfect Christmas present for any friend who loves high class supernaturalchills.
We also discussed Isaac Asimov’s Tales of The BlackWidowers, and Roald Dahl’s Collected Short Stories – both classicsof their genre that are perfect reading on a winter evening with a glass ofmalt and a roaring fire.
The podcast is also available on Ken’s blog Write Out Loud, which I recommend youfollow.
And here are links to the books we discuss –
TheConsul From Tunis by Nicholas Foster;
Talesof The Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov;
The Collected Short Stories by Roald Dahl.
