Review by Avril Scott.
Occult, comedy, horror
The Colonel and the Phallus of Incomplete Mortality begins in a deceased artist’s studio in Italy. His girlfriend, a tough, determined young woman ironically named Pansy, is tasked with carrying out his instructions regarding the disposal of certain of his artworks listed in a notebook. The story then moves to Little Shapping, a town in the North of England where a bronze statue of a phallus with undefined mystical properties is to be retrieved from a communal garden and destroyed. There is also a Mafia type conspiracy of cats, an occult theme of ‘Parvadeus’ who are presumably supernatural beings, a suggestion of grave robbing, numerous cases of animal possession and a psychopathic villain named Domino who has a taste for gratuitous murder. There is a surprise cameo appearance by Queen Victoria and a strong sexual theme throughout – two statements not usually found in the same sentence. There is also an influx of marauding sheep who sweep through the town causing untold damage and injury.
The action is non-stop, a frantic mix of under (and over) age sex, murder and mayhem. The descriptions of the animals are particularly poignant; we get inside their heads and see the world from the perspective of a dog, bird, mouse etc. There is a hint of Tom Sharpe’s use of madcap uncontrolled violence and Douglas Adam’s construction of a fantasy world. However the various story lines struggle to connect and the narrative loses direction from time to time. Nevertheless, Vicky Ellis writes in a fearless and uninhibited style, plunging her characters into jeopardy without hesitation. The Colonel and the Phallus of Incomplete Mortality is an invigorating romp through the deranged, homicidal happenings in a Northern town over a few memorable days.
~
The Colonel and the Phallus of Incomplete Mortality by Vicky Ellis is available in Kindle e-book and paperback from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Are-What-Fondle-ebook/dp/B0052EQWRY/
~
Vicky Ellis is a poet and novelist from Blackpool. She is a member of the Blackpool Dead Good Poets’ Society and is a regular blogger on their Dead Good Blog. The Dead Good Poets’ Society will be guests at Word Soup on 26th January 2012.Vicky also writes reviews and interviews, and her interview with performer storyteller Nick Hennessey can be found on the LWH website <a href=http://www.lancashirewritinghub.co.uk/2011/12/interview-with-nick-hennessey-by-vicky-ellis/>here</a>.
~
Avril Scott has had a short monologue, Letters for Emily, performed on BBC Radio North, and has had work accepted on Natterjack, About Writing and the Lancashire Writing Hub, and 4 pieces of her work have been published in the Lancashire Record Office 2009 project ‘Milk and Martha Proctor’. She has performed her work on Radio Blackburn and at Lancaster Litfest, won the Lancashire Writing Hub Your Writing #3 Competition with her poem Do You See Me? and was the winner of the Edge Hill MA Short Story competition 2011 with her story The Limitless Possibilities of Life. http://hyperwriterathome.blogspot.com/