Books, Poetry & Prose: [29] My Favourite Writers: Louis de Bernières



Books, Poetry & Prose

Samples of my very own Poetry and Short Stories, and one or two not so short stories, as well as my thoughts on Books, Writing, Life and the Universe.

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I was born in Motherwell, an industrial town in Scotland. I have lived in various parts of the world, including Edinburgh, London, New York, Seattle and now Australia's Gold Coast Hinterland where I have settled with my Australian wife Kerrianne. If you are into Books, Literature and Writing, welcome to my weblog. If not, welcome anyway.

  • [72]The Politics of Ignorance and Fear
  • [71]What Celtic Means To Me
  • [70]Aussie Cave Man
  • [69]No Shit
  • [68]Smoking Damages Your Brain
  • [67]Whatever Happened To Private Grief?
  • [66]A Lucrative Enterprise?
  • [65]To A Fart
  • [64]Scotland's Shame
  • [63]Bank Aid
  • [62]It's A Girl Thing
  • [61]The Kids Are Alright
  • [60]Return to Sender
  • [59]Gender Poetry
  • [58]Humour for Wordsmiths
  • [57]The Gold Coast
  • [56]A Glasgow Dynasty : Part 6 - Erchie's First Sale
  • [55]I Haven't Lived
  • [54]A Glasgow Dynasty: Part 5 - Slappin' a Polis
  • [53]A Glasgow Dynasty: Part 4 - Pissin' up a Close
  • [52]The God Delusion
  • [51]Maternal Advice
  • [50]A Glasgow Dynasty: Part 3 - Broken Biscuits
  • [49]A Killing Kindness
  • [48]A Glasgow Dynasty: Part 2 - Pissin' in the Sink
  • [47]A Glasgow Dynasty: Part 1 - The Man Fae The TV Licence
  • [46]A Slap on the Face
  • [45]How Did We Survive?
  • [44]The Black Hole
  • [43]Buried Alive
  • [42]The World Cup
  • [41]In the Movies...
  • [40]My Favourite Writers: James Kelman
  • [39]Vital Football
  • [38]My Favourite Beer
  • [37]The Dream
  • [36]Comb For Sale
  • [35]McNulty's Law
  • [34]Beware of the Dog
  • [33]The Substitute: An Extract from my Novel
  • [32]Books That Became Films
  • [31]Tall Boys and Wide Girls
  • [30]My First Novel: The Substitute
  • [29]My Favourite Writers: Louis de Bernières
  • [28]My 25 Favourite Films
  • [27]Decisions Decisions
  • [26]Devil's Desire
  • [25]Pain or Pleasure
  • [24]Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings
  • [23]No More Tears
  • [22]Dame Muriel Spark 1918-2006
  • [21]10 Things I Miss About Scotland
  • [20]Little Red Riding Hood
  • [19]Natural Bridge
  • [18]Journey to Nowhere
  • [17]Westminster Man
  • [16]My 25 Favourite Albums
  • [15]Bless Me Father
  • [14]Overdrawn
  • [13]I've had it with Born-Again Christians
  • [12]Moonwalking
  • [11]My 25 Favourite Books
  • [10]Heroes and Sinners
  • [09]Thinking of Kerry
  • [08]An American Dream
  • [07]Never Again
  • [06]Under A Bridge
  • [05]Deep-Fried Madness
  • [04]Man in a Bookshop
  • [03]Was There A Time?
  • [02]The Executioner
  • [01]Will I Know Her?
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    "Nobody is perfect, but if you strive for perfection, you will never descend to mediocrity."


    Kerrianne



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    [29] My Favourite Writers: Louis de Bernières

    "Louis de Bernières is in the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh ... he has only to look into his world, one senses, for it to rush into reality, colours and touch and taste." A.S. BYATT

    Louis de Bernières was born in London in 1954. Following a brief stint in the Army, based at Sandhurst, he attended Manchester’s Victoria University. He then gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Leicester Polytechnic and went on to receive his MA at the University of London.

    Prior to becoming a writer, he held down a variety of occupations from landscape gardener to motorcycle messenger to car mechanic. He eventually moved to Colombia to take up a position teaching English and French. This experience was the inspiration for his first three novels, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (1990), Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord (1991) and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman (1992). The trilogy is greatly influenced by South American literature, particularly 'magic realism'.

    In 1993, he was voted one of the 20 best young British novelists by Granta magazine. His fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was published in 1994, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best Book) and being shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year award. Set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Second World War, the novel tells the story of a love affair between the daughter of a local doctor and an Italian soldier. It has become a worldwide bestseller and has now been translated into 11 languages. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 2001, and the novel has also been adapted for the stage. 2001 saw the publication of Red Dog, a humorous, melancholic and uplifting novel inspired by a statue of a dog encountered on a trip to a writers' festival in Australia in 1998.

    Louis de Bernières wrote the introduction to The Book of Job, one of a series of books reprinted from the Bible and published individually by Canongate Press in 1998. This was followed by a play, Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999, and subsequently published in 2001. His latest novel, Birds Without Wings (2004), was shortlisted for the 2004 Whitbread Novel Award and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book).

    Bibliography:

    The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts Secker & Warburg, 1990
    Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord Secker & Warburg, 1991
    The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman Secker & Warburg, 1992
    Captain Corelli's Mandolin Secker & Warburg, 1994
    Labels One Horse Press, 1997
    The Book of Job (Introduction) Canongate Press, 1998
    Red Dog Secker & Warburg, 2001
    Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World (Play) Vintage, 2001
    Birds Without Wings Secker & Warburg, 2004

    Louis de Bernières is a very entertaining and versatile writer. Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a wonderful novel which made me laugh and cry and rage at different times throughout. The writing is beautiful and inspiring and takes the reader on an almost seamless rollercoaster of emotions. His descriptive prose brings the music of the book to life and his characterisations are flawless and utterly compelling. A truly wonderful journey for the reader, and one of my top 10 favourite novels.

    His South American trilogy dabbles in the murky world of the Colombian drug cartels and political and police corruption, all mixed with Latin-American mysticism. It took a European reader like myself a bit of time to become accustomed to the style of writing, but when I got into step, it was a worthwhile exercise. The imagery is well-crafted and carries the reader on a journey of discovery and intrigue, complemented by clever yet simple plots and sub plots. The use of humour and irony to expose the futility of religious zeal is a joy.

    Red Dog is the story of a stray dog which is adopted by the people of the mining communities around Fremantle in Western Australia. It reminded me of Greyfriar’s Bobby in many ways as, like the famous Edinburgh collie, Red Dog has a statue dedicated to him in the area where he lived and died. The novel is peppered with hilarious and heartrending anecdotes, described in typical de Bernières style.

    Birds Without Wings, his latest offering, is another beautiful piece of work. Set against the background of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, the Gallipoli campaign and the subsequent conflicts between the Greeks and the Turks, the story centres round the fortunes of a small town in south-west Anatolia, where Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have co-existed peacefully over the centuries. It is a story of a people torn apart by love and war, hunger and genocide.

    7 Comments:

    Blogger DonkeyBlog said...

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    Blogger DonkeyBlog said...

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    Blogger DonkeyBlog said...

    Hey Mr McLoughlin,

    I came across your Blog through searching for like-minded LdeB fans ... I never expected to find such an accomplished fan, however. But, seeing as though you're here, I'd like to ask your opinion on something.

    The Don Emmanuel Trilogy is the most exciting thing to have happened to me in books for a very long time - and by the time Birds w/o Wings came along, I devoured it in days and am always waiting for Mr de Bernieres to publish something else.

    While waiting for that, I stumbled across Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, and now I have found someone (You) who may be able to help me with a bit of a conundrum. So here we go;

    The material in Marquez and LdeB's trilogy is so similar, that I wonder if
    a) it is a reflection of the beliefs and practices of people from that part of the world,
    b) de Bernieres is paying tribute to Marquez, or
    c) ... well, you know what c) would be, and I don't really want to think about that.

    So, what do you think? I would love to hear what you and others might think.

     
    Blogger DonkeyBlog said...

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