Just A Bit Touched

Just A Bit Touched: Tales of  Perspective.      

Tales by ROY HOLLAND                                                                   

Publisher: Writers Club Press      ISBN: 0-595-15874-9    
UK Price: £6.84                       US Price: $9.95

                                        
                                                          

What is peculiar to Roy Holland's vision as a literary artist is that so many of the characters or the people he portrays in his short stories seem to be a bit touched.

Click here to read 'The Face' from Just a Bit Touched.

The title for this volume was suggested by a remark of the narrator in the opening paragraph of the first story, ‘The Arcadian’: “They’re just a bit touched, bonkers-like.”

In a sense, what is peculiar to Roy Holland’s vision as an artist is that so many of the characters or the people he portrays seem to be a bit touched. That’s why, of course, his tales are so colourful and absorbing, if not amusing.

Furthermore, each tale is touched by its own perspective, since each reflects the point of view of its unique narrator. So often the England of the Thirties or Forties are seen through the eyes of a child so that, Dickens-like, the foibles and characteristics of the adult world seem larger than life. These early stories are interesting, too, for the historical perspective they give us — of an Andy Capp industrial society long since gone. There are other stories written from the perspective of the Fifties: the two stories dealing with motor cars (‘The Efelant’ and ‘Egging-on’) add a more amusing perspective — of a time when petrol was dear and neighbours more than a bit touched by curiosity! The stories written in Africa with its latent social change — ‘Victims,’ for instance — add a more violent perspective, though hilarity is introduced by the expatriot (in ‘It Was A Very Sad Case’) who seems more than a bit touched by his paranoia.

A dimension of fantasy is introduced by the imaginative perspective of ‘Cyber Island’ — an anti-utopian tale that uncomfortably reminds us of the illusionary implications of our modern technological world with its ready substitution of real values with virtual reality.

Whatever their perspective, these tales provide excellent reading and thoughtful reflection.

Click here to read 'The Face' from Just a Bit Touched.

Other short story collections by Roy Holland:

                          

Contact the author by email:  roy@royholland.fsnet.co.uk

Roy Holland

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