Kneale, Matthew – The Bell Bookshop

The cameraman

Emma — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Former cinematographer Julius Sewell journeys across Europe with his family to his sister’s wedding in Rome. But this will be an unusual road trip. For one thing, Julius has been in an institution and has only just been released to travel. And then there is his family. This is Easter 1934 and Julius’ stepfather and mother are keen members of Oswald Mosley’s new party, the British Union of Fascists. One of Julius’ half-sisters is in studying in Munich, where she dreams of meeting her idol, Adolf Hitler. Another half-sister is a member of the British Communist Party, and is determined to wreck the approaching wedding, because the groom is a rising figure in Italy’s Fascist regime. As the family motors south, to Paris, across Nazi Germany – taking in a bus tour to Dachau concentration camp – and through Mussolini’s Italy to Rome, gathering relatives and a stray dog along the way, Julius’ mental stability will be put sorely to the test, as will be the sanity of his relatives.

The cameraman

Emma — Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Former cinema camera director Julius Sewell journeys across Europe with his family to his sister’s wedding in Rome. But this will be an unusual road trip. For one thing, Julius has been in an institution and has only just been released to travel. And then there is his family. This is Easter 1934 and Julius’ stepfather and mother are keen members of Oswald Mosley’s new party, the British Union of Fascists. One of Julius’ half-sisters is in studying in Munich, where she dreams of meeting meet her idol, Adolf Hitler. Another half-sister is a member of the British Communist Party, and is determined to wreck the approaching wedding, because the groom is a rising figure in Italy’s Fascist regime. As the family motors south, to Paris, across Nazi Germany – taking in a bus tour to Dachau concentration camp – and through Mussolini’s Italy to Rome, gathering relatives and a stray dog along the way, Julius’ mental stability will be put sorely to the test, as will be the sanity of his relatives.

Pilgrims

Emma — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year’An enthralling and wonderfully vivid novel from a master storyteller’ Joseph O’Connor’Kneale’s medieval world is animated with a refreshing lightness of touch’ Sunday Telegraph1289. A rich farmer fears he’ll go to hell for cheating his neighbours. His wife wants pilgrim badges to sew into her hat and show off at church. A poor, ragged villager is convinced his beloved cat is suffering in the fires of purgatory and must be rescued. A mother believes her son’s dangerous illness is punishment for her own adultery and seeks forgiveness so he may be cured. A landlord is in trouble with the church after he punched an abbot on the nose. A sexually driven noblewoman seeks a divorce so she can marry her new young beau. These are among a ragtag band of pilgrims that sets off on the tough and dangerous journey from England to Rome, where they hope all their troubles and their prayers will be answered. Some in the group, however, have their own secret reasons for going. Others, while they might aspire to piety, succumb all too often to the sins of the flesh. A riveting, sweeping novel of medieval society and historic Englishness, Pilgrims illuminates the fallibility of humans, the absurdities and consolations of belief, and the very real violence at the heart of religious fervour.

The Rome Plague Diaries

Emma — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

On the first morning of Rome’s Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with friends and acquaintances and began writing an email, describing where he was, what was happening and what it felt like, and sent it to everyone he could think of. He was soon composing daily reports as he tried to comprehend a period of time, when everyone’s lives suddenly changed and Italy struggled against an epidemic, that was so strange, so troubling and so fascinating that he found it impossible to think about anything else. Having lived in Rome for eighteen years, Matthew has grown to know the capital and its citizens well and this collection of brilliant diary pieces connects what he has learned about the city with this extraordinary, anxious moment, revealing the Romans through the intense prism of the coronavirus crisis.

English Passengers

Emma — Thu, 26 Apr 2001 00:00:00 +0000

WINNER OF THE WHITBREAD BOOK AWARD 2000

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2000

‘Deeply impressive. . . Every page fizzes with linguistic invention’ Guardian

An electrifying modern classic – Kneale’s sweeping adventure story vividly brings a past age to life

In 1857 when Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his band of rum smugglers from the Isle of Man have most of their contraband confiscated by British Customs, they are forced to put their ship up for charter. The only takers are two eccentric Englishmen who want to embark for the other side of the globe. The Reverend Geoffrey Wilson believes the Garden of Eden was on the island of Tasmania. His travelling partner, Dr. Thomas Potter, unbeknownst to Wilson, is developing a sinister thesis about the races of men. Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people’s struggles against the invading British.

‘A big, ambitious novel with a rich historical sweep and a host of narrative voices . . . The sort of novel that few contemporary writers have either the imagination or the stamina to sustain’ Daily Telegraph