There's a review in the Times today of Benjamin Myers new novel "Rare Singles" and it's set on the Northern Soul scene in Scarborough . Premise is a woman in her 50s locked in a bad marriage and dead end job who lives for weekend Soul events. She travels to America to track down her Soul singer hero one Earlon " Bucky" Bronco to persuade him to come to England to perform.

In yesterday’s Telegraph too. Here’s the article. Ordered for holiday reading.

Better pic

Available from Amazon, etc ... 

Definitely a thread worth starting… The Daily Telegraph review was generally positive but The Sunday Times Culture review less so as evidenced below. I will pick the book up and thumb through the pages but I doubt there’ll be any Northern Soul. Looks like an author cashing in on the name without doing proper research…we’ll see.

 

6 hours ago, Frankie Crocker said:

Definitely a thread worth starting… The Daily Telegraph review was generally positive but The Sunday Times Culture review less so as evidenced below. I will pick the book up and thumb through the pages but I doubt there’ll be any Northern Soul. Looks like an author cashing in on the name without doing proper research…we’ll see.

 

Thanks, I'll wait & see 

Wonder if the Sunday Times asked Simona for permission to use the photo of her to illustrate the review?

12 hours ago, Frankie Crocker said:

Definitely a thread worth starting… The Daily Telegraph review was generally positive but The Sunday Times Culture review less so as evidenced below. I will pick the book up and thumb through the pages but I doubt there’ll be any Northern Soul. Looks like an author cashing in on the name without doing proper research…we’ll see.

 

...hmm surprised by the review first sentence as its his way with words / language that he (Myers) normally excels at...

but I agree, its prob worth a recommendations thread on writing (fiction) that captures the feeling / energy of a scene... apologies if there is a thread on this already, - Ive not checked

kindle preview available via our news feature here

 

I'm 100 pages in, and it's terrible. I can't believe the writer lives in the Calder Valley. He has no idea about the scene, his description of Scarborough is just cliche driven and he goes far too deep into Bucky Broncos many ailments. 

The titles of Bucky's recordings are laughable. The only saving grace is that someone bought the book for me. 

I have no doubt that Benjamin Myers is a talented author, but this book is a poor attempt of describing our scene to a younger generation. 

C'mon people its a work of fiction.

Hardly going or meant to reflect the err scene

Cheers Paul

Edited September 6, 2024Sep 6 by Soul Shrews
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