tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post8419146948710033331..comments2024-03-26T17:48:56.627+00:00Comments on 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?': Mayday (BBC, 2013) - DVD reviewMartin Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082485795280777670noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post-32679269769244926672014-10-20T11:05:19.417+01:002014-10-20T11:05:19.417+01:00I am not surprised that the pagan elements in the ...I am not surprised that the pagan elements in the series caused some critics immediately to deduct points. Most surely, some book critics do likewise when they see that a crime novel contains some degree of this. Indeed, I suspect mention of such on the inside cover will be enough for the novel not to be reviewed. Equally surely, an aversion to any putative 'supernatural' element has been made clear on some crime fiction blogs.<br /><br />There is, I think, a misunderstanding here. I can't recall if the supernatural is the target of any of Msgr. Knox's rules, but if it were, I'm sure he would have said that the solution must not depend upon some supernatural element. The solution!<br /><br />But in various ways, folklore remains part of the weft and woof of life for many people, especially in certain regions, and thus is no reason at all why it should not be a thread in the fabric of a crime novel. I already had this in mind when I read this post, Martin, for it was but a short time ago that I had another bash via a blog comment at bringing the novels of Phil Rickman more attention. His Merrily Watkins novels I think masterly, and it seems that John Connolly agrees.<br /><br />Connolly writes in a back-cover blurb, "Rickman writes mysteries in the classic sense, cleverly combining the supernatural and criminal elements...". An endorsement from Connolly ought to take a novel a fair distance, but I suspect that rather unfortunate phrasing did the opposite. And yet, though Merrily Watkins is both an Anglican parish minister and the Diocese's 'Deliverance Consultant', the current title for the exorcist, and although the supernatural is a thread in all the novels -- which is how Merrily comes to be in them, after all -- there is nothing supernatural about the novels' crimes or denouements.<br /><br />I think it inspired of Rickman to set the novels in the Tri-counties region, for there is no area more redolent of mystery and folklore-saturated than there. There are many crime novels of a sort perfect for curious auto-didacts, the best of them an education in anything from antiques to sex slavery, as well we know. Rickman too belongs with those, for his knowledge of the Tri-counties is vast. He excels himself in a plot that initially rests on the myth of Elgar still riding his bicyle around Worcestershire and encompasses his Dream of Gerontius.<br /><br />And thus, another plug for Rickman, or I think he deserves it, but also a general plea for critics, and perhaps many readers, to be rather more careful with their categories. I am a touch unhappy with the degree of attention given to some authors as if of a right, while too many fine crime fiction writers are ignored or close to it. <br /><br />There is, at bottom, no difference between Rickman's novels and, say, Ngaio Marsh's Off with His Head. Now I shall see if my local library has acquired the DVD of Mayday.<br /><br />Philip Amoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11739418522974972567noreply@blogger.com