Stuart Ayris

This is typically Stuart Ayris - playfully worded in some cases but it gets to the heart of what humanity is all about. And I loved the butter bean-eating goat!

Merzougaville, Baby

Amazon.com

My review - 

This is why Stuart Ayris fans read his books. It's a typical Ayris story, beginning with an almost forty year old man taking a holiday in Marrakech and rescuing a macaque monkey. As with many of his stories it takes the form of a journey and our hero meets a number of characters on his way. Stuart's books often seem to me to be like mythology for modern times. They are stories which you couldn't imagine occurring in real life but which are there to entertain you and to teach you something.

I always enjoy the author's playful word-building. Not satisfied for his purposes with the existing dictionary, he creates compound words of his own with which to paint the scenery. If you've read his work before you'll love this. If you haven't, it's not a bad place to start.

Stuart Ayris

Let your mind go and enjoy this fantasy from the master of  'not-taking-the-rules-of-language-too-seriously'.

Elysian Wonderland

Amazon.com

My review - 

This is Stuart Ayris at his Ayrisest. In a wonderland very reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s own, an apparently sentient campervan takes a stale-relationshipped couple to a convention in a field. They are given a purple drink and meet strange people and creatures. They also meet two children and later discover their own relationship to these two. It’s a fairy-tale type of story about personal relationships and is, as you’d expect from the author, quirky, idiosyncratic and linguistically creative.

I have loved Stuart’s work since I read Tollesbury Time Forever and I know he has a great number of fans who enjoy the off-the-wall relationship he has with the English language and with popular music. Just a word of warning – if you’re a new reader, I wouldn’t advise you to start here as I think many people would find the strangeness a bizarre too far. Read some of his earlier works first and allow yourself to relax into his style. It’s a fun ride!

I received an advance copy for review.

Stuart Ayris

A really strong story here from Stuart, whose work I always enjoy.

The Magical, Tragical Life of Edward Jarvis Huggins

Amazon.com The Magical, Tragical Life of Edwards Jarvis Huggins

My review - 

This story is set in eighteenth century Kent and is peopled with a wonderful set of characters both good and bad, including a tired, wise mule called Oaken. We meet Edward at the age of ten when he and his sister run away from a drunken father. The story is very much what fans of Stuart Ayris will expect. It's lyrical, whimsical, humorous and deep. You can't keep Mr Ayris down and he occasionally speaks in asides to the reader, in effect. We roll on through this story fearing an inevitability but with all good stories there's more there than is immediately apparent.

I enjoyed reading this, watching the development of the story and the unfolding of the characters. I don't know if any of this story is based on truth but the author always manages to sift his own truth from the lives of those he writes about. Highly recommended and possibly the author's best yet.

Stuart Ayris

This novella is a travelogue with a difference.  If you love Stuart's playful use of language and vivid imagination you'll adore this.

The Buddhas of Borneo

Amazon.com The Buddhas of Borneo

My review - 

This charming, magical, chaotic travelogue of a novella takes us with the author on his five day visit to Borneo. With a Stuart Ayris book, you are aware that you are reading his unique description of the place and events alongside the amazing things happening on the inside of his head. There are descriptions of places many of us will never see, alongside a conversation with a monitor lizard and a card game with the pygmy elephant from a picture on the wall. He describes the cave inhabited by clouds of bats, and from which the nests for the famous bird's nest soup are collected. He takes us to an old prisoner of war camp and he shows us the island where the female turtles come ashore to lay their eggs.

His writing is lyrical and creative, artfully constructed and layered in meaning. I love it when a writer can link together commonly used words and make me see something in a different way. This book can be read in a couple of evenings but the beguiling voice of the man who has not lost the child's eye view is going to remain with you. 

Stuart Ayris

This is the third book in Stuart's much acclaimed FRUGALITY trilogy.  It's strange, it's personal; above all, it's wonderful.

I woke up this morning (FRUGALITY: Book 3)

Amazon .com I woke up this morning (FRUGALITY: Book 3)

My review - 

This third book in the Frugality series asks the question "What is real and what is not real?" It's a good question! Rod, the midget from Book 2, and his group of friends, decide to try to find Simon Anthony, the subject of Tollesbury Time Forever. Stuart Ayris, the author of the book, is also seeking him, accompanied by his long-suffering wife. A number of little facts from earlier books fall into place as the story unfolds. It's a strange and compelling journey we take, following a man whose life was changed so many years ago by another man's decision that he'd had enough.

There's a lot of humour in this book but a sad poignancy too. It is certainly multi-dimensional. You will no doubt have read the first two books in the Frugality Trilogy if you are considering embarking upon this one. You will know what to expect from Stu's writing and you won't be disappointed. What I love about his work is the playful use of language. Anyone can invent a word - it often happens in the fantasy genre - but Stuart uses and twists existing words to draw a little more meaning from them. This is creativity and I love it!

Stuart Ayris

Stuart Ayris has a wonderfully playful way with words which makes his work almost poetic.  It's certainly very creative and I enjoy it a great deal.

Tollesbury Time Forever

Link to Amazon.com   Tollesbury Time Forever

My review -

This book is unlike any I've read before. It's poetic, literary, beautiful but not in any stuffy way that would put you off. It's accessible, wise, clever and funny. It has given me insights into mental health issues I would never have considered before. Simon doesn't tell his doctor all that he sees or hears but just all that he feels his doctor can cope with. Now I'd not have thought of that.

There are things in Simon's past that have pushed him to where he is today. Zachariah Leonard is a character whose real identity I didn't see coming. The second part of this book is wonderfully written and in parts very poignant. It's a book to grab you by the heart and not let go. It is gripping, hard to put down and full of the author's own personal wisdom. I'm so glad I read it.

The Bird that Nobody Sees

Link to Amazon.com   The Bird that Nobody Sees

My review -

I will start with a disclaimer - I proof-read and copy-edited this book but I did it free of charge because I love and respect the author's work. I gain no advantage when the book makes a sale. Right, I like to be up-front about things. Now that's out of the way -

This book is full of the author's exuberant and optimistic philosophy of life. We read the story of Rod, technically a midget, and his wife, only just over the height requirement. He is unjustly imprisoned for a short time and comes out with a determination to take a life which changes when he meets an angel. He also meets with a very accepting group of friends in a doleful pub and is invited on a holiday weekend with them. They treat him as a friend and not as a figure of fun.

Those who have read Tollesbury Time Forever will be familiar with FRUGALITY - if you haven't you will meet with it here. It is an uplifting and wise way of looking at the world. Stuart Ayris has a wonderful way with words, creative, playful and most definitely his own. His work makes you feel better about yourself and more understanding of others. Stuart's many fans will gain a great deal of enjoyment from this book - and a longing for more. I certainly did!

A Cleansing of Souls

Link to Amazon.com  A Cleansing of Souls

My review -

I was very surprised to read that the author wrote this when aged only 22. It is a very mature piece of writing and details the stories of two damaged people as they briefly meet then go their separate ways. Stuart Ayris shows amazing wisdom and a depth of feeling in his work and his characterisations which touch the reader deeply but fall well short of being sentimental.

Tom is going through the angst of a young man, his parents through mid-life and job loss and the loss of their younger child. Poor Michael, a really lovely character, cannot shake himself free of his memories.

This is another unforgettable book from a talented new author. I really look forward to his next published work.