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Dollywagglers
At the order to fire, they fired. Real bullets, it would seem. The politicians crumpled, twitched, and sagged to the ground, in a manner familiar to devotees of leftwing arthouse movies. Then the eyes of the squad turned towards me.' After the plague, most of us are dead, and some of the survivors aren't behaving very well. But we can still have a laugh, can't we? Letting go is for softies. I'm alone - delightfully and comfortably alone. I don't do crying... That's the wonky philosophy of Billie, a dollywaggler on a far from sentimental journey. The Eppie - a worldwide flu pandemic - has left London with nothing but a few beastly survivors with appallingly unwholesome habits. Watch out for Rodney; he is particularly nasty. Oh, and don't try to escape the madness by fleeing to the country - things may be even worse out there. Besides, a greater intelligence is planning to identify and control the living remnants nationwide, as order begins to be restored. It's time to find out who the real dollywagglers are.
244 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2014
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Frances Kay
35 books4 followersFrances Kay is a children’s playwright who was born in London and now lives in Ireland. She has worked with gypsies, prisoners and children in the U.K. and Ireland. She is married to musician Nico Brown. They have two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 21, 2014
‘Dollywagglers’ by Frances Kay
I don’t usually read dystopian literature. My usual diet of biography, ‘women’s lit’ and metaphysical tomes is more or less certain to be trauma free. That said, like Frances Kay, I have always been a huge fan of George Orwell, so we probably share certain literary tastes.
‘Dollywagglers’ is Kay’s second book, the first being the acclaimed and rather overlooked ‘Micka’. I did not know this, when I read excerpts of ‘Dollywagglers’ for the first time. But having started, I recognised a true talent, and it was only the upsetting subject matter (which has been considerably toned down in its published form) that stopped me reading on. I did want to continue, for Kay’s writing is refreshingly mature, to discover how the dystopia worked out, and am so pleased I have done so now.
The plot and the language are dark, but lightened with some surprisingly sharp and well-observed humour. Beneath the tragedy, a great deal of quirky absurdity lurks, which perfectly mirrors so many of the absurdities of the human condition. Close and careful reading is thus immensely rewarding, not just because of the quality of the narrative but to reveal deeper layers of plot and meaning. Kay manages the different strands deftly.
This may not be reading for everyone. But elements of the story linger in the mind, and surprising reflections result from the colourful moments, as well as the bleak. Thank you, Frances, for giving me such a well-considered and superbly crafted introduction to dystopian literature. Your writing is food for thought, indeed.
Fran Macilvey, “Trapped: My Life With Cerebral Palsy”
I don’t usually read dystopian literature. My usual diet of biography, ‘women’s lit’ and metaphysical tomes is more or less certain to be trauma free. That said, like Frances Kay, I have always been a huge fan of George Orwell, so we probably share certain literary tastes.
‘Dollywagglers’ is Kay’s second book, the first being the acclaimed and rather overlooked ‘Micka’. I did not know this, when I read excerpts of ‘Dollywagglers’ for the first time. But having started, I recognised a true talent, and it was only the upsetting subject matter (which has been considerably toned down in its published form) that stopped me reading on. I did want to continue, for Kay’s writing is refreshingly mature, to discover how the dystopia worked out, and am so pleased I have done so now.
The plot and the language are dark, but lightened with some surprisingly sharp and well-observed humour. Beneath the tragedy, a great deal of quirky absurdity lurks, which perfectly mirrors so many of the absurdities of the human condition. Close and careful reading is thus immensely rewarding, not just because of the quality of the narrative but to reveal deeper layers of plot and meaning. Kay manages the different strands deftly.
This may not be reading for everyone. But elements of the story linger in the mind, and surprising reflections result from the colourful moments, as well as the bleak. Thank you, Frances, for giving me such a well-considered and superbly crafted introduction to dystopian literature. Your writing is food for thought, indeed.
Fran Macilvey, “Trapped: My Life With Cerebral Palsy”
October 18, 2017
If the cover with its drowned and ruined puppets wasn’t a big enough clue, then let me warn you right now that Dollywagglers is dark. Bloody dark. Dark as all hell, in fact. And all hell is what’s broken loose on the English countryside in the wake of a mysterious and probably not wholly natural plague known as The Eppie.
We don’t see the Eppie, but we follow lead character Billie through the aftermath, through a devastated south-east England where “parped” bodies rot in the streets and ditches, and where no-one can be trusted. She used to be a puppeteer, a “dollywaggler” in the seaside resort of Southwold, and now she’s looking/not-looking for her former partner-turned-lover-turned-traitor. It’s possible Billie has been brought back from the dead, but it’s equally likely that she’s cracking up.
And meanwhile in the ruins of London something ugly stirs. A new puppet arising, manipulated by unseen hands…
Dollywagglers is by turns grotesque, with scenes of child abuse and torture, surreal (the fancy-dress costumes of the self-appointed firing squad), heartbreaking and, at the same time, curiously uplifting. There are no easy answers here – we don’t know what caused the Eppie and we don’t get to find out, and the solutions presented by the nascent government and it’s new mouthpiece are as unsettling as anything that’s gone before. This is a slice of Billie’s life, of her journey towards some kind of redemption, from a self-proclaimed hard bitch who has shut down and claims she doesn’t cry, to her reluctant adoption of the role as a mother following a tragedy. Billie isn’t the only viewpoint character, but she’s the only one who feels as if her journey is moving her in the direction of a glimmer of poetry and hope, and it’s the end to her story that is both touching, uplifting and curiously optimistic.
Recommended, but not one for the squeamish!
We don’t see the Eppie, but we follow lead character Billie through the aftermath, through a devastated south-east England where “parped” bodies rot in the streets and ditches, and where no-one can be trusted. She used to be a puppeteer, a “dollywaggler” in the seaside resort of Southwold, and now she’s looking/not-looking for her former partner-turned-lover-turned-traitor. It’s possible Billie has been brought back from the dead, but it’s equally likely that she’s cracking up.
And meanwhile in the ruins of London something ugly stirs. A new puppet arising, manipulated by unseen hands…
Dollywagglers is by turns grotesque, with scenes of child abuse and torture, surreal (the fancy-dress costumes of the self-appointed firing squad), heartbreaking and, at the same time, curiously uplifting. There are no easy answers here – we don’t know what caused the Eppie and we don’t get to find out, and the solutions presented by the nascent government and it’s new mouthpiece are as unsettling as anything that’s gone before. This is a slice of Billie’s life, of her journey towards some kind of redemption, from a self-proclaimed hard bitch who has shut down and claims she doesn’t cry, to her reluctant adoption of the role as a mother following a tragedy. Billie isn’t the only viewpoint character, but she’s the only one who feels as if her journey is moving her in the direction of a glimmer of poetry and hope, and it’s the end to her story that is both touching, uplifting and curiously optimistic.
Recommended, but not one for the squeamish!
January 3, 2019
A sharply written and bleak near future dystopian story containing some scabrously funny humour. Cleverly done.
June 27, 2014
Paul Auster’s In The Country of Last Things; George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty Four; John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids; Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Julie Myerson’s Then. Dystopian tales: all favourite novels of mine.
Now let me introduce you to Frances Kay.
Are you ready for Dollywagglers?
Then I’ll begin.
Frances Kay tells a devastating dystopian tale with humour and gusto. These qualities enable you to keep reading. The world is a shit place (excuse my language) and at first glance, there doesn’t seem much leeway for redemption (that tired old concept). I kept wondering, as I got closer to the end, how there could possibly be a spark of hope for our main character. But there was, some kind of hope, anyway.
Billie is on a mission but even she’s not entirely sure what it is. She can’t remember how she got to where she is, believes she might be dead and has been given a second chance. She was definitely about to parp from the Eppie. So is she now a figment of her own imagination? Anything is possible. What she is certain about is she needs to find a person who she hopes is still alive, but she isn’t exactly certain why she wants this.
Will you like Billie? I’m not sure. My liking for her increased as the story arc progressed. Billie’s one of those people who believes that she’s invulnerable, but her very attempts to prove her hard-heartedness to us, the reader, prove she’s as soft as grease.
Billie’s a puppeteer, a dollywaggler. She’s a storyteller and entertainer. She can make ‘em wonder and make ‘em laugh. The one thing she won’t ever let herself do is cry. Until she cries. Besides the terrible devastation of the Eppie, she has personal sorrows to contend with.
The ‘Eppie’ has turned most people into ‘parps’ (dead folks) and those that are left have gone feral, lawless, cruel. Billie can usually stave off the various fates worse than death that are freely on offer from the ragged remains of society. She tempts her would-be assassins with a story. Terrifying teens range the desecrated streets in gangs, unhindered by parental or law-orientated boundaries. They rampage and pillage everything in sight. They are, in the absence of electricity and therefore their dependency on playstations, smartphones and social media, desperate to be entertained, not knowing how to think for themselves. Billie creates a story featuring the little hard-cases who have her captive, as heroes who rescue baby Prince George from aliens on the planet Mars, they let her go with the promise of another story tomorrow.
There are other narrators but Billie’s our main one. She makes her way from London into Suffolk, encountering horrific challenges on the way.
A sad, thing happens, sadder than all the other stuff we readers have been subjected to. I’m not going to say what it is, but it’s really sad. Billie comes out of it shining like a light, good on her. She proves she’s not the hard bitch she tried to convince us she was at the beginning.
I cheered at the end. Hope was offered.
Frances Kay is a clever writer with a wit sharper than lemons. If it wasn’t such a tragic story it’d be a laugh a minute, which it kind of is anyway. Her use of language and double entendre is superb. Her writing stays with me, the story stays with me. This dystopian novel has made it up there onto my favourites list.
Now let me introduce you to Frances Kay.
Are you ready for Dollywagglers?
Then I’ll begin.
Frances Kay tells a devastating dystopian tale with humour and gusto. These qualities enable you to keep reading. The world is a shit place (excuse my language) and at first glance, there doesn’t seem much leeway for redemption (that tired old concept). I kept wondering, as I got closer to the end, how there could possibly be a spark of hope for our main character. But there was, some kind of hope, anyway.
Billie is on a mission but even she’s not entirely sure what it is. She can’t remember how she got to where she is, believes she might be dead and has been given a second chance. She was definitely about to parp from the Eppie. So is she now a figment of her own imagination? Anything is possible. What she is certain about is she needs to find a person who she hopes is still alive, but she isn’t exactly certain why she wants this.
Will you like Billie? I’m not sure. My liking for her increased as the story arc progressed. Billie’s one of those people who believes that she’s invulnerable, but her very attempts to prove her hard-heartedness to us, the reader, prove she’s as soft as grease.
Billie’s a puppeteer, a dollywaggler. She’s a storyteller and entertainer. She can make ‘em wonder and make ‘em laugh. The one thing she won’t ever let herself do is cry. Until she cries. Besides the terrible devastation of the Eppie, she has personal sorrows to contend with.
The ‘Eppie’ has turned most people into ‘parps’ (dead folks) and those that are left have gone feral, lawless, cruel. Billie can usually stave off the various fates worse than death that are freely on offer from the ragged remains of society. She tempts her would-be assassins with a story. Terrifying teens range the desecrated streets in gangs, unhindered by parental or law-orientated boundaries. They rampage and pillage everything in sight. They are, in the absence of electricity and therefore their dependency on playstations, smartphones and social media, desperate to be entertained, not knowing how to think for themselves. Billie creates a story featuring the little hard-cases who have her captive, as heroes who rescue baby Prince George from aliens on the planet Mars, they let her go with the promise of another story tomorrow.
There are other narrators but Billie’s our main one. She makes her way from London into Suffolk, encountering horrific challenges on the way.
A sad, thing happens, sadder than all the other stuff we readers have been subjected to. I’m not going to say what it is, but it’s really sad. Billie comes out of it shining like a light, good on her. She proves she’s not the hard bitch she tried to convince us she was at the beginning.
I cheered at the end. Hope was offered.
Frances Kay is a clever writer with a wit sharper than lemons. If it wasn’t such a tragic story it’d be a laugh a minute, which it kind of is anyway. Her use of language and double entendre is superb. Her writing stays with me, the story stays with me. This dystopian novel has made it up there onto my favourites list.
March 9, 2015
In all honesty, this is not my usual kind of read. More literary in style. Certainly not the fast pace I've been growing accustomed to. But, it's short, so it by no means drags.
Dealing with the aftermath of a modern-day plague that kills off pretty much everyone, except those naturally immune and, those that were vaccinated in time (although, I was never quite sure if it was the vaccine that worked, or simply that some who were vaccinated were naturally immune anyway). However, the vaccine seems to render those who received it pretty well asexual. And there is a stigma against those who refused to get it (Refs).
For those not in the know (as I wasn't), a dollywaggler is a puppeteer. The main character was a dollywaggler in her previous life. And there is a fairly clear statement made when a new Prime Minister is set up in this new version of the UK ...
I would recommend this story to anyone keen to broaden their reading range.
Genre readers won't find a tale with a clear beginning (the plague has already happened) nor a conclusion as such (the aftermath of the plague still leaves plenty of dealing to be done), but you will meet some interesting characters and find a certain satisfaction from the read itself. You'll be drawn into the world with all its quirks.
Dealing with the aftermath of a modern-day plague that kills off pretty much everyone, except those naturally immune and, those that were vaccinated in time (although, I was never quite sure if it was the vaccine that worked, or simply that some who were vaccinated were naturally immune anyway). However, the vaccine seems to render those who received it pretty well asexual. And there is a stigma against those who refused to get it (Refs).
For those not in the know (as I wasn't), a dollywaggler is a puppeteer. The main character was a dollywaggler in her previous life. And there is a fairly clear statement made when a new Prime Minister is set up in this new version of the UK ...
I would recommend this story to anyone keen to broaden their reading range.
Genre readers won't find a tale with a clear beginning (the plague has already happened) nor a conclusion as such (the aftermath of the plague still leaves plenty of dealing to be done), but you will meet some interesting characters and find a certain satisfaction from the read itself. You'll be drawn into the world with all its quirks.
September 6, 2015
You know that uncomfortable feeling when you're on a wobbly chair and you don't know when it's going to tip? The feeling when you step into a supermarket where your ex shops - hey, you'll be cool, you'll be fine, but...you still get the worrying feeling that you won't? When your boss comes towards your desk with a thoughtful expression? That little trail of an uncomfortable thought down your spine?
Dollywagglers gives you that.
Put the book down, and odd bits will replay at odd times. It demands a re-read, but you're not sure you want to. It's unsettling, uncomfortable and a really good read.
The heroine, Billie, is on a journey - but you, and she, aren't entirely sure where. It certainly isn't to find her former show partner, or to meet any of the people she does. It certainly isn't to gain a child or a friend. And she never intended to find herself or grant forgiveness.
The book has the feeling of an apocalyptic tragedy with a dose of dark humour, cynical character studies and unsettling realism. If you like dystopian tragedy, human suffering or well-crafted and thoughtful reads, you'll love Dollywagglers.
Dollywagglers gives you that.
Put the book down, and odd bits will replay at odd times. It demands a re-read, but you're not sure you want to. It's unsettling, uncomfortable and a really good read.
The heroine, Billie, is on a journey - but you, and she, aren't entirely sure where. It certainly isn't to find her former show partner, or to meet any of the people she does. It certainly isn't to gain a child or a friend. And she never intended to find herself or grant forgiveness.
The book has the feeling of an apocalyptic tragedy with a dose of dark humour, cynical character studies and unsettling realism. If you like dystopian tragedy, human suffering or well-crafted and thoughtful reads, you'll love Dollywagglers.
June 19, 2014
This book was recommended to me by a friend. I’m a huge fan of dark, adult dystopian fiction. Don’t get me wrong – I love the YA stuff, but I do like fiction that explores the darker side of humanity, and does so with humour. It’s refreshing to read something that doesn’t have a love story, and instead concentrates on strength of character.
The book follows Billie after a worldwide flu pandemic that has dramatically reduced the world’s population. With that, the laws (moral and legal) have lapsed, and society has regressed. Billie takes the reader through London and then the countryside of England – both hold danger.
Kay’s writing style is succinct and strong. There’s a sense of urgency and yet poetry to her words, and I found myself drawn into the world and genuinely caring for Billie. This was a reasonably short novel, but one that leaves the reader feeling satisfied.
DEFINITELY recommend this novel to those that like humour, good writing, darkness, noir(ishy) and good, strong fiction.
The book follows Billie after a worldwide flu pandemic that has dramatically reduced the world’s population. With that, the laws (moral and legal) have lapsed, and society has regressed. Billie takes the reader through London and then the countryside of England – both hold danger.
Kay’s writing style is succinct and strong. There’s a sense of urgency and yet poetry to her words, and I found myself drawn into the world and genuinely caring for Billie. This was a reasonably short novel, but one that leaves the reader feeling satisfied.
DEFINITELY recommend this novel to those that like humour, good writing, darkness, noir(ishy) and good, strong fiction.
December 4, 2014
Review forthcoming!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews