Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Strangers
    Strangers
    Strangers
    Ebook246 pages4 hours

    Strangers

    By Nigel Gray

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Nigel Gray has breathed new life into an almost extinct literary form, the epistolatory novel. The time is 1988/1989. Adrian is trapped in Thatcher’s Britain. Harri has flown to a new life in Australia. The contrast between the old world and the new is sharply drawn. The protagonists come alive in a very contemporary way, warts, muddle, desires, anxieties, jokes, differences and all. Full of contradictions, they show at times great insight and intelligence as well as revealing an immense capacity for self-delusion. Gradually the layers of their pasts are peeled away to reveal their secrets. The correspondents, Harri and Adrian, intimate strangers, blighted lovers, are both ordinary and extraordinary. Their lives and loves have more highs and lows and twists and turns than a roller coaster. These letters, so full of sharp wit, stunning imagery, political perception, and insight into the human condition are love letters, entertainments, poison darts, literary jousts, and cries for help and understanding all at the same time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFontaine Press
    Release dateJan 12, 2011
    ISBN9781458190727
    Strangers
    Author

    Nigel Gray

    I was born in a farm shed in Ireland to two teenagers, neither of whom had known their parents, and in my father's case who didn't even know his name. My mother was a kitchen maid, my father a farm servant. They had three unwanted babies in three years. At twelve months old, during the Second World War, I was taken to England. I never saw my father again. Nor the brother and sister. I went into a series of foster homes, a children's home, and later to live with my mother. They were not the best of times. I left school only semi-literate, and became involved in petty criminality. I set out to work my way slowly overland to Australia (a historically appropriate destination for an Irish criminal). I spent two years travelling and working in ten European countries and was then arrested by a beautiful Greek/Irish teenage girl and an unplanned pregnancy. I became an anarchist, was involved in numerous political causes, was arrested many times, locked up on a number of occasions, and deported for political offences from four countries. I read my first novel (Steinbeck's magnificent The Grapes of Wrath), when I was in my twenties and became an instant convert. I was an unskilled manual worker for eleven years, was awarded a BA in English and Politics, and an MA in Creative Writing from British universities. I went to South East Asia as part of a non-violent action group in 1967 to oppose the American War, was involved in civil unrest in several countries in 1968 ('the year of revolutions'), worked for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Campaign in 1972, and visited South Africa to oppose apartheid, as well as some of the Soviet Bloc countries. I began writing when I was in prison in Thailand. At first I wrote performance poetry, and went on to write non-fiction, and then stories, novels, plays, and children's books. Along the way I had six children (or four, depending on how you look at it), each with a different mother, set up a commune in Cumbria, did work for People Not Psychiatry, established a major Arts Festival. I have been writing professionally for thirty years, and have had more than seventy books published. I have had work published in twenty-six countries and twenty-four languages, and have won various awards and honours. My wonderful wife comes from Sudan in East Africa. We were married in 1977, and have one son. I arrived in Western Australia in 1988 (more than twenty years later than I'd intended), having migrated with my wife and two of my children under the special category of artists and sports people of international reputation, and we have been Australian citizens since 1990. I am a member and a past president of my branch of PEN, the writers' organization with special concern for writers throughout the world who are in imprisoned or persecuted. With the respected literary critic and poet Dr David Craig, I founded and edited the literary magazine Fireweed, which was published quarterly from 1974 to 1978. As a photographer I had work published and exhibited. North West Arts mounted a one-person exhibition of my photographs in 1977. As an actor I created the role of Joe Malik in Ken Campbell's epic production of Illuminatus which opened in a warehouse Liverpool in 1976 and then moved to The Micky Theatre, Amsterdam, and the National Theatre, London in 1977. I have taught Literature courses for: The University of Liverpool; The University of Lancaster; The Worker's Education Association. I have taught Creative Writing courses for: The University of Liverpool; The University of Leicester; The University of Western Australia; The Worker's Education Association; The Arvon Foundation; The Katherine Susannah Pritchard Foundation; The Northampton Arts Centre. I have taught numerous writing workshops in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, arts centres, writer's centres, centres for the unemployed, and prisons. I have held the following writing fellowships: In the UK: East Midlands Arts 1977/79; Northampton Development Corporation 1979/80; C Day Lewis Fellowship, London 1980/81; Eastern Arts 1981/82; In Sudan: Khartoum International Community School 2009. In Australia: WA College of Advanced Education 1988; Shire of Kalamunda 1989/1990; Edith Cowan University 1990 and 1994; Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation 1992. As well as The Dickens Fellowship Award, and The Irish Post Award for Literature, my books have won four major international awards, been shortlisted for thirteen more, and have picked up sixteen further honours in Australia, Europe and the United States. I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Western Australia; an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, UK; and a BA in English and Politics from the University of Lancaster, UK.

    Read more from Nigel Gray

    Related to Strangers

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Shelf Life

      Feb 1, 2024

      ©Rachel Pendlebury Red Side Story is my current book, published this month. It is the sequel to Shades of Grey, a book I wrote ten years ago, a dystopian thriller set in a world where the social hierarchy is governed by the colours you can see. Grey

      7 min read

    • Article

      Now Is the Time

      Nov 24, 2020

      Now Is the Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Inventions of Witches

      Oct 30, 2017

      The Inventions of Witches
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Moose in Maine: Marcia Butler in Conversation with Richard Russo

      Mar 3, 2021

      Music itself creates a space and time where the past and future are suspended—it anchors your entire being to the now. There is no doubt that if I’d not discovered music at age four my life would have played out very differently. The post A Moose in

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak

      Dec 2, 2019

      I guess I believe reading generates empathy. I feel pretty sure it offers readers experiences they would not otherwise have. But does it change how we act? The post A Year in Reading: Ayşe Papatya Bucak appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Spooky Storyteller

      Oct 5, 2022

      Spooky Storyteller
      2 min read

    • Article

      What Lies Beyond

      May 23, 2021

      Karl Stead, poet, critic, fiction writer and memoirist, keeps saying he has been told he could cark it at any moment – a matter of his wonky heart – then he doesn’t cark it at any moment. He is 88. I think he will go on not carking it until he is 99,

      9 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 15, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lingering EFFECTS

      Jun 2, 2022

      Lingering EFFECTS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Picks Of Our Literati

      Dec 9, 2019

      Sarah Lang: It’s a toss-up between the Anne of Green Gables series and the Little House on the Prairie series. I’ve read all the books in both series perhaps a hundred times, often right before bed. They remind me of hiding in a giant toy box so my f

      5 min read

    • Article

      Santa Montefiore

      Oct 1, 2020

      Santa Montefiore
      7 min read

    • Article

      On Loss

      Apr 17, 2023

      On Loss
      3 min read

    • Article

      Family Ink

      Mar 28, 2021

      Family Ink
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Tim Lane

      Dec 8, 2021

      We stopped at the Topaz Internment Camp, where my wife’s family was held during World War II, near the tiny town of Delta, Utah. We found the apocalyptic remnants of one of our country’s great shames. The post A Year in Reading: Tim Lane appeared fi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Watership Down

      Nov 6, 2017

      Watership Down
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Inherited Imagination

      Aug 18, 2020

      The Inherited Imagination
      9 min read

    • Article

      Jess Arndt

      Jun 13, 2017

      Maggie Nelson author of nine books, including The Argonauts, published by Graywolf Press in 2015. MANY people, myself included, have been eagerly awaiting a first book from Jess Arndt for some time, and now here is Large Animals, a wicked sliver of a

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Strangers

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Strangers - Nigel Gray

      һcbook_preview_excerpt.html\ےƑ/` 2lM(1L*X TwZ(`'FwKYh _i4P'U_ \<~ծKi ?|埪PSjڦT=\iL>Ʀ#o/UU]x>cClW?)/XMX}bWm m8K^}ksȟP>>Nv8USl5z^ƩJ{,N#7v(9 \*ЕWa,8]wXע4q/4p9R4>)fsɩ01ck&]ߏJ⥌< <+ K`-#٥O4> I+8 .d{8Й|}0 zHdD0F0S&F:!9[l+>-$ed ԏ%;S>b?b?Q7S jWp0=g7uNP^G8]%@Ng x:L+ \8%A{X˽&NXh  l/zX7kDޞ_̈_JA'ZRKl?t}† ĝiil0 5思GcG_:iAj&'yZ3C C.SlK|nSur<P;C p bT]T0,eK|^8 |M.HkO 4t?rYnj1>}Q#tN߭"r[ӴyGpܚW0[3SA"o+u``_̆WsB|!AI*Ё4 {::vd|X%LrD`i׌~WT)Ę" bX/e>|W}Cǧ*i]l55Mj0c)fJ\ P56 !>s>!2÷{1Hǒ?is_wS8'L\cAW1|lLVЎMB5p yw e~Il2oxX.fn`Y!Ќel[hDU_ F iW㿺CN$jMr" [ƱL _r!x*=.C:qׯpl:C [fZ_^0"O?|?TӏG^ |#{':obHg%DL%wXrRhTt U 3tZ e%1T;Fs2b$9+̽O G#7"t<[yvzz FSswςEȆnbPva^Sc@xvh38c ID}hGTz,cmQ'@qi`c zs,T;^ eL;a^n(AYSc2oce$Q#N6prL{$*N瀥څe'0X2x^)KC\nod e/q2ڷP*pHDcM[9/9ccKz9\ !VVb]nAR%*;'+<-z}38D?iB~jEᝏ,8h ms_O^:J< ^lˬ :؆ ɐuS}X!WPty>"cW鼰"Ef1L $4_y!Y RIanx; '4ن!yO⤴o) s7h!< ;I`:c3Xtд|zX2$A!*&@Dz=# зX!3{H }<l aubMn+oַ0]zG|c OUxw ȖejyF<#V{5Nr g2'|g 47Ri|1I$O|se52?ӔrAFȌK!Hj;QD}P`I6-E?h WDH<boloa]a3cN3ah"Q({yg8ɀQa!ȵ sL!⌄["1GȰMhBK5pb<=HaD} ([!DӢ.R/5-B{6lߐ>3zxh ]g)4VY8>AR-y%wnMJ".)g(5 PbL3B8@c%cKXܮr- )9'd5S;Պf.E=K9 ('`k5Y3T:;m.Kr9Z#|T\b1s&9oZܷIzl9dIPR\'*|;-=·|1"A6&$rˍ'~+S\>X(᷿`N)z$vœ7q\#tVc4W(B挕lX`!xM,8 ~%) &31+Um͜- Kᤙ,lQ{c TKBï ׈ߤ8D:ݒ([M3i w_5H31b4qx[3Ed&,&yz/Le󾓫 87\a"({ݙ,p s $7طXhjkd]{|+3eR47Fhy$GP pW@w3@`IS+a ({ݎdD=It&1-P1] tY'e+@ > ውFr82}XV]wnQq vua[(DWLE?vl.єә󶱭K^4%0\M\x8S1F~J099~xok'f\"ŷM2ڥ񒜢ɕQSOA#16nF|ݚT4s/:dgbI()8pWCH;qoZ\"!tJ#m 溯%sgF+~XE;EY ЎL)McbEo@xJO SNQmxYwwKհPշZve_yZT )S$9WilU;ڮnз} _sET*_ʩ ul:@v!66V5q7DŵxuT{ho^ REm x2 wds'}$9v;#"&#w׏,Buڝ5xVeլ~`,SG0Yvςz.rsSWeZAZ_m~}=i$3]s,c [P:iQvނ'@܏.;-g΅ofZ3s+oca3y"<004c<Κ}lKbb̅9! ?B}hm/oz0_%r/t/=U,mS.R߱}b 2dqbwpaI>L$G M]RR0 g`MB_3(c.9x~-L-wKV}y4ਲ99mʇ1 JKQElX%=TӘc4R~X3N\ƒH:vԟӻ8FثE5W͍7X:6_ؖɕ+'7- x]~i0d^JORkU_26V.ҦX vvTVW%Mu"! "uRwwTR_GGwʖkL6@k3mRuy(5Z]hh, Ykd(ݕ9j3jmͻ,b;L+kA%dAoUg''VRΛ!^ &"Q<8_1 zkic7e^vVedN*Ԫ?1_O.iqk0vrLO[ϣ(HlMz{.1ƹم#*F!}i繕ddxu~ .\"[n|:-.--wF#R!lCi.ntr*AbT%}O"nmZ;Oe.N+lbZ6L\ؕg&Ŷ>,]z10^\u>yy>yg0\nS]c'KV]WFH./O״CMux&Ţry&t\?@:KL K?WqLA4G~.4~))[$i(!Zv\ݝ|̞ /"䑭@o0ymv"Y(B ?a.5&0:S U"a]b^!,:2{kT%T#9{Y"W iĭxwљoCc*yQ{^O^-eҏ$A8ON )5B]KeҶeJKVYNʎt X' :Ԅ8VP׿[HU\k+v/Y5XTA U;<Қ/'kã*f$bR΀w;1X6ķuou%DպWRG>cWeւvNmƕ3~qX5*֊dWʼnSt9 =.X јkp`c;?[Aj.Yr܊< 1ădMᕖa Eo,Ǔק6#ehu#gD[47osZg WN]!|wИXǛR_Vlf=9~4)s{2r^yk@:HO;;de)ut]T[Q[;yG5I]~aaX﷠)8Zl-bے}Zɓ@V e6UC53ZVȥbaGXZ5jh`Y{c m"E@B3؉WF3ܷ]/oK_=rh1"mL x(A:Qe.YOums}mb 2?:b5bߕ!']OpTlЇ_(!bw{gYzb[MydV*s2 k \?UzAXR+g)2yel,0.YNmil9wK婮v?tbƙ4qH ɀćGШHk*a/='z!Dj@a璨C;9mƜ}1؝S7t_G-D7]!'ߙ\sM^z=e$;OԃL 8l@ir~tKrao=uᦿFgXoּƉ.e|>gYFYzHƣmvr] ltBFáKwՠW2Dzb. )v>ܣd>c6;́/V=YI#:}F"P ?s'Gy9, Hx/WNOڳ3 Z`.񰤹m$i)_5-NJhB2 ǮL&Ni-g&tf  (X 9Vs n Mb۠7:9`P^B>!9!oWKGE[#7ve+lL#U~uyҷS76` 7N~ Jn֜Gn{|}+m_kO-Tk;,GL`''wWͤ@Oa[ ۍCSe:F_!mu8#G~P^ 9:eE-G@XVD&OoMVZZ)aU%q1) / 2t9 CZ&cyO([
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1