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donkeyjacket

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first registered 04.09.08

last online 21 mins ago

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about me

I am a lawyer - retired, thank God. My debut novel "So Sour the Grape" (part reproduced here and available through Amazon and leading booksellers, rrp £7.99) tries to portray the hopelessness of the committed alcoholic - and the helplessness of the lover, spouse or friend who believes they can walk on water, can fix it - to find that they can't ... for, seemingly, nothing can.

Writing is addictive; and my second novel, "The Mine" is somewhat different. Taking place in South Africa in 1985, when apartheid was at its height - as was the resistance to it - a black man and a white man are trapped in a mine, the sole survivors of a mining disaster. Yet it's nothing to do with mines - it's about segregation and an Africaans 'kaffir boetie's' ( a sympatiser) obligations to the child of the black man who, in the mine, saved his life and who, when he finds her, turns out to be someone more than just a child.

But black and white must be segregated in the South Africa of 1985.

favourite books

Change of Address - Lee Langley.
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Bridges of Madison County - R J Waller
Border Music - R J Waller
Any thing by Hemmingway
Anything by Steinbeck
And 2 real oldies: These Lovers Fled Away - Howard Spring and 'Bonjour Tristesse' - Francoise Sagan

my websites

http://www.anthony.bavin.talktalk.net    

HarperCollins is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

my books

THE MINE

A. J. BAVIN

The only time Steiger ever held a black man by the arm was when he needed to inflict discipline on him.


South Africa, 1985. Apartheid is rife - and so is the resistance to it. Against this background a black man and a white man find themselves trapped underground, the sole survivors of a mining disaster. The black has been blinded by the explosion and the white man is badly injured. Segregation or not, only if they can work together can they get out - but do they?

Just say that one escapes. What are the reactions of that survivor to the young daughter of the other - particularly when Apartheid segregates black from white?

Although this story starts with a mining catastrophe, it is of a greater catastrophe that I write: Apartheid - which was a disaster for both blacks and whites alike. Fiction it may be - but it is fiction woven around the framework of cruelty and oppression inflicted by white on black in an attempt to keep a strangle hold on a 'beloved country' that wasn't theirs to hold in the first place.

 

SO SOUR THE GRAPE

A. J. BAVIN

A novel exploring the hopelessness of the committed alcoholic and the helplessness of those who care.


Rehab Clinic. Disillusioned lawyer meets Kensington socialite. Michael struggling, confused about almost everything and in denial about his alcoholism; Lottie a wealthy, hardened alcoholic. They prop each other up midst the emotions of self examination, confessional and penitence - the hallmarks of the Minnesota Model for the reformation of the alcoholic. Discharged, a relationship is bound to form - albeit that relationships in early recovery are deemed to be dangerous. When Lottie relapses, Michael has to ask himself whether he loved her or was just attracted to her body and to her wealth – and to examine the part that he has played in her downfall.

Sorry, but this story has a sad ending.

 

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latest

BeeJoy wrote 9 days ago

Hello. How are you? I would appreciate to switch comments and feedbac....

Kenneth Edward Lim wrote 27 days ago

A.J., You might want to click on www.scribd.com/dloganw whereby Davi....

Stark Silvercoin wrote 81 days ago

Hi Everyone, I wanted to say “Thank You!” to everyone who helped g....

Baobab wrote 101 days ago

Donkeyjacket, Greetings from Ouagadougou. I see that you may be in....

Stark Silvercoin wrote 125 days ago

Hey AJB, No problem. Please don’t think that you book is somehow b....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 46 days ago

Thank you, Frances, for that and for taking the trouble to comment. When the dust has settled from blood andd bullets and packing cases and paint pots (we have just moved home) I will return the read and apply my mind again to 'The Mine.'. You are by far from the first to have commented on ... view book

I wrote 46 days ago

Thank you, Frances, for that and for taking the trouble to comment. When the dust has settled from blood andd bullets and packing cases and paint pots (we have just moved home) I will return the read and apply my mind again to 'The Mine.'. You are by far from the first to have commented on ... view book

I wrote 126 days ago

My belated return HFWG review. And not a very constructive one, for in truth I am not a very constructive reviewer. Like Julius Caesar's thumb, up or down, books have but two classifications: 'Yes' or 'No'. Here, I am going to break my own rule and say, 'Maybe.' Were someone to ask me what sets ... view book

I wrote 133 days ago

Rosemary, This is a HFWG Review - and one has to be pretty circumspect when reviewing work that towers a good 300 places above one's own effort. Somebody wrote that they found the first chapter (prologue, presumably) the most compelling chapter - and I agree. I would go further and say that t... view book

I wrote 147 days ago

No, Dedalus. Perfectly drawn. And not just Janet: Vix, Pandita, Raine, Carter and Etcetera, too - most of all Etcetera. And drawn with a brush that makes both them and your scenarios very easy on the eye and a joy to walk through. I haven't come across light, spontaneous wit like this in many a nove... view book

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