29 July 2010 - Shortlisted for The People's Book Prize!

By Jayne Joso on 29 July 2010 at 12:12:57

'Soothing Music for Stray Cats' made it to the final shortlist of 6, for the People's Book Prize 2009/2010.

Huge thanks to all the lovely folk who voted for it.

Excerpts:
"When we were kids, me and Jim, we dreamt of writing songs together. We should have tried, should have given it a go, and written the songs, and lived the lives we wanted to."

"So there I was in Trafalgar Square, laid flat on my back, my bag for a pillow, watching Nelson way up there on his pedestal, riding the clouds in endless waves of morning blue. And it really was a blue, blue sky. It felt amazing. Imagine it."

"...we’d get suited-up, suited and booted, the tailored treatment, and then we’d run riot just the two of us… through Trafalgar square, the lions and the fountains, electric guitars, Jim, blasting out his lungs as the front man... the Philharmonic Orchestra blasting out all around us. Picture it, just picture it. A massive gig, under a dark starry sky, blasting, blasting."

"Think about it, the entire Philharmonic Orchestra fishin’, it makes full sense, they’d be the best, ’cos no one understands silence the way that great musicians do, and no one would better understand or appreciate -the ripples on the surface. And no one more than Nelson, knows why a man needs to be by the sea, (’cept for maybe that Ishmael bloke in Moby Dick)."

click here for:James Hogg Review

'may emerge as one of the great, eccentric London novels... it tells a compelling story.'
Ian Thomson, Times Literary Supplement

'Soothing Music for Stray Cats’ is a richly comic debut novel of youthful dreams and adult despair... it is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield's voice in J.D.Salinger's Catcher in the Rye...a generous and engaging novel whichembraces the extremes of human experience so thoughtfully and yet so lightly.'
Emma Rae, Planet Magazine, issue 195

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