BENYBONT
More About
The Benybooks
Four Books are now available. These are Checkpoint, The Lake, Pinko Prose, and Ask Father.
See Details Below
Checkpoint
The lead story in this collection is CHECKPOINT. What if WW2 had ended slightly differently, with a peace settlement between America and Germany? What if ‘The Wall’ had been built across Paris, instead of across Berlin?
Ben Dubritt, and his Parisian friend, Denis Lebrun, try to make their escape through the Checkpoint of the title. They find an unexpected ally in the shape of Sergeant Joe McCarthy, a member of the occupying forces.
The title story was originally in a collection from the European Institute. This, like the other three stories in this collection, is a story of speculative fiction. The others are led by DIMENSION FIVE, an unashamed tribute to HG Wells, stemming from his first novel, The Time Machine. Then there is NEW EDEN, a tongue-in-cheek dig at the ‘Adam and Eve’ SF cliché. Finally, there is THE STAR OF BIRMINGHAM, stemming from the current lectures on astronomy given during the Festive Season.
The Lake
The Lake is a story of a life that went wrong. It is purely imaginary. It appeared in Cambrensis magazine before it became the title story in a 2006 collection. This is now out of print.
Stamford Bridge appeared in a magazine many years ago. More recently, a version of it was on this website. I really did see the Chelsea v Blackpool match on 15th March 1958, when Stanley Matthews played one of his last games for Blackpool.
The “announcement” incident during the conversation between the boys also took place, although is a heavily fictionalised version of what happened during a match Chelsea had against Cardiff some years later This was Jimmy Greaves last match for Chelsea before he went to play in Italy. The “I” of the story, Richie, is entirely fictional.
May Thirteen also appeared in the 2006 collection. The story is fictional, although is based on real happenings in 1987. Events and the background to them have been heavily fictionalised. The tensions left by the events of 13th May 1969 did, however, last for many years afterwards.
Delta again appeared in the 2006 collection. An event like the central “island” episode took place in the Danube Delta during the summer of 1988. This was Nicolae Ceauşescu’s final complete year as dictator of Romania.
Pinko Polemics
This comprises three polemical pieces. Polemics, by their nature, take a particular point of view and express it firmly. I haven’t shied away from slightly savage humour and obviously can’t guarantee the accuracy of every detail.
For example, although of us all live with the dreadful effects (on those of who actually use the service) us of the Railway Act of 1993, I obviously have no factual knowledge of our former Prime Minister’s childhood and youth.
All of these polemics were previously on this website, in the sub-section I have called Pinko Prose. There are others still on there, including a 'straight' supplement to John Major Balls-up's Train Set.
The pieces in this Benybook are:
John Major Balls-up’s Train Set is my take on the events that supposedly led up to the privatisation of the railways.
Obviously, I know nothing about our former Prime Minister’s childhood, and I have no inside knowledge of actual steps leading to the passing of the Railways Act in 1993. I have therefore invented freely and, I hope, humorously.
We all have our own opinions about the consequences of this denationalisation, especially those of us who need to be rail users. Railways should be the transport of the future in our crowded islands. Currently (2024), there is a pretence that all the problems of the rail network are a consequence of the festering and seemingly permanent industrial action. There is far more to it than that.
Brexit: The Last Performance takes the form of mock notes for a theatre review of a supposed stage performance, supposedly before the referendum on 23rd June 2016. A date to remember for all of us.At the time, the ‘leave’ vote of under 52% was portrayed by some as a ‘vast majority’. I wonder what it would be portrayed as now?
The Freedom to Wear Silly Red Coats was born of all the hoo-hah about fox-hunting a few decades ago. If you’re a stalwart of either the pro- or anti- foxhunting lobbies, I advise you not to read it.
The real subject is liberty.
Ask Father
Ask Father is a speculation on how an over-ordered society might become locked and stagnant.
Nandy is fiction, based on the finding of the remains of the finding of Neanderthal bones in France, and the history of those bones.
Sylvia tells the story of how the relationship between man and machine became too close for comfort.
Speculative Fiction: The Ten Ideas is a slightly modified version of the original introduction to an SF collection entitled Checkpoint.
All of the fiction also appeared in the collection of speculative fiction referred to above. It was published by The European Institute in 2006 and is now out of print.
