Cliff James's Blog - Posts Tagged "cliff-james"

Hey there,
There's a lovely big shout-out for Life As A Kite, my new travelogue book, in the latest newsletter from The Freethinker!
The article questions Prince Charle's friendship with the abusive Bishop Peter Ball, which is one of the key themes of Life As A Kite. Here's an excerpt from the article - the link to the piece can be found at the end of this blog:

"Cadiz-based Cliff James, pictured right with his Spanish partner Alvaro Gallegos, contacted me this week to tell me that he has a book coming out next month entitled Life as a Kite. It will contain some details of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Ball; the stressful process of having to relive that abuse when he gave evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), and the compensation he received from the Diocese of Chichester.

The money awarded to Cliff enabled him to travel extensively, but he did not return to the UK because of the rising intolerance and xenophobia unleashed by Brexit. Instead he took out Irish citizenship and settled in the Spanish city of Cadiz, where he met Alvaro, who is also a writer and he settled down to write Life of a Kite.

The back cover of the book says:

"The world feels increasingly volatile and polarised. Millions of people are displaced or alienated by abuses of power. Our lives are cluttered, stressful and unsatisfying. Our sense of who we are and where we belong is more fragile than ever.

"Following political and personal upheaval at home, Cliff James emigrated from his native England and travelled the globe in search of an ideal society. In his quest for Utopia, he sought enlightenment in Himalayan temples, joined ecological and peace projects in Israel and Palestine, and served at refugee camps and organic farms from Europe to Asia, Australia and South America.

"Against a backdrop of global instability, he depicts the intricacies of daily life around the world, the challenges of social and environmental injustice, and the resilience of the human spirit. Life As A Kite is a philosophical as much as a geographical journey, a personal narrative of loss and hope, and a manifesto for a future without frontiers."

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefree...

Cliff James is appearing in a new BBC Two documentary about surviving abuse in the Church of England. The documentary reveals the truth about Bishop Peter Ball, the former Bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester, and how members of the Establishment, including former Archbishop George Carey, we're implicated in a cover-up. The documentary also reveals how Peter Ball's close friend, Prince Charles, provided the disgraced bishop with a grace-and-favour house and promised to "see off" his victims.
The two-part documentary is broadcast at 9pm on 13 and 14 January on BBC Two.
The subject matter of this documentary is a central theme in Cliff's new book, Life As A Kite: a true story of Cliff's journey to find closure and lay the past to rest.
A Telegraph review of the documentary can be found here:
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-da...

A new video reading by the author Cliff James from the Epilogue of his new book Life As A Kite. In this excerpt, Cliff recounts how he heard about the death of Bishop Peter Ball on World Humanist Day.
https://youtu.be/EPBOMHKSS8M

Delighted to find a lengthy article in the Brighton Argus newspaper about the new book, Life As A Kite. The article also provides a sensitive write-up about the abuse perpetrated by Bishop Peter Ball, as disclosed in the BBC Two documentary "Exposed: The Church's Dark Secret". The link to the article is below-
Thanks Brighton Argus!

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18157...

Decent article in The Guardian today about a main theme of the book Life As A Kite: the abuse of Bishop Peter Ball:

"Cliff James said Ball boasted of his connections. “He kept mentioning his friendship with Prince Charles in a flippant way, [as] anyone would talk about a friend – but he’s talking about Prince Charles,” he said.

“Here he was having a friendship with someone as low down as me … The next minute he’s dropping into the conversation, ‘oh, he’s counsellor to royalty’. It just reinforced his specialness and the idea he was impregnable.”
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

The Kindly OnesCliff JamesAt last, it's out! The new novel by Cliff James, The Kindly Ones, is now available to buy from the publisher, Lethe Press (follow the link below), and Amazon. It should soon be available from all bookstores including your local bookshop. ISBN 9781590216903

Here's what they're saying about it...

"... the narrative raises pressing philosophical questions about ethics and altruism while conjuring fascinating characters and an eerie setting." - ​Publishers Weekly

"[A] post-apocalyptic, queer-spiced thrill" - Patrick Gale

"Cliff James is a rising star of contemporary British literature celebrated for his exquisitely observed characters & beautifully weaved, nuanced story-telling.
The Kindly Ones is a story for an extinction rebellion era set at the edge of extinction. It's about homelessness, displacement, shelter & survival. It's about growing up where death looms daily. It's about human compassion & religious ridiculousness. It's about acquired family & family bound by blood & faith. It's about intimacy, tenderness & humour and it's about disorientation, discomfort & despair. It's about fragility & resilience. It's about slavery & injustice & violence. And within the chaos & destruction blooms love." (Andy Taylor, Voices of Awareness)

To order a copy, follow this link to the Lethe Press website: https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store...The Kindly Ones

For the launch of the new book The Kindly Ones, Cliff James got to talk with the brilliant Andy Taylor on the Voices of Awareness podcast.
The Kindly Ones
The podcast is available on Spotify now... Here's the link:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qdP...

"‘Natural justice is to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another,’ Rhea read aloud. It was such a pithy formulation that she wondered whether it could really be that simple, if that were all there was to it. She had harmed a man once, sharply, bloodily, in the back without seeing his face, and she had done it to prevent him from harming Francesca. When she thought about it now, that terrible night in the last house, she knew she had only done what was necessary. And she would not hesitate to do it again to prevent anyone from harming her girls or the boy, her true kin. It had not been revenge, not an eye for an eye, but she still felt that it had tainted her, spoiled her forever. She hated the man for that: not just for what he would have done to Francesca but for what he had driven her to do, in effect for what he had done to her. She read the consoling sentence again. To prevent one from harming another, that is justice. She sighed and put the book down. That would have to do for an answer today..."

It's out! The Kindly OnesThe Kindly Ones is now available from the Lethe Press website, from Amazon, and very soon to order from all good bokshops (ISBN 9781590216903).
* If you want to read the book, you can say so on The Kindly Ones page on Goodreads. Simply visit the following page and click "Want To Read" - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
* Once you've read the book, you can tell the world whatever you thought of it by adding a quick review on the same Goodreads page!
* If you want to go one step further and tell your friends about The Kindly Ones, feel free to share these posts 😁

Now that his new, dystopian novel The Kindly Ones is available to buy, Cliff James reads an extract from Chapter Two of the novel - video on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/UnNZHEz3uOE

The Kindly Ones
Cliff James