The tales in Specky Four Eyes are about childhood – but it isn’t a book of funny stories; our early years, as well as being a time of fun, can be a time of pain and confusion – I hope I’ve managed to deal with both the fun and the pain truthfully.
Two of the tales, Hopalong Cassidy and The Fête, appeared many years ago in slightly different versions in a book which has long been out of print, so I have taken them back, dusted them off and hopefully given them new life.
Specky Four Eyes is the first in a collection of six books of tales, each with a separate theme. The first 250 copies of each will be available as a signed, limited edition.
John Manning –
Mike’s a gifted storyteller and these tales from childhood demonstrate that skill to the full. While not autobiographical, they’re informed by a childhood spent in the forties and fifties – a (mostly) post-war childhood of games among ruins, told with a grazing Northern grittiness.
Don’t come to the book looking for the humour of Mike the Stand-up: while there is humour, there’s also an unexpected darkness born of that age, elements that perhaps led Mike to find relief in humour later in life (I’m guessing!): Catholic priests, scoutmasters, schoolteachers, even millpond keepers are the embodiment of that darkness that gives each of the book’s stories a gripping edge.