Alice Jolly

What a little gem A Saint in Swindon is. I'm not sure at what point a short story becomes a novella but in only 78 pages of text Alice Jolly has created a whole world that I was able to lose myself in.

A stranger arrives in Swindon and takes up residence in the narrator's B&B. He's an enigma, never coming out of his room, taking all his meals in there and simply spending his days reading. The dream! The mystery man devours book after book and ignites everybody's imagination. Who is he? Why is he reading so much? Why does nobody ever see him? Soon, people are treating him as a kind of saviour.

The story is set in the very near future in 2030 but it's an almost unrecognisable world as the effects of climate change wreak havoc on everyday life. The reader is treated to myriad literary references as the community becomes fixated on the stranger and what he is reading. I loved the parallels between the fiction and the reality for the characters and how the plots of the books seemed to mirror what was happening in their lives.

Not only is this book engaging but it has so many layers to it and I think there's a lot more to be considered within it than there at first seems. Taking it at face value it's a wonderful tale of the power of books in a changing landscape, but underneath there is so much more and this would be an amazing book group choice.

I really enjoyed A Saint in Swindon. It's a fabulous little book, with fascinating characters and a clever plot.… (més)

Unbound Alice Jolly
Review of the Unbound hardcover edition (to be released March 30, 2023)

[3.9 Average from the individual story ratings, rounded to 4]
I was so impressed with the title story when I first read it in Best British Short Stories 2021 that I immediately looked for information on author Alice Jolly’s upcoming short story collection and funded it at the Unbound crowdfunding platform. I have an early release copy of the book prior to its official March 30, 2023 publication.

I enjoyed all of this collection which is an anthology of Jolly's short stories which have appeared in various journals and literary collections in recent years. I found the longer stories to be the most interesting as they allowed for more character and story development. Jolly's historical fictions were especially interesting.

The following story synopses provide setups only and hopefully will not be considered spoilers:
1. Ray the Rottweiler **** A young woman, during walk with her child, befriends a man who keeps a yardful of Rottweiler dogs which he has rescued. You can read this story online at Prospect Magazine, December 11, 2014.
See image at https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/content/uploads/2014/12/fiction.jpg
Illustration for ‘Ray the Rottweiler’ by Vin Ganapathy, image sourced from Prospect Magazine.

2. Keep Right on to Eternity Road *** A simple descriptive story about driving around the countryside with a group of friends and occasionally asking for directions. It could probably be interpreted as a metaphor for life?

3. Frog Warning *** An apocalyptic story which involves the breakdown of language with alternative words being substituted for expected words. Part of the game for the reader is deciding what were the original words which were replaced by others.

4. Big Hugs and Kisses ***** A family becomes attached to a discarded doll found by the side of the road. This story was originally printed as a memoir in Hinterland Magazine Issue 6 Autumn 2020.
See image at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EozZdEKW4AAn4qG?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
Image of “Big Hugs and Kisses” in Hinterland Magazine, 2020. Image sourced from Twitter.

5. Burn Before Reading *** A woman makes observations about her sister and their extended family. The woman herself had been rescued previously by her sister.

6. Safe Passage **** A woman has a vacation with her young son in a house in the countryside. The boy becomes obsessed with ensuring that a snail crossing the road is safe.

7. All the Places that I Have Not Seen **** A young girl, who is alone in house while her friends are out scavenging in their post-apocalyptic world, takes in a wandering stranger.

8. Here’s to the Hole that Never Heals ***** An elderly man discovers an alcoholic tramp on the street whom he knew from decades ago in army service with the Royal Engineers. He makes it his mission to save the man.

9. Mrs. Hopper Is Waving Her Arms ***** An historical fiction which imagines the life of Josephine Nivison (1883-1968) (the Mrs. Hopper of the title) who suppressed her own art in order to support the art of her husband Edward Hopper (1882-1967).
See image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Josephine_Nivison_Hopper%2C_Self_...
A self portrait of Josephine Nivison Hopper. Image sourced from Wikipedia. By Josephine Hopper - Original publication: unknown, Immediate source: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jo-nivison-hopper-2086277, Fair use, Link.

10. We All Know Mr. Jones **** Three schoolgirls make regular stops on their way home from school to visit Mr. Jones and his budgerigar birds. Mr. Jones has a problem which the community is aware of and one girl’s mother gives advice on how to deal with it.

11. For You, Hannah ** A menacing creep picks up a female hitchhiker. [I didn’t care for the subject matter, but the story is still well written.]

12. The Last House on the Marsh **** An 80-year-old woman is visited by her great-nephew. Meanwhile there is a storm approaching which will threaten the community.

13. Smooth and Sleek **** A story with two narrators told in alternating paragraphs. Narrator One lusts after material objects while Narrator Two is describing the terror of a wartime invasion and occupation.

14. The Stop **** A couple are arguing while driving in their car when they are stopped by a woman asking for assistance for an injured friend.

15. From Far Around They Saw Us Burn ***** A disturbing historical fiction account of the St. Joseph’s Orphanage fire in Cavan, Ireland on February 23, 1943 in which 35 young girls and one adult died, mostly because the nuns would not allow men in to rescue the girls who were dressed only in their nightclothes.

Trivia and Links
You can learn more about the Unbound book crowdfunding platform (which is based in the UK) at How It Works and see the selection of currently funding projects at Books and the published projects at Published.

A related effort by the Unbound team is the Backlisted Literary Podcast, for which you can find episodes here.… (més)

A Saint in Swindon was born out of a literary experiment which is described in the book’s foreword and afterword. The Swindon Artswords Reading Group invited Alice Jolly to write a story and discuss the “work in progress” with them. The idea was that through this interaction with the author, the group’s members would understand better the process involved in getting a writer’s thoughts onto the written (or printed) page. As the project evolved, however, more of the readers’ thoughts, tastes and ideas started to feed into the story. The Saint in Swindon bears Alice Jolly’s name, but she describes it as a communal work “which we created together”. Fairlight Books have now welcomed the work into their fold – an excellent choice of publisher, given the pride of place novellas are given in their catalogue.

This project is interesting and laudable. What is possibly more surprising is that The Saint in Swindon is a fine work which is enjoyable on its own merits irrespective of the experiment which gave rise to it. It is set in a dystopian near-future, where rising temperatures and water shortage are becoming increasingly worrying. In the midst of all this, a strange guest arrives at Hunter’s Grove, a bed and breakfast run by Janey (the narrator) and her husband Phil. The man, who calls himself Jack MacKafka, barricades himself in his room and only asks to be provided with food and books. Neighbours and friends are intrigued, and a cult starts to gather around the mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the world descends into greater chaos.

As befits a novella conceived by a reading group, the novella continually ventures into meta-territory. Janey and her friends are members of a book club and they try to figure out the visitor through the books he reads. The novella references many novels (which are helpfully listed at the end). We learn about the genres favoured by the different characters – the genres are then promptly mimicked in the novella itself, which veers between dystopia and mystery, between comedy and Madame Bovary-style suburban realism. It sounds like a bit of a mish-mash and it is. However, the funny and likeable voice of Janey keeps the novella on course whilst raising some intriguing questions about the value of books and literature, particularly in times of crisis. Alice Jolly does not provide answers to these queries:

I’m not going to tell you what you should think about it. The white space is yours and I know you will fill it with your own questions, thoughts and images. Welcome to the conversation. Make this story your own.

The creative process continues…… (més)

A Saint in Swindon was born out of a literary experiment which is described in the book’s foreword and afterword. The Swindon Artswords Reading Group invited Alice Jolly to write a story and discuss the “work in progress” with them. The idea was that through this interaction with the author, the group’s members would understand better the process involved in getting a writer’s thoughts onto the written (or printed) page. As the project evolved, however, more of the readers’ thoughts, tastes and ideas started to feed into the story. The Saint in Swindon bears Alice Jolly’s name, but she describes it as a communal work “which we created together”. Fairlight Books have now welcomed the work into their fold – an excellent choice of publisher, given the pride of place novellas are given in their catalogue.

This project is interesting and laudable. What is possibly more surprising is that The Saint in Swindon is a fine work which is enjoyable on its own merits irrespective of the experiment which gave rise to it. It is set in a dystopian near-future, where rising temperatures and water shortage are becoming increasingly worrying. In the midst of all this, a strange guest arrives at Hunter’s Grove, a bed and breakfast run by Janey (the narrator) and her husband Phil. The man, who calls himself Jack MacKafka, barricades himself in his room and only asks to be provided with food and books. Neighbours and friends are intrigued, and a cult starts to gather around the mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the world descends into greater chaos.

As befits a novella conceived by a reading group, the novella continually ventures into meta-territory. Janey and her friends are members of a book club and they try to figure out the visitor through the books he reads. The novella references many novels (which are helpfully listed at the end). We learn about the genres favoured by the different characters – the genres are then promptly mimicked in the novella itself, which veers between dystopia and mystery, between comedy and Madame Bovary-style suburban realism. It sounds like a bit of a mish-mash and it is. However, the funny and likeable voice of Janey keeps the novella on course whilst raising some intriguing questions about the value of books and literature, particularly in times of crisis. Alice Jolly does not provide answers to these queries:

I’m not going to tell you what you should think about it. The white space is yours and I know you will fill it with your own questions, thoughts and images. Welcome to the conversation. Make this story your own.

The creative process continues…… (més)