SWEARY PARROT STARS IN EX-BoS HACK’S NEW BOOK OF SHORT STORIES!
A sweary parrot who causes havoc for his loved-up owners is one of the stars of a new book published by a former Bedfordshire on Sunday journalist-turned-author.
Award-winning Mark Stillman, 51, calls his second book, Wartworld And Other Quirky Short Stories, as a highly original collection of 15 short stories that are deliciously dark and horribly humorous.
Wartworld is described as “a mixture of parables and magical realism, adult fairytales and ghost stories with a twist”.
Stillman formerly lived in Bedford, Flitwick and Ampthill worked in virtually every position on the editorial staff during his time at the Bedford office from 1990 to 1994 and continued working on the sports desk until 2005.
He said: “I loved living in Bedford and loved working for BoS chief Frank Branston. So many characters. So many pubs. Happy days!”
His new characters include a sham psychic; a half-boy, half-owl; a superhero fighting low self-esteem issues as well as super-villains; a ventriloquist battling to keep a hold on reality; plus that naughty parrot with Tourette’s Syndrome and a runaway tongue.
One story, Curiosity Killed The Cat – A Story About Time Travel is set in nearby Luton. Another, Fantasy Marjorie, is based in nearby Milton Keynes, Bletchley’s Queensway in particular. It’s about a grieving young man who invents a wickedly funny game that will make bus journeys never seem the same again.
Other stories include The Ghost of Rumpelstiltskin, The Ballerina’s Last Wish, and Alky Eda And The Man With Two Livers.
The Call Of The Spasm – How Panic Attacks Can Ruin Your Life, Bob Bird and Beaver, and Zena: Worrier Princess are also stories featured.
Readers will also find out what saved the life of football legend Graeme Souness.
The publishers say that every story fizzes with pzazz and perception, absurdism and boundless imagination.
Subject matters include racial prejudice, greed, depression, jealousy, bullying in the workplace, madness, resentment between the sexes, and the causes of alcoholism.
Some of the stories are set in Stillman’s adopted Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire, including the Paull village where he now lives.
The Paull story, Alky Eda and The Man With Two Livers, has been described as ‘Shameless meets Gunfight at the OK Corral’.
Stillman, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years’ experience, said: “The story is a celebration of our lovely village, where the people are still human. It’s hopefully a hilarious look at the root causes of alcoholism, a love story and, ultimately, an explosive action thriller.”
Stillman’s many stories for BoS included breaking news of the 1990 Bedford World Cup riot … but only after getting knocked unconscious in the process. Bedfordshire Police subsequently asked him to be a volunteer in the identity parade aimed at singling out his own attacker. Stillman politely declined before explaining why.
• Wartworld And Other Quirky Short Stories is exclusively available through Keep Human Books www.keephumanbooks.co.uk and Amazon
