‘IT'S AN HISTORICAL IRONY THAT BLAIR BECAME LABOUR LEADER'
efl wing nd a prayer
Film books editor and critic Richard T Kelly has turned to the links between Labour and the church for his debut novel. Paul Dale hears from an author on a crusade
ichard 'l‘ Kelly is laughing at the jibe that his
debut novel is a cross between Anthony
'l‘rollope‘s [fare/tester Towers and Alan llollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. It's a cutesy icebreaker and this editor and writer whose published works to date have conlined themselves to the world ol‘ cinema with books on Sean Penn. Alan (‘larke and the Danish Dogme ()5 lilm movement. knows it. ‘lt's certainly a “no good deed goes unpunished" story.'
Kelly talks slowly and eloquently. an urbane clarity emerging l'rom the hori/ontal vowels of a north east lingland accent. (‘rusmlers is the entertaining and weighty tale (at over 5()() pages) ol' Iel't leaning Reverend John (lore. an Anglican clergyman who returns to Newcastle to set up a church in a deprived area in I‘Mfi. a time of Labour Party revisionism. '.-\round about the I‘NUs‘ there were certain things happening in the north east] recalls Kelly. ‘I found myself cutting out clippings in the newspapers about ‘church planting‘. which was a particular churchy response to declining congregations. Also the 'l‘yneside underworld came into locus in the 90s with some distressing stories while Blair became the leader ol‘ Labour and I was very interested in his claim to north east roots and his professed Christianity. All these ideas began to coalesce in my mind.’
Two and a half years ago. Kelly finally sat down to write a multi-character novel peopled by political radicals. miners. gangsters. Ml’s and men of. the cloth. ‘It was important to me that everything is underpinned by the religious presence of Gore because if you look at deprived areas that have needed urban regeneration.
people tend to flee the areas but the church tends to stay. That is an almost irresistible element of' real lil‘e.‘ Stopping briefly. Kelly decides to embrace the unl‘ashionable leilmotil that runs through his book. "l'he novel's source is this idea of (‘hristian Socialism and the entwined tradition of the Labour Party and the church. So many of' the architects of New Labour were members of the Christian Socialist society at Westminster. I thought that through (lore and him haying old Labour roots and a dog collar round his neck. I could crack open some of those affinities and contradictions.‘
Kelly is. however. at pains to point out that he is no polernicist. ‘The book is now arriving relatively shortly after Blair’s departure and I'm happy that he is still fresh in people's minds. But the simple narrative that Labour supporters were ecstatic on I May 1997 and then driven to tears of dissolution live or six years later is ol‘ no interest to me whatsoever because I wasn't particularly ecstatic when they won. I thought it was something ol’ an historical irony that someone like Blair ever became leader of‘ the Labour Party.‘
An avid believer in research. Kelly will soon be spending lots ol' time this side of the border in preparation for his second novel. a ‘Scottish‘ supernatural tale that. like so many before it. will pay a debt to Stevenson‘s Strange (’use of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and James Hogg‘s Private Memoirs and (‘ontesvirms Ufa Justified Sinner. Kelly is on a most radical road.
Crusaders is published by Faber on Thu 17 Jan.
Ilit
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THE BEST BOOKS. COMICS 8 EVENTS
=l< Jodi Plcoult, Torry Dodson & Rachel Dodson Bestselling auth'or Picoult is now the first female writer to take on the monthly Wonder Woman task and aided and abetted by some splendid artwork from the Dodsons has turned Love and Murder into a blistering debut. See review. page 29. DC.
* Camilla D’Errlco & Joshua Dysart You could barely believe that a comic book entitled Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes Volume 1 8 2 wouldn't be fit solely for lining your bin yet this is a spot-on study of gloomy adolescence. See review. page 29. Titan.
=l= Crime Scene Edinburgh: 20 Years of Rankin and Robin With the Rebus legend now consigned to the archives (we're assuming there won't be a dramatic u-turn here). this exhibition tracks the rise of Rankin and his merry creation. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, until Mon 14 Jan.
=i= Tess Genitoon The bestselling crime author talks about her latest thriller. The Bone Garden with intense action which flits between the different worlds of Boston in the 19th and 21 st centuries. Wateistone's, Edinburgh, Thu 17 Jan.
* Richard 1' Kelly The weighty tale of a left-leaning clergyman provides this critic with a stirring debut novel. See preview, left. Faber.
=l= Alexander Ahndorll This Scandic writer at first found favour from the subject of The Director before Ingmar Bergman eventually disowned this novelised portrait of his life. Not a man to cross even when close to death we would have thought. See review, page 28. Portobe/Io Books.
4—1 7 Jan 2008 THE LIST 27