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A Funeral for an Owl
New Fiction from the award-winning author of Half-Truths and White Lies
What kind of a boy would it take to convince two high school teachers to risk their careers?
Let me tell you what I’m willin’ to do for you. We start a new gang. Very exclusive. You and me.
Times have changed since Jim Stevens chose to teach. Protocol designed to protect children now makes all pupil/teacher relationships taboo - even those that might benefit a student.
Promise me one thing, Sir. If you decide you gotta pick up that phone, you tell me first so that I can disappear myself. Because I ain’t havin’ none of that.
What kind of boy would cause Jim to risk his career? A boy who can clothe a word in sarcasm; disguise disdain with respect. So what is it that Jim finds he has in common with 14-year-old Shamayal Thomas as they study a large framed photograph of an owl? Aimee White’s owl, to be specific.
The wings, all spread out and that? They’re kind of like an angel’s.
A rule-keeper, Ayisha Emmanuelle believes the best way to avoid trouble is by walking away. But, arriving on the scene of what appears to be a playground fight, that isn’t an option. To her horror she finds her colleague Jim Stevens has been stabbed. In the messy aftermath, when Shamayal discloses that he and Jim are friends, Ayisha’s first duty is to report her colleague. But, not knowing if he will pull through, something makes her hesitate. Now, all she can do is wait to see if her instinct was justified.
What kind of a boy would it take to convince two high school teachers to risk their careers?
Let me tell you what I’m willin’ to do for you. We start a new gang. Very exclusive. You and me.
Times have changed since Jim Stevens chose to teach. Protocol designed to protect children now makes all pupil/teacher relationships taboo - even those that might benefit a student.
Promise me one thing, Sir. If you decide you gotta pick up that phone, you tell me first so that I can disappear myself. Because I ain’t havin’ none of that.
What kind of boy would cause Jim to risk his career? A boy who can clothe a word in sarcasm; disguise disdain with respect. So what is it that Jim finds he has in common with 14-year-old Shamayal Thomas as they study a large framed photograph of an owl? Aimee White’s owl, to be specific.
The wings, all spread out and that? They’re kind of like an angel’s.
A rule-keeper, Ayisha Emmanuelle believes the best way to avoid trouble is by walking away. But, arriving on the scene of what appears to be a playground fight, that isn’t an option. To her horror she finds her colleague Jim Stevens has been stabbed. In the messy aftermath, when Shamayal discloses that he and Jim are friends, Ayisha’s first duty is to report her colleague. But, not knowing if he will pull through, something makes her hesitate. Now, all she can do is wait to see if her instinct was justified.
410 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2012
114 people are currently reading
600 people want to read
About the author
Jane Davis
14 books160 followersHailed by The Bookseller as 'One to Watch', Jane Davis writes thought-provoking page-turners, exploring a diverse range of subjects, from pioneering female photographers to relatives seeking justice for the victims of a fictional disaster. Interested in how people behave under pressure, Jane introduces her characters when they're in highly volatile situations and then, in her words, throws them to the lions. Expect complex relationships, meaty moral dilemmas and a scattering of dark family secrets!
Her first novel, 'Half-Truths and White Lies', won a national award established by Transworld with the aim of finding the next Joanne Harris. Further recognition followed in 2016 with 'An Unknown Woman' being named Writing Magazine's Self-Published Book of the Year as well as being shortlisted in the IAN Awards. In 2019 'Smash all the Windows', won the inaugural Selfies Book Award. Her novel, 'At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock' was featured by The Lady Magazine as one of their favourite books set in the 1950s and was a Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice.
Jane lives in Surrey, in what was originally the ticket office for a Victorian pleasure garden, known locally as 'the gingerbread house'. Her house frequently crops up in her fiction. In fact, she burnt it to the ground in the opening chapter of 'An Unknown Woman'. Her latest release, 'Small Eden', is a fictionalized account of why one man chose to open a small-scale pleasure garden at a time when London's great pleasure gardens were facing bankruptcy.
When she isn't writing, you may spot Jane disappearing up the side of a mountain with a camera in hand.
Find out more about Jane at:
Website:jane-davis.co.uk
Get a FREEcopy of her time-slip, photography-themed eBook, I Stopped Time, when you signup to her mailing list at jane-davis.co.uk/newsletter
Her first novel, 'Half-Truths and White Lies', won a national award established by Transworld with the aim of finding the next Joanne Harris. Further recognition followed in 2016 with 'An Unknown Woman' being named Writing Magazine's Self-Published Book of the Year as well as being shortlisted in the IAN Awards. In 2019 'Smash all the Windows', won the inaugural Selfies Book Award. Her novel, 'At the Stroke of Nine O'Clock' was featured by The Lady Magazine as one of their favourite books set in the 1950s and was a Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice.
Jane lives in Surrey, in what was originally the ticket office for a Victorian pleasure garden, known locally as 'the gingerbread house'. Her house frequently crops up in her fiction. In fact, she burnt it to the ground in the opening chapter of 'An Unknown Woman'. Her latest release, 'Small Eden', is a fictionalized account of why one man chose to open a small-scale pleasure garden at a time when London's great pleasure gardens were facing bankruptcy.
When she isn't writing, you may spot Jane disappearing up the side of a mountain with a camera in hand.
Find out more about Jane at:
Website:jane-davis.co.uk
Get a FREEcopy of her time-slip, photography-themed eBook, I Stopped Time, when you signup to her mailing list at jane-davis.co.uk/newsletter
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
September 29, 2021
This was a tough one to review. I’m still at a loss about where to begin. My usual “Nutshell” summation escapes me. So I’ll just start by saying: I LOVED this book, but it is not for everyone. Read on to see if this book will work for you.
Story:
The book starts with Jim’s stabbing. But if you think that takes precedence over everything else in the narrative, you have it wrong. The stabbing is incidental to the main plot. This book isn’t a crime investigation; it is to know how the horrifying incident affected the lives of the people mentioned above. This is a book you read not for thrills or action or adventure. This is a book to be read for its characters.
What a well-rounded effort by the author in bringing those characters to life! The individual character voices are written so distinctly that you are left in no doubt of their personality and the reasons behind their actions at any point during the story. Each character is as real as you can get, with imperfections and internal conflicts. Each is trying to figure out the others beyond the façade that they put on for the world. All three main characters are survivors in their own way. Their past environment moulded them into who they are in the present, and each of them is a testimony to how nature and nurture work in shaping personalities. I must mention two secondary characters who don’t appear much in the story but who will still make their presence felt: Ayisha’s mother and the vagrant Bins. In fact, Bins will probably enter my list of all-time favourite secondary characters in a book.
If you are the kind of reader who wants action on every page, this book won’t work for you. It is a literary fiction, so it’s obviously not for everyone, and it must be picked up in the right mood. It proceeds at its pace, it focusses more on the people than the plot progression, and yet, the narrative moves forward steadily. I was mesmerised by the story, the writing and most of all, the three main characters. I was initially confused about why Ayisha viewed Jim’s closeness with Shamayal as a problem, but the story suggests that personal connections between teachers and students are strictly barred in the UK. Once you get your head around that, her reactions are justifiable.
The title has a significant role to play in the plot, but I don’t want to reveal the connection here. Just know that it refers to a key turning point in the story.
The sudden and unexpected ending left me feeling deprived. I wanted more, I wanted to know what happened next! It was like being taken to a high point and left there to survive on your own. That’s the reason I didn’t review the book immediately. I wanted to process my feelings for it. Now, almost a day later, I realise that the book ended at just the right point. Events in life don’t always tie themselves in neat, resolved packages; why must books? The characters are still in my mind a day later; isn’t that the mark of a great story? At the same time, I can see how the ending can disgruntle many readers. So if you do pick it up, consider yourself warned.
To sum up, this is not your typical run-of-the-mill novel, it's a well-written character study that includes a commentary on society and its prejudices. If you ever want to read a book to know how characters ought to be sketched, please give this a try. Much recommended for literary fiction readers.
4.5 stars from me.
I heard the audiobook with the three main characters narrated by Alix Dunmore, Alix Dunmore and Alix Dunmore and the secondary characters voiced by Alix Dunmore. Does that give you a clue of how impressed I was with her narration? What a performance! Every accent, spot on. Every individual character, distinct. Every dialogue delivery, perfect. I would have loved the book even if I were reading it. (I’m absolutely sure of this; I love well-written and realistic characters.) But she took the book even further with her narration. Not once did I have to rewind in the 10 hrs 18 min long audiobook. (And this hardly ever happens! The “loop back 30 seconds” is the second most used button on my app, after the Play/Pause button.) Of course, if you get confused with multiple timelines and multiple character perspectives, it might make more sense to read the book than to hear it. As far as I’m concerned, either method would work just fine for this story.
Thank you, Saga Egmont Audio and NetGalley, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
Story:
The story comes to us from multiple perspectives and over multiple timelines.
Ayisha, July 2010 onwards – A high school teacher, the story begins with her discovering that one of her colleagues, Jim Stevens, has been stabbed in broad daylight in the school grounds. There’s a big group of stunned students surrounding him, but no one wants to confess what happened. Ayisha chooses Shamayal, one of the students, to assist her in providing first aid to Jim until medical assistance arrives. But when she later discovers that Shamayal and Jim are friends, she wonders if she should report her colleague to the educational authorities. Why does she hesitate? What makes her, a strict rule-abider, go against her fundamental nature in order to help Jim and Shamayal?
Shamayal, April 2010 onwards – At fourteen, Shamayal is living his life on his own. His mother has long abandoned him, and his father, with whom he resides, has more interest in alcohol and women than in his son. When his history teacher Jim spots him wandering the streets in the bleak hours of the night, Jim realises that he may have many things in common with this lad who wears a brave mask to cover his struggles. But will Shamayal accept his teacher’s support when he wants to be seen as independent?
Jim, 1990 and 2010 – Jim has had a difficult childhood, with only his mother as a constant, loving presence. His father and his brother are criminals and walk in and out of his life. When he discovers Aimee, he feels a kinship with her as she too seems to have family struggles. While they indulge together in Jim’s favourite hobby of bird-watching, their friendship becomes stronger. But soon something happens that casts a shadow over their lives. Will their friendship recover? Can a boy and a girl have a perfectly platonic friendship without anyone spoiling it for them? In 2010, Jim is struggling to recover from the stabbing. But he realises that the problem is far from over as the culprit is still out there. How will his life be upturned by this unexpected incident?
The book starts with Jim’s stabbing. But if you think that takes precedence over everything else in the narrative, you have it wrong. The stabbing is incidental to the main plot. This book isn’t a crime investigation; it is to know how the horrifying incident affected the lives of the people mentioned above. This is a book you read not for thrills or action or adventure. This is a book to be read for its characters.
What a well-rounded effort by the author in bringing those characters to life! The individual character voices are written so distinctly that you are left in no doubt of their personality and the reasons behind their actions at any point during the story. Each character is as real as you can get, with imperfections and internal conflicts. Each is trying to figure out the others beyond the façade that they put on for the world. All three main characters are survivors in their own way. Their past environment moulded them into who they are in the present, and each of them is a testimony to how nature and nurture work in shaping personalities. I must mention two secondary characters who don’t appear much in the story but who will still make their presence felt: Ayisha’s mother and the vagrant Bins. In fact, Bins will probably enter my list of all-time favourite secondary characters in a book.
If you are the kind of reader who wants action on every page, this book won’t work for you. It is a literary fiction, so it’s obviously not for everyone, and it must be picked up in the right mood. It proceeds at its pace, it focusses more on the people than the plot progression, and yet, the narrative moves forward steadily. I was mesmerised by the story, the writing and most of all, the three main characters. I was initially confused about why Ayisha viewed Jim’s closeness with Shamayal as a problem, but the story suggests that personal connections between teachers and students are strictly barred in the UK. Once you get your head around that, her reactions are justifiable.
The title has a significant role to play in the plot, but I don’t want to reveal the connection here. Just know that it refers to a key turning point in the story.
The sudden and unexpected ending left me feeling deprived. I wanted more, I wanted to know what happened next! It was like being taken to a high point and left there to survive on your own. That’s the reason I didn’t review the book immediately. I wanted to process my feelings for it. Now, almost a day later, I realise that the book ended at just the right point. Events in life don’t always tie themselves in neat, resolved packages; why must books? The characters are still in my mind a day later; isn’t that the mark of a great story? At the same time, I can see how the ending can disgruntle many readers. So if you do pick it up, consider yourself warned.
To sum up, this is not your typical run-of-the-mill novel, it's a well-written character study that includes a commentary on society and its prejudices. If you ever want to read a book to know how characters ought to be sketched, please give this a try. Much recommended for literary fiction readers.
4.5 stars from me.
I heard the audiobook with the three main characters narrated by Alix Dunmore, Alix Dunmore and Alix Dunmore and the secondary characters voiced by Alix Dunmore. Does that give you a clue of how impressed I was with her narration? What a performance! Every accent, spot on. Every individual character, distinct. Every dialogue delivery, perfect. I would have loved the book even if I were reading it. (I’m absolutely sure of this; I love well-written and realistic characters.) But she took the book even further with her narration. Not once did I have to rewind in the 10 hrs 18 min long audiobook. (And this hardly ever happens! The “loop back 30 seconds” is the second most used button on my app, after the Play/Pause button.) Of course, if you get confused with multiple timelines and multiple character perspectives, it might make more sense to read the book than to hear it. As far as I’m concerned, either method would work just fine for this story.
Thank you, Saga Egmont Audio and NetGalley, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
December 21, 2013
I have been priviliged to receive an early edition of Jane's latest book 'A Funeral for an Owl.' I have to say that I found it a very good read, just like her other books.
Jane has a way of writing that sucks you in to the book, feeling for the characters involved and this has definitely not been lost in this book. Your emotions are turned this way and that. Things do not always turn out the way you expect.
There are 4 main characters, Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal. The first two are teachers, the third Jim met in his childhood and the last is a pupil at the school where Jim & Ayisha teach. The story flits between the 1990s, particularly the summer holidays of 1992 when Jim, whilst still a lad, met Aimee; and 2010, as a teacher, was stabbed in the school yard coming between fighting boys. We learn a lot about how Jim took himself out of a very difficult childhood, his relationship with Aimee and how he turned his life around. Shamayal is growing up in really difficult family situation too in 2010 and the book shows how Jim has been trying to watch out for him when the incident happens. Has Jim overstepped the mark? Ayisha is a 'Jobs Worth' teacher who would never dream of breaking any rules but gets caught up with the situation. She then has to start to question her own high moral standards and decide whether she is right or wrong.
I do not want to say anymore about the book as I do not want to spoil it! There are a number of twists and turns in book and could have been a lot longer, but I think Jane has left it where she has to make people consider all consequences of various actions/choices taken. Living in the locality written in the book, I have also learnt some history of the area that I was not aware of, so that was very interesting.
I have read all of Jane's books. I give this book 5 stars and would recommend this to everybody who wants a good, well written book that gets you gripped. If you haven't already read 'These Fragile Things' by Jane Davis, then you have missed an absolute treat and if I could give it 6 stars I would! It is one of the best books I have ever read. I can't wait for another book to be written by Jane Davis! Please let it be soon Jane!
Jane has a way of writing that sucks you in to the book, feeling for the characters involved and this has definitely not been lost in this book. Your emotions are turned this way and that. Things do not always turn out the way you expect.
There are 4 main characters, Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal. The first two are teachers, the third Jim met in his childhood and the last is a pupil at the school where Jim & Ayisha teach. The story flits between the 1990s, particularly the summer holidays of 1992 when Jim, whilst still a lad, met Aimee; and 2010, as a teacher, was stabbed in the school yard coming between fighting boys. We learn a lot about how Jim took himself out of a very difficult childhood, his relationship with Aimee and how he turned his life around. Shamayal is growing up in really difficult family situation too in 2010 and the book shows how Jim has been trying to watch out for him when the incident happens. Has Jim overstepped the mark? Ayisha is a 'Jobs Worth' teacher who would never dream of breaking any rules but gets caught up with the situation. She then has to start to question her own high moral standards and decide whether she is right or wrong.
I do not want to say anymore about the book as I do not want to spoil it! There are a number of twists and turns in book and could have been a lot longer, but I think Jane has left it where she has to make people consider all consequences of various actions/choices taken. Living in the locality written in the book, I have also learnt some history of the area that I was not aware of, so that was very interesting.
I have read all of Jane's books. I give this book 5 stars and would recommend this to everybody who wants a good, well written book that gets you gripped. If you haven't already read 'These Fragile Things' by Jane Davis, then you have missed an absolute treat and if I could give it 6 stars I would! It is one of the best books I have ever read. I can't wait for another book to be written by Jane Davis! Please let it be soon Jane!
October 3, 2021
Told from the perspectives of three people, A Funeral for an Owl begins with a high school teacher, Jim, being stabbed in the playground when attempting to break up a fight. Fellow teacher, Ayesha and 14 year old student Shemayal together save his life...the story then revolves around these characters, how their lives intertwine and how far these two teachers are willing to go to help the troubled teenager. The story jumps from the past and present from Jim's point of view, but I actually enjoyed this aspect, it really helped me to understand the choices he made growing up and the adult he became. Despite the gritty circumstances of the story, there's a lot of humour and warmth in this book, I laughed out loud a few times and I found myself caring for these characters. It's honestly not an easy book to sum up, but I really enjoyed it, it's the kind of story that stays on your mind after the final chapter. Alix Dunmore narrated this perfectly, she made it very easy to tell the characters and timelines apart.
September 27, 2021
A Funeral for an Owl was like having your friend order a cocktail you know you’re going to hate but then you are completely surprised to find out that it’s quite yummy.
I didn’t know what to expect and went in blind. I felt like it started out slow and I was a little confused at first about the time lines, but after that I caught on quite well and really enjoyed it. It had characters I would love to have friendships with and was won over by their past which made them who they were now. The story revealed how vulnerable and lonely we sometimes are and made me want to do better.
This ended up being a very satisfying read and I recommend it.
I choose to listen to this book on audio and was narrated by Alix Dunmore who was very good. This was 10 hours and 18 mins of enjoyable listening.
Thanks Saga Egmont Audio via Netgalley.
I didn’t know what to expect and went in blind. I felt like it started out slow and I was a little confused at first about the time lines, but after that I caught on quite well and really enjoyed it. It had characters I would love to have friendships with and was won over by their past which made them who they were now. The story revealed how vulnerable and lonely we sometimes are and made me want to do better.
This ended up being a very satisfying read and I recommend it.
I choose to listen to this book on audio and was narrated by Alix Dunmore who was very good. This was 10 hours and 18 mins of enjoyable listening.
Thanks Saga Egmont Audio via Netgalley.
November 22, 2013
When a fight starts on school grounds, teacher Ayisha Emmanuel is grateful to see her colleague, Jim Stevens, heading over to break it up. She assumes that he will get the situation under control, and she’ll just need to offer morale support.
If only. When Ayisha makes it to the ring of students, she discovers that Jim has been stabbed. Assisted by one of the students, Shamayal, Ayisha works to save Jim’s life.
The stabbing of Jim Stevens starts Funeral for an Owl, but it is not the beginning of this deep and poignant story that latches past to present. The novel follows Ayisha, Shamayal , adult Jim and his eleven-year-old past self. In the present, Jim slowly recovers while Ayisha discovers that he has been an unofficial mentor to Shamayal, risking his job and reputation to protect and guide the at-risk teen. Teachers in Britain are apparently not allowed to have social contact with students outside of school, and Ayisha finds herself at a growing risk as she keeps Jim’s secret and, with his urging, finds herself also caring for Shamayal.
In the past, readers begin to understand Jim’s connection to Shamayal and his desire to help the teen stay out of trouble. As a boy, Jim lived in the same impoverished apartment complex as Shamayal and struggled with similar circumstances: a broken family, gangs, being an outcast. His refuge became bird watching, and through it, he discovered that even the ugliest places can hide beauty and wonder. He also discovered a young girl name Aimee with frizzy hair and unexplained bruises on her body. Jim’s boyhood friendship with Aimee, and the events that take place during that single summer helped shape the man Jim is today. In many ways that summer still holds onto him like chains to the past that won’t break.
Funeral for an Owl is an absolutely beautiful story, written with an intensity that will suck you into the disparate lives of Jim, Ayisha and Shamayal. Author Jane Davis has an incredible eye for character. She lavishes her considerable talents on developing her main protagonists into vibrant characters, filled with so much depth that you can’t help but intuitively understand them. She humanizes Shamayal despite his crude language and deeply-seeded mistrust as well as Ayisha, who can sometimes come off as a cold-hearted and selfish woman.
Though the story jumps through time, the connections are strong enough to make it all flow in a coherent rush that had me glued to every page. Davis touches on many themes, including the underclass, restraints against teachers, family, and the struggle to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance.
I wish I could end this review with praise, but there were some unfortunate issues that took away from an otherwise stellar achievement from Davis. The narrative is written in past tense but occasionally falters into present tense and then switches back. This happens several times throughout the book. Whether or not the author purposely chose to switch tenses, it feels like an accident and had me stumbling over the text. Additionally, the author occasionally takes us into the past within a chapter, but these interludes are not treated consistently. In one instance, a past episode is italicized, while most others are not. Again, this served to pluck me right out of the story when I so desperately wanted to stay immersed.
Overall, these issues are only minor annoyances in what is otherwise a fantastic character and social study.
(This book was provided to Compulsion Reads for review by the author.)
If only. When Ayisha makes it to the ring of students, she discovers that Jim has been stabbed. Assisted by one of the students, Shamayal, Ayisha works to save Jim’s life.
The stabbing of Jim Stevens starts Funeral for an Owl, but it is not the beginning of this deep and poignant story that latches past to present. The novel follows Ayisha, Shamayal , adult Jim and his eleven-year-old past self. In the present, Jim slowly recovers while Ayisha discovers that he has been an unofficial mentor to Shamayal, risking his job and reputation to protect and guide the at-risk teen. Teachers in Britain are apparently not allowed to have social contact with students outside of school, and Ayisha finds herself at a growing risk as she keeps Jim’s secret and, with his urging, finds herself also caring for Shamayal.
In the past, readers begin to understand Jim’s connection to Shamayal and his desire to help the teen stay out of trouble. As a boy, Jim lived in the same impoverished apartment complex as Shamayal and struggled with similar circumstances: a broken family, gangs, being an outcast. His refuge became bird watching, and through it, he discovered that even the ugliest places can hide beauty and wonder. He also discovered a young girl name Aimee with frizzy hair and unexplained bruises on her body. Jim’s boyhood friendship with Aimee, and the events that take place during that single summer helped shape the man Jim is today. In many ways that summer still holds onto him like chains to the past that won’t break.
Funeral for an Owl is an absolutely beautiful story, written with an intensity that will suck you into the disparate lives of Jim, Ayisha and Shamayal. Author Jane Davis has an incredible eye for character. She lavishes her considerable talents on developing her main protagonists into vibrant characters, filled with so much depth that you can’t help but intuitively understand them. She humanizes Shamayal despite his crude language and deeply-seeded mistrust as well as Ayisha, who can sometimes come off as a cold-hearted and selfish woman.
Though the story jumps through time, the connections are strong enough to make it all flow in a coherent rush that had me glued to every page. Davis touches on many themes, including the underclass, restraints against teachers, family, and the struggle to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance.
I wish I could end this review with praise, but there were some unfortunate issues that took away from an otherwise stellar achievement from Davis. The narrative is written in past tense but occasionally falters into present tense and then switches back. This happens several times throughout the book. Whether or not the author purposely chose to switch tenses, it feels like an accident and had me stumbling over the text. Additionally, the author occasionally takes us into the past within a chapter, but these interludes are not treated consistently. In one instance, a past episode is italicized, while most others are not. Again, this served to pluck me right out of the story when I so desperately wanted to stay immersed.
Overall, these issues are only minor annoyances in what is otherwise a fantastic character and social study.
(This book was provided to Compulsion Reads for review by the author.)
October 26, 2021
I was really excited to receive an advance eAudio arc of this book. The cover alone was enough for me to be keen.
We have two teachers Ayisha and Jim, working at an inner city school where there are some gritty kids, there's a fight one lunchtime and Jim is severely wounded, stabbed. Ayisha's terrible attitude to her first aid training does her no favours, she is pushed aside from her rubbish ministrations by a young student who is very protective of Jim. Shamayal, the student seems to be close to Jim. This doesn't seem right to Ayisha. These 3 are the nucleus around which the story swirls. We weave in and out of their stories.
Jim is a wonderful character, someone who cares deeply for his students because he knows where they come from, he grew up locally in similar circumstances to the young people he teaches. He knows the people in the neighbourhood and he has a heart full of love for these people. We learn his back story, meet his childhood friend Aimee and come to know him very well.
All of this is really not selling this lovely book. It is gentle, it is melancholic and moving. I didn't want it to end, the atmosphere that the author manages to build up had me gripped. So cleverly are the threads pulled together that I had to listen to the end of the book twice to get it. Gah so good!
I shall endeavour to read more books from this author. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this wonderful treat.
We have two teachers Ayisha and Jim, working at an inner city school where there are some gritty kids, there's a fight one lunchtime and Jim is severely wounded, stabbed. Ayisha's terrible attitude to her first aid training does her no favours, she is pushed aside from her rubbish ministrations by a young student who is very protective of Jim. Shamayal, the student seems to be close to Jim. This doesn't seem right to Ayisha. These 3 are the nucleus around which the story swirls. We weave in and out of their stories.
Jim is a wonderful character, someone who cares deeply for his students because he knows where they come from, he grew up locally in similar circumstances to the young people he teaches. He knows the people in the neighbourhood and he has a heart full of love for these people. We learn his back story, meet his childhood friend Aimee and come to know him very well.
All of this is really not selling this lovely book. It is gentle, it is melancholic and moving. I didn't want it to end, the atmosphere that the author manages to build up had me gripped. So cleverly are the threads pulled together that I had to listen to the end of the book twice to get it. Gah so good!
I shall endeavour to read more books from this author. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this wonderful treat.
February 12, 2018
Having previously read another novel by this author, I was keen to read more and A Funeral For An Owl did not disappoint. In fact, it ticked so many boxes for me as a reader that I instantly pre-ordered the author's new book which is out in the Spring, and I will be working my way through her backlist without a doubt. The plot of this book revolves around Jim, a history teacher who is stabbed while trying to protect a pupil at school, his colleague Ayisha who witnesses the attack, and Shamayal, a fourteen-year-old pupil Jim has befriended. Jim helps the boy one rainy night and a friendship grows between them, which is of course, very much against the rules. On the surface, it may seem like Jim and Shamayal have little in common, but it turns out Jim grew up in the same block of flats on the same notorious council estate and suffered many of the same issues Shymayal is dealing with. They even have a friend in common, Bins, a local misfit who knows everyone on the estate by the nick-names he gives them but is unable to recognise faces. With Jim in hospital, Ayisha comes to his aid and discovers the unlikely friendship between him and the boy. At first, she is very disapproving but as the story continues she finds herself drawn deeper into the lives of Jim and Shamayal. This book does an excellent job of weaving the past with the present. In 1992, Jim was a twelve-year-old boy with a penchant for bird-watching. His father is in prison, his older brother has been thrown out, and the estate is rife with danger from gangs. One day, Jim finds a teenage girl in his bird-spotting place. The mysterious Aimee White provides the thread that holds the past and present together. Jim's friendship with her, the funeral for the owl and what happened to her, are things that have haunted Jim throughout his life. The reason this book ticked every box for me was that the plot kept me turning the pages, and the characters kept me there as I became increasingly engrossed in their lives. I wanted to find out what happened to Aimee, I wanted Ayisha and Jim to recognise the attraction between them, and I desperately wanted things to turn out well for Shamayal, who was probably my favourite character. A brilliant book, so well-written and compelling. I highly recommend it and this author!
December 14, 2014
A Funeral for an Owl is a multi-layered story that hooks you from the beginning, and which you don’t want to end.
The author gradually develops the four main characters––Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal––to reveal well-crafted detail of each of their lives.
We first meet Jim in the present day, as a school teacher who is stabbed whilst trying to break up a schoolyard fight. Jim watches out, and risks his job, for Shamayal, a pupil who has a difficult home life. And another teacher, Ayisha––a stickler for the rules that say teachers cannot be friends with students––becomes caught up in the situation and must question her own moral standards.
The story then jumps back to the eleven-year old Jim, who is living in similar conditions to Shamayal, and we learn how Jim battles to better himself and his life, and about how his relationship with Aimee affects his future.
The story slipping between the past and the present, the language and descriptions are stunning, the characters come alive on the page and the storyline holds the reader’s interest right till the end.
A Funeral for an Owl is beautifully written, as are this author’s other books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, and I would highly recommend it for lovers of literary fiction.
The author gradually develops the four main characters––Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal––to reveal well-crafted detail of each of their lives.
We first meet Jim in the present day, as a school teacher who is stabbed whilst trying to break up a schoolyard fight. Jim watches out, and risks his job, for Shamayal, a pupil who has a difficult home life. And another teacher, Ayisha––a stickler for the rules that say teachers cannot be friends with students––becomes caught up in the situation and must question her own moral standards.
The story then jumps back to the eleven-year old Jim, who is living in similar conditions to Shamayal, and we learn how Jim battles to better himself and his life, and about how his relationship with Aimee affects his future.
The story slipping between the past and the present, the language and descriptions are stunning, the characters come alive on the page and the storyline holds the reader’s interest right till the end.
A Funeral for an Owl is beautifully written, as are this author’s other books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, and I would highly recommend it for lovers of literary fiction.
January 14, 2015
A Funeral for an Owl is a multi-layered story that hooks you from the beginning, and which you don’t want to end.
The author gradually develops the four main characters––Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal––to reveal well-crafted detail of each of their lives.
We first meet Jim in the present day, as a school teacher who is stabbed whilst trying to break up a schoolyard fight. Jim watches out, and risks his job, for Shamayal, a pupil who has a difficult home life. And another teacher, Ayisha––a stickler for the rules that say teachers cannot be friends with students––becomes caught up in the situation and must question her own moral standards.
The story then jumps back to the eleven-year old Jim, who is living in similar conditions to Shamayal, and we learn how Jim battles to better himself and his life, and about how his relationship with Aimee affects his future.
The story slipping between the past and the present, the language and descriptions are stunning, the characters come alive on the page and the storyline holds the reader’s interest right till the end.
A Funeral for an Owl is beautifully written, as are this author’s other books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, and I would highly recommend it for lovers of literary fiction.
The author gradually develops the four main characters––Jim, Ayisha, Aimee and Shamayal––to reveal well-crafted detail of each of their lives.
We first meet Jim in the present day, as a school teacher who is stabbed whilst trying to break up a schoolyard fight. Jim watches out, and risks his job, for Shamayal, a pupil who has a difficult home life. And another teacher, Ayisha––a stickler for the rules that say teachers cannot be friends with students––becomes caught up in the situation and must question her own moral standards.
The story then jumps back to the eleven-year old Jim, who is living in similar conditions to Shamayal, and we learn how Jim battles to better himself and his life, and about how his relationship with Aimee affects his future.
The story slipping between the past and the present, the language and descriptions are stunning, the characters come alive on the page and the storyline holds the reader’s interest right till the end.
A Funeral for an Owl is beautifully written, as are this author’s other books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, and I would highly recommend it for lovers of literary fiction.
September 29, 2015
A beautiful book, start to finish. Jane Davis has skilfully woven together past and present, multiple points of view, and a deep interior understanding of several very different characters (both male and female, black-brown-white, young, old, and in-between), whose lives intersect as a result of trauma. She trickles in essential backstory so it's as welcome as the modern story arc, which remains foremost throughout. She writes pain -- both physical and emotional -- with an exquisite reality. London is itself a well-developed character -- much more than a simple setting -- and there are insightful revelations of London's public school system, council housing, multiple street vernaculars, the NHS, and British social services. I learned plenty, too, about birds. But the writing itself and the well-braided story are the reasons for my definite 5-star review.
This is the first novel I've read by Jane Davis, and I'm eager to read more.
This is the first novel I've read by Jane Davis, and I'm eager to read more.
March 17, 2016
A Funeral for an Owl is the first book authored by Jane Davis that I have read. I most certainly want to read any other books written by her. This book was a "page turner" right from the beginning and I could not wait to finish it, but at the same time, I did not want it to end. There were several stories expertly woven together.
This book was freely given to me by BookBub and I rated it 5 stars out of 5.
This book was freely given to me by BookBub and I rated it 5 stars out of 5.
April 18, 2016
Wow. A terrific story with an ending that did not disappoint. I am reminded of the powerful ending to David Mitchell's 95% lame novel, Ghostwritten. Except that, here, the lovely way that final loose end was tied up came at the end of an engrossing story. It seems to have become fashionable these days to always leave one sad tale left behind like a stain in a cupcake tin. So glad Ms. Davis answered the mystery but left us all to ponder it's meaning.
November 20, 2015
I absolutely loved this story. Probably my favourite of all Jane's work. Partly because it is set in a part of the world that is very familiar to me and made it easy to imagine the scenes. But also because the characters are very well drawn, I also liked the back and forth over time aspect which worked very well in this book. All in all a very good read.
November 17, 2021
Thank you to @netgalley @sagaegmont for the ALC in the return for my honest review.
.
My thoughts…
Lyrical. This is my first book from Jane Davis and I quite enjoyed it. I liked her writing style and the vernacular used by some characters. I was engaged while listening to the audiobook. The story was heartfelt and the three different lives intertwined were touching.
.
My thoughts…
Lyrical. This is my first book from Jane Davis and I quite enjoyed it. I liked her writing style and the vernacular used by some characters. I was engaged while listening to the audiobook. The story was heartfelt and the three different lives intertwined were touching.
Read
December 13, 2021‘If you want to laugh and cry and stamp and cheer – all in the space of a few hours of reading – then this book is one for you. Highly recommended.’ Bookmuse
1) For those who are new to your work, how would you best describe your genre?
I write about big subjects and give my characters almost impossible moral dilemmas. I don’t allow them a shred of privacy. I know what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, the lies they tell, their secret fears. But I only meet them at a particular point on their journeys, usually in a highly volatile or unstable situation, and then I throw them to the lions. How people behave under pressure reveals so much about them.
2) Tell us about A Funeral for an Owl – what inspired this book?
Owl started life as the story of thirty-year old Jim recounting the story of his nine-year old self’s friendship with Aimee, a girl from the other side of the tracks. Most of the action took place over a six-week period, the summer holidays. The reader was left in no doubt that Aimee killed herself. One of my colleagues had committed suicide leaving behind two teenage children, and this event and its aftermath were very much on my mind.
Then I asked myself, who Jim is telling his story to? Is he in therapy? Is it one of the doctors who saved his life? The twist was that it was St Peter and that Jim was an atheist. He got a second chance and woke up on the operating table. My agent loved it! She said that we should put it out there immediately.
But Transworld, my then publisher, exercised their right of first refusal. My book lacked a strong female character and I’d been published under their women’s fiction imprint, something that had completely passed me by. And so I set the manuscript aside and got on with writing I Stopped Time and These Fragile Things. But I held onto a soft spot for Jim and his owl story. The material was too good to shelve. And so, when I came to the end of my next project, I began to re-write it.
Unless you want to be pigeon-holed as an author of Christian fiction, you can’t play the religion card twice. Having exhausted this with These Fragile Things, St Peter had to be shown the door. In the meantime, knife crime had risen dramatically in London. My story already had knife crime in it, so I explored where I could take that.
I added two new characters, Ayisha, another teacher and a pupil, Shamayal. By layering his story with Jim’s, I was able to reflect on cause and effect. It was an opportunity to acknowledge the enormous changes I have witnessed over the past twenty or so years. The cultural mix – in my South London middle school there was only one black family. My friends’ children simply cannot understand how we survived without mobile phones in the ‘olden days’ and why there are so few photographs of us. Children and adults were members of different species. Gangs were very different things then. Children didn’t kill children. Today, hearing about gang fights is unavoidable. I read a lot of personal accounts during my research, including one teenage victim who was dumped in a garbage bin and left for dead. Sadly, there are lots of truths in my book.
3) Tell us about your writing process – how does it all come together?
As you can probably tell, I am a layer-er. With the exception of Half-truths and White Lies, which virtually wrote itself, none of my published novels bear any resemblance to their early drafts.
All of my books go through numerous rounds of self-editing before I show them to anyone. Then I use a team of about thirty-five beta readers to road test them. They give me all sorts of valuable insights.
After that comes the structural edit. With A Funeral for an Owl, it was my structural editor – the mother of teenage children – who pointed out that there were some flaws in my initial ‘research’ (or lack of). It was while I was ironing out those issues that I unearthed another major flaw: I had failed to take account of the fact that it’s thirty years since I left school. The behaviour of my teachers would have been illegal under current Child Protection laws. All of the information I needed was available on the local government website, had I realised I needed it. Then it struck me that this provided a huge opportunity. I could change the focus of the novel: what kind of boy would it take to make two teachers put their jobs on the line? And it gave the plot a new momentum.
My angle was the suggestion that some of the rules that have been put in place with the best of intentions – to protect – actually deprive the most vulnerable children of confidential counsel from someone they trust. Not everyone will agree with that view but, when I was growing up, we had a wonderful teacher who operated an open-house and provided a safe place for those who were struggling at home, no questions asked. It was surprising who would turn up at her door. Today, in an environment when any relationship between teachers and pupils outside the classroom is taboo, she would be sacked. I think that’s terribly sad. Fiction provides a unique opportunity to tell one side of a story through the eyes of one or two characters. It’s not the whole picture by any means, but it is one aspect of it.
4) What comes first for you? The characters or the plot?
The characters, always. Get them right and they do the hard work for you.
Nailing the voice of Shamayal, my disenfranchised contemporary teenager was crucial. Can I get this out of the way? I’m white, middle(ish) class and born in the 1960s, writing the voice of an under-privileged mixed race boy, born in the 1990s. The first property I bought was a two-bedroom flat on the High Path Estate in Wimbledon. This was my blueprint for my fictional estate. Although I haven’t walked in his shoes, living where Shamayal grew up, I have walked in his footsteps. Then, I borrowed a few mannerisms from someone I used to work with – the repetition of Right, right, right. The deep laugh. I watched a few episodes of Toy Boy and (tell me if you can get arrested for this) I jotted down conversations overheard on trains and in my local park. Of course, you could never actually transcribe teenagers’ speech patterns. They would be completely unreadable. After you delete all of the ‘likes’ and the majority of expletives, what you aim to arrive at is a sanitised version which still sounds authentic. Think Ronnie Barker’s approach when he wrote the script for Porridge.
It’s a joy to write characters like Shamayal and Bins (an elderly man who is assumed to have learning difficulties) because they have such unique voices. You can hear them speaking to you. It’s far more difficult to write dialogue for an ‘everyman’, like my main character, Jim. To do that, you have to find your character’s quirks and vulnerabilities and exploit the hell out of them.
5) Do you write with a particular theme or message in mind, and if so what might it be?
A Funeral for an Owl shares its central theme with Half-truths and White Lies, I Stopped Time, and to a lesser extent These Fragile Things, that is, the influence missing persons have on our lives. Whether an absent parent, the child who never was, a friend who died an untimely death, the object of our unrequited love who finds a love of his own, or friends we lose touch with, we all collect them, particularly as we get older.
I found myself studying the Missing Persons ads in The Metro, the fourteen and fifteen-year-olds whose stories aren’t sufficiently high-profile to land them on the pages of newspapers. They’re simply slipping between the cracks. And so I looked into the facts. At that time, one in ten children ‘ran away’ from home before they reach the age of sixteen, an estimated 100,000 every year. Shockingly, a quarter of those young people are actually forced out of their homes by parents or carers. Two-thirds aren’t even reported as missing. That’s 75,000 children for whom a Missing Persons ad will never be placed. All of these children are highly vulnerable, at risk of substance abuse, sexual exploitation and homelessness. Mobile phones and social networking sites have made it even easier to target them. I include a particularly poignant quote from Lady Catherine Meye at the beginning of my novel. “We can't establish for certain how many children are missing. You'd have more chance of finding a stray dog.”
5) Do you find it hard to say goodbye to your characters? And if so, which character from A Funeral for an Owl would you like to revisit the most?
The truth is that I’ve never actually said goodbye to the characters in Owl. I’ve blurred the lines between my lives and theirs by including some of my personal history and setting their stories in my local neighbourhood. There’s something transportative about living in the same area all of your life; walking around familiar geography, knee-deep in the history of the place. And superimposed over a street map carried both inside and outside your head (the housing estate that now stands on the site of your old high school), are important milestones. When you learned to ride a bike. Your first kiss. The first flat you owned. But when I started setting fiction within my personal geography, I added an additional strata. Now when I walk in my local park, I see Jim pausing to stretch on his daily run. I see Aimee showing him the heron. We live with our characters so long that they’re kin to us. In a way, we know them better than friends and family, because we’ve seen through their eyes and know their every thought.
But you asked about my favourite character in Owl and that has to be Bins. Some readers assumed he was autistic, but that wasn’t my intention. I suffered from depression for many years and, in an age when suicide statistics speak for themselves, I enjoy celebrating people who’ve found their own ways of living. In my local town we have a wizard who walks the length of the high street in his full regalia, complete with a black cat on his shoulder; we have a very masculine-looking Scotsman who wears a very badly-fitting cotton floral dress; we have a man who goes about with a tank strapped to his back spraying the air, and a young chap who stands on street corners conducting the traffic, and singing hymns at the top of his voice. These are all logical responses to an insane world. Small communities – and children in particular – accommodate people who don’t fall into our narrow definition of what’s ‘normal’. It was only when watching a programme about the artist Chuck Close that I became aware of the condition Prosopagnosia, or ‘face blindness’, and appreciated how someone who didn’t appear to recognise people he’d met dozens of times before might be treated as if he was stupid, and if he was treated as if he was stupid, how he might eventually come to believe that.
‘A multi-layered story that hooks you from the beginning.’ Liza Perrat, Author
‘An incredible eye for character.’ Compulsion Reads
‘Jane Davis has the insight and sensitivity of a great writer.’ Awesome Indies
‘Jane reminds me of Margaret Atwood, in that all her books are very different and seem to be written in different voices. The quality and readability is consistent in all her works and I would heartily recommend this grittier tale of modern urban living.’ Peter Snell, Bookseller
‘Everything about this novel surprised me – from the title to the final page it was a joy.’ Gillian Hamer
‘Every once in awhile you read a book that really makes you stop and think about the relationships people have with other people or family members that shapes their whole future. I believe that this is one of those books.’ Theresa
‘Don’t you just live a book which has you gripped from the first sentence?’ Lisbeth
1) For those who are new to your work, how would you best describe your genre?
I write about big subjects and give my characters almost impossible moral dilemmas. I don’t allow them a shred of privacy. I know what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling, the lies they tell, their secret fears. But I only meet them at a particular point on their journeys, usually in a highly volatile or unstable situation, and then I throw them to the lions. How people behave under pressure reveals so much about them.
2) Tell us about A Funeral for an Owl – what inspired this book?
Owl started life as the story of thirty-year old Jim recounting the story of his nine-year old self’s friendship with Aimee, a girl from the other side of the tracks. Most of the action took place over a six-week period, the summer holidays. The reader was left in no doubt that Aimee killed herself. One of my colleagues had committed suicide leaving behind two teenage children, and this event and its aftermath were very much on my mind.
Then I asked myself, who Jim is telling his story to? Is he in therapy? Is it one of the doctors who saved his life? The twist was that it was St Peter and that Jim was an atheist. He got a second chance and woke up on the operating table. My agent loved it! She said that we should put it out there immediately.
But Transworld, my then publisher, exercised their right of first refusal. My book lacked a strong female character and I’d been published under their women’s fiction imprint, something that had completely passed me by. And so I set the manuscript aside and got on with writing I Stopped Time and These Fragile Things. But I held onto a soft spot for Jim and his owl story. The material was too good to shelve. And so, when I came to the end of my next project, I began to re-write it.
Unless you want to be pigeon-holed as an author of Christian fiction, you can’t play the religion card twice. Having exhausted this with These Fragile Things, St Peter had to be shown the door. In the meantime, knife crime had risen dramatically in London. My story already had knife crime in it, so I explored where I could take that.
I added two new characters, Ayisha, another teacher and a pupil, Shamayal. By layering his story with Jim’s, I was able to reflect on cause and effect. It was an opportunity to acknowledge the enormous changes I have witnessed over the past twenty or so years. The cultural mix – in my South London middle school there was only one black family. My friends’ children simply cannot understand how we survived without mobile phones in the ‘olden days’ and why there are so few photographs of us. Children and adults were members of different species. Gangs were very different things then. Children didn’t kill children. Today, hearing about gang fights is unavoidable. I read a lot of personal accounts during my research, including one teenage victim who was dumped in a garbage bin and left for dead. Sadly, there are lots of truths in my book.
3) Tell us about your writing process – how does it all come together?
As you can probably tell, I am a layer-er. With the exception of Half-truths and White Lies, which virtually wrote itself, none of my published novels bear any resemblance to their early drafts.
All of my books go through numerous rounds of self-editing before I show them to anyone. Then I use a team of about thirty-five beta readers to road test them. They give me all sorts of valuable insights.
After that comes the structural edit. With A Funeral for an Owl, it was my structural editor – the mother of teenage children – who pointed out that there were some flaws in my initial ‘research’ (or lack of). It was while I was ironing out those issues that I unearthed another major flaw: I had failed to take account of the fact that it’s thirty years since I left school. The behaviour of my teachers would have been illegal under current Child Protection laws. All of the information I needed was available on the local government website, had I realised I needed it. Then it struck me that this provided a huge opportunity. I could change the focus of the novel: what kind of boy would it take to make two teachers put their jobs on the line? And it gave the plot a new momentum.
My angle was the suggestion that some of the rules that have been put in place with the best of intentions – to protect – actually deprive the most vulnerable children of confidential counsel from someone they trust. Not everyone will agree with that view but, when I was growing up, we had a wonderful teacher who operated an open-house and provided a safe place for those who were struggling at home, no questions asked. It was surprising who would turn up at her door. Today, in an environment when any relationship between teachers and pupils outside the classroom is taboo, she would be sacked. I think that’s terribly sad. Fiction provides a unique opportunity to tell one side of a story through the eyes of one or two characters. It’s not the whole picture by any means, but it is one aspect of it.
4) What comes first for you? The characters or the plot?
The characters, always. Get them right and they do the hard work for you.
Nailing the voice of Shamayal, my disenfranchised contemporary teenager was crucial. Can I get this out of the way? I’m white, middle(ish) class and born in the 1960s, writing the voice of an under-privileged mixed race boy, born in the 1990s. The first property I bought was a two-bedroom flat on the High Path Estate in Wimbledon. This was my blueprint for my fictional estate. Although I haven’t walked in his shoes, living where Shamayal grew up, I have walked in his footsteps. Then, I borrowed a few mannerisms from someone I used to work with – the repetition of Right, right, right. The deep laugh. I watched a few episodes of Toy Boy and (tell me if you can get arrested for this) I jotted down conversations overheard on trains and in my local park. Of course, you could never actually transcribe teenagers’ speech patterns. They would be completely unreadable. After you delete all of the ‘likes’ and the majority of expletives, what you aim to arrive at is a sanitised version which still sounds authentic. Think Ronnie Barker’s approach when he wrote the script for Porridge.
It’s a joy to write characters like Shamayal and Bins (an elderly man who is assumed to have learning difficulties) because they have such unique voices. You can hear them speaking to you. It’s far more difficult to write dialogue for an ‘everyman’, like my main character, Jim. To do that, you have to find your character’s quirks and vulnerabilities and exploit the hell out of them.
5) Do you write with a particular theme or message in mind, and if so what might it be?
A Funeral for an Owl shares its central theme with Half-truths and White Lies, I Stopped Time, and to a lesser extent These Fragile Things, that is, the influence missing persons have on our lives. Whether an absent parent, the child who never was, a friend who died an untimely death, the object of our unrequited love who finds a love of his own, or friends we lose touch with, we all collect them, particularly as we get older.
I found myself studying the Missing Persons ads in The Metro, the fourteen and fifteen-year-olds whose stories aren’t sufficiently high-profile to land them on the pages of newspapers. They’re simply slipping between the cracks. And so I looked into the facts. At that time, one in ten children ‘ran away’ from home before they reach the age of sixteen, an estimated 100,000 every year. Shockingly, a quarter of those young people are actually forced out of their homes by parents or carers. Two-thirds aren’t even reported as missing. That’s 75,000 children for whom a Missing Persons ad will never be placed. All of these children are highly vulnerable, at risk of substance abuse, sexual exploitation and homelessness. Mobile phones and social networking sites have made it even easier to target them. I include a particularly poignant quote from Lady Catherine Meye at the beginning of my novel. “We can't establish for certain how many children are missing. You'd have more chance of finding a stray dog.”
5) Do you find it hard to say goodbye to your characters? And if so, which character from A Funeral for an Owl would you like to revisit the most?
The truth is that I’ve never actually said goodbye to the characters in Owl. I’ve blurred the lines between my lives and theirs by including some of my personal history and setting their stories in my local neighbourhood. There’s something transportative about living in the same area all of your life; walking around familiar geography, knee-deep in the history of the place. And superimposed over a street map carried both inside and outside your head (the housing estate that now stands on the site of your old high school), are important milestones. When you learned to ride a bike. Your first kiss. The first flat you owned. But when I started setting fiction within my personal geography, I added an additional strata. Now when I walk in my local park, I see Jim pausing to stretch on his daily run. I see Aimee showing him the heron. We live with our characters so long that they’re kin to us. In a way, we know them better than friends and family, because we’ve seen through their eyes and know their every thought.
But you asked about my favourite character in Owl and that has to be Bins. Some readers assumed he was autistic, but that wasn’t my intention. I suffered from depression for many years and, in an age when suicide statistics speak for themselves, I enjoy celebrating people who’ve found their own ways of living. In my local town we have a wizard who walks the length of the high street in his full regalia, complete with a black cat on his shoulder; we have a very masculine-looking Scotsman who wears a very badly-fitting cotton floral dress; we have a man who goes about with a tank strapped to his back spraying the air, and a young chap who stands on street corners conducting the traffic, and singing hymns at the top of his voice. These are all logical responses to an insane world. Small communities – and children in particular – accommodate people who don’t fall into our narrow definition of what’s ‘normal’. It was only when watching a programme about the artist Chuck Close that I became aware of the condition Prosopagnosia, or ‘face blindness’, and appreciated how someone who didn’t appear to recognise people he’d met dozens of times before might be treated as if he was stupid, and if he was treated as if he was stupid, how he might eventually come to believe that.
‘A multi-layered story that hooks you from the beginning.’ Liza Perrat, Author
‘An incredible eye for character.’ Compulsion Reads
‘Jane Davis has the insight and sensitivity of a great writer.’ Awesome Indies
‘Jane reminds me of Margaret Atwood, in that all her books are very different and seem to be written in different voices. The quality and readability is consistent in all her works and I would heartily recommend this grittier tale of modern urban living.’ Peter Snell, Bookseller
‘Everything about this novel surprised me – from the title to the final page it was a joy.’ Gillian Hamer
‘Every once in awhile you read a book that really makes you stop and think about the relationships people have with other people or family members that shapes their whole future. I believe that this is one of those books.’ Theresa
‘Don’t you just live a book which has you gripped from the first sentence?’ Lisbeth
October 11, 2018
I loved this thought-provoking story by Jane Davis. Weaving together the events of 1992 and 2010, this is a passionate, absorbing story about family, belonging and our relationships with each other. The characters are brilliantly drawn and the writing is rich and textured. A thoroughly satisfying read. One of her best.
February 21, 2021
It’s the last day of term and during a playground fight history teacher, Jim Stevens, is stabbed. Whilst another teacher dithers, one of the students, Shamayal, comes to his aid and helps to save his life. After this dramatic start, the story begins to unfold. Davis skilfully intertwines the early life of both Jim Stevens and Shamayal – the neglected boy he’s been trying to help.
This is the first time I have read one of Jane Davis’s novels and I was particular impressed by her clever storytelling, her elegant prose, pitch-perfect dialogue and the sensitive way she handles every aspect of the story. Thoroughly recommended.
This is the first time I have read one of Jane Davis’s novels and I was particular impressed by her clever storytelling, her elegant prose, pitch-perfect dialogue and the sensitive way she handles every aspect of the story. Thoroughly recommended.
August 21, 2021
Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include A FUNERAL FOR AN OWL by JANE DAVIS in the library of Awesome Indies'
Badge of Approval
recipients.
Original Awesome Indies' Assessment (4 stars):
Jane Davis has the insight and sensitivity of a great writer; with a little more refinement, she could be a great writer. This story is about a school teacher accidentally stabbed as he tried to break up a fight at school. As he recovers in hospital, he remembers his childhood and the people who left him. People always leave him, and that’s why he avoids a relationship with a female colleague, the second on the scene of the accident and the one who visits him regularly in hospital because he doesn’t really have anyone else—except a student in need that he has reached out to.
The story has several themes. One is the downside of the rules of disclosure and child protection laws when a teacher comes across instances of abuse in a child’s family, and the limitations put on a teachers’ ability to help when a student needs help beyond what can be given within the school’s walls. Another is the affect a missing person has on those that care for the person, and the third is the challenges faced by those living ‘on the wrong side of the tracks’, particularly in relationship to negotiating the gangs.
Davis is skilled at creating real, complex characters that we can relate to and quickly care about. Their circumstances draw out our empathy and increase our understanding of a lifestyle that is probably foreign to most readers. The plot revolves around the suggestion that the two teachers may get together, the question of whether he will live or die and what will happen to the neglected boy with the candid opinions and insightful perception of his two teacher’s lives. As in real life, things do not run smoothly or tie up neatly, and yet the book comes to a satisfying conclusion that is neither soppy nor depressing.
I received this book free of charge from the author in return for an honest review.
Original Awesome Indies' Assessment (4 stars):
Jane Davis has the insight and sensitivity of a great writer; with a little more refinement, she could be a great writer. This story is about a school teacher accidentally stabbed as he tried to break up a fight at school. As he recovers in hospital, he remembers his childhood and the people who left him. People always leave him, and that’s why he avoids a relationship with a female colleague, the second on the scene of the accident and the one who visits him regularly in hospital because he doesn’t really have anyone else—except a student in need that he has reached out to.
The story has several themes. One is the downside of the rules of disclosure and child protection laws when a teacher comes across instances of abuse in a child’s family, and the limitations put on a teachers’ ability to help when a student needs help beyond what can be given within the school’s walls. Another is the affect a missing person has on those that care for the person, and the third is the challenges faced by those living ‘on the wrong side of the tracks’, particularly in relationship to negotiating the gangs.
Davis is skilled at creating real, complex characters that we can relate to and quickly care about. Their circumstances draw out our empathy and increase our understanding of a lifestyle that is probably foreign to most readers. The plot revolves around the suggestion that the two teachers may get together, the question of whether he will live or die and what will happen to the neglected boy with the candid opinions and insightful perception of his two teacher’s lives. As in real life, things do not run smoothly or tie up neatly, and yet the book comes to a satisfying conclusion that is neither soppy nor depressing.
I received this book free of charge from the author in return for an honest review.
November 28, 2013
Everything changes for Jim the day he finds a pair of binoculars and picks them up. Kneeling on the back of the sofa looking out over the lamplight night from his London council flat he spots a barn owl. Using his trusty bird book for reference he begins to learn the Latin names for the birds that he spots down by the railway tracks. At the beginning of the summer holidays in 1992 Jim meets a girl near his favourite bird watching spot and the whole course of his life changes.
Set in London this story spans twenty years as the older Jim, now a teacher, reflects on his younger self to help Shamayal, but is Jim's story strong and relevant enough to overcome the culture of the streets today?
This book drew my attention right from the very first page with a school playground fight that certainly seemed only too real and believable. This fight would have consequences to all involved as Jim overstepped his boundary as a teacher to try and help Shamayal. The fact that Jim and Shamayal are both missing important people in their lives makes a deep impression on the way they act, as well as strongly influencing their hopes and dreams. Jane Davis is one of those writers that make you really believe the story you are being told; the descriptions of places meant that I felt I was by the railway tracks, in the high-rise flat or in the school playground witnessing a fight, a true gift.
At times I found the story is heart-breaking, at others touching as the wonderful characters took up residence in my heart especially my favourite secondary character Bins. At times I was able to sympathise with each of characters, at others I wanted to shout at them but at no time did I stop caring about any of them. This to me is the true measure of a good read!
Read the interview I did with Jane Davis for the release of this book at Cleopatra Loves Books
Set in London this story spans twenty years as the older Jim, now a teacher, reflects on his younger self to help Shamayal, but is Jim's story strong and relevant enough to overcome the culture of the streets today?
This book drew my attention right from the very first page with a school playground fight that certainly seemed only too real and believable. This fight would have consequences to all involved as Jim overstepped his boundary as a teacher to try and help Shamayal. The fact that Jim and Shamayal are both missing important people in their lives makes a deep impression on the way they act, as well as strongly influencing their hopes and dreams. Jane Davis is one of those writers that make you really believe the story you are being told; the descriptions of places meant that I felt I was by the railway tracks, in the high-rise flat or in the school playground witnessing a fight, a true gift.
At times I found the story is heart-breaking, at others touching as the wonderful characters took up residence in my heart especially my favourite secondary character Bins. At times I was able to sympathise with each of characters, at others I wanted to shout at them but at no time did I stop caring about any of them. This to me is the true measure of a good read!
Read the interview I did with Jane Davis for the release of this book at Cleopatra Loves Books
December 20, 2021
Format: audiobook
Author: Jane Davis ~ Title: A Funeral for an Owl ~ Narrator: Alix Dunmore
Content: 4.5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
A Funeral for an Owl by Jane Davis is a satisfying literary fiction. Although, I should emphasize that it is quite slow-paced and you could like it only if this is not a problem for you.
Three different views from three different worlds. The story is told from three POVs: Ayisha (teacher), Jim (teacher), and Shamayal (14-year-old student). Through their perspective, the author unfolds two major stories: one happening in the present and one in the past when Jim was twelve. Shamayal is from a dysfunctional home, and his two teachers want to help him. But where is the limit of the teacher-student relationship? Can they be friends?
Only one narrator in this audiobook, but Alix Dunmore did an excellent job here. I liked the accents, and that she made all the characters distinguishable. Also, Jane Davis is a very talented writer. I will look for her works in the future. In a book or audiobook form. 4.5 rounded to 5.
Thanks to Saga Egmont Audio the for the ARC and the opportunity to listen to this! All opinions are my own.
Author: Jane Davis ~ Title: A Funeral for an Owl ~ Narrator: Alix Dunmore
Content: 4.5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review
A Funeral for an Owl by Jane Davis is a satisfying literary fiction. Although, I should emphasize that it is quite slow-paced and you could like it only if this is not a problem for you.
Three different views from three different worlds. The story is told from three POVs: Ayisha (teacher), Jim (teacher), and Shamayal (14-year-old student). Through their perspective, the author unfolds two major stories: one happening in the present and one in the past when Jim was twelve. Shamayal is from a dysfunctional home, and his two teachers want to help him. But where is the limit of the teacher-student relationship? Can they be friends?
Only one narrator in this audiobook, but Alix Dunmore did an excellent job here. I liked the accents, and that she made all the characters distinguishable. Also, Jane Davis is a very talented writer. I will look for her works in the future. In a book or audiobook form. 4.5 rounded to 5.
Thanks to Saga Egmont Audio the for the ARC and the opportunity to listen to this! All opinions are my own.
February 17, 2014
A Funeral for an Owl is a beautifully written book. The characters develope slowly, revealing well crafted detail into each person’s life. A very enjoyable read. I was hooked from start to finish.
The book tell a story of a school teacher (Jim) who looks out for a pupil (Shamayal), putting his job on the line in the process. Human nature is to want to help another in need, but to do this sometimes people have to take risks. I wish there was a 'Jim' out there for every person in Shamayal's situation! Read the book and you will understand what I mean.
The story slips from the past to the present and back again throughout the book given you an insight in to Jim's past. I felt Jane Davis handled this well in her ability to give just enough information about the past before changing back to the present. All the time I was reading I was eagerly waiting to fill the gaps on the past and was not disappointed. Jim's past to me was the true element of the book. I will not give anything away here, but this part of the story really touched my heart.
The story line is not so much a happy ever after, instead it leaves you to come to your own conclusions about the future. I absolutely loved A Funeral for an Owl. Thank you Jane for a great read!
The book tell a story of a school teacher (Jim) who looks out for a pupil (Shamayal), putting his job on the line in the process. Human nature is to want to help another in need, but to do this sometimes people have to take risks. I wish there was a 'Jim' out there for every person in Shamayal's situation! Read the book and you will understand what I mean.
The story slips from the past to the present and back again throughout the book given you an insight in to Jim's past. I felt Jane Davis handled this well in her ability to give just enough information about the past before changing back to the present. All the time I was reading I was eagerly waiting to fill the gaps on the past and was not disappointed. Jim's past to me was the true element of the book. I will not give anything away here, but this part of the story really touched my heart.
The story line is not so much a happy ever after, instead it leaves you to come to your own conclusions about the future. I absolutely loved A Funeral for an Owl. Thank you Jane for a great read!
July 15, 2014
Every once in awhile you read a book that really makes you stop and think about the relationships people have with other people or family members that shapes their whole future. I believe that this is one of those books.
Jim Stevens starts out as an eleven year old kid growing up in a not-so-wonderful neighborhood and he tries to stay away from other kids and be by himself to study birds. He and his mother especially like to watch the barn owls. He’s an excellent artist it seems, of birds and of some people. He comes from a broken home and tries very hard to make his mother proud of him.
This book moves ahead to when Jim Stevens is an adult, a teacher in fact, and meets a young boy who lives in the same neighborhood that he used to when he was a boy. He also has the same problems, but Jim tries very hard to protect him from the neighborhood kids.
The story goes back and forth from past to present and what Jim learns and does to help others learn is amazing. This story was a little hard to follow, but once you understand what is going on, it sucks you in and doesn't let you go. I enjoyed this book very much!
Jim Stevens starts out as an eleven year old kid growing up in a not-so-wonderful neighborhood and he tries to stay away from other kids and be by himself to study birds. He and his mother especially like to watch the barn owls. He’s an excellent artist it seems, of birds and of some people. He comes from a broken home and tries very hard to make his mother proud of him.
This book moves ahead to when Jim Stevens is an adult, a teacher in fact, and meets a young boy who lives in the same neighborhood that he used to when he was a boy. He also has the same problems, but Jim tries very hard to protect him from the neighborhood kids.
The story goes back and forth from past to present and what Jim learns and does to help others learn is amazing. This story was a little hard to follow, but once you understand what is going on, it sucks you in and doesn't let you go. I enjoyed this book very much!
February 6, 2014
Jane Davis develops well rounded characters along with an intricately woven tale of loss in A Funeral for an Owl. The story flows smoothly while flashing back and forth between the present and the past. The British slang took some getting used to, but was fairly easy to figure out.
I especially liked the relationship between Jim and Shamayal. Jim is risking his job to befriend a student in need. Throughout the book we learn his motivation for doing so and are lead to feel very deeply for both characters and what they have been through.
On the flip side, I really didn't care for Ayisha. She is rigid and unfeeling at first. Although she lightens up a bit I couldn't bring myself to like her. It may or may not have been the author's intent, but either way I wasn't able to cozy up to her.
My only difficulty (if you can call it that) is that there is nothing happy in this book. It is a tragic story from beginning to end. The saving grace comes in the form of a new life for Shamayal (who desperately needs it). Other than that, this is a great read.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
I especially liked the relationship between Jim and Shamayal. Jim is risking his job to befriend a student in need. Throughout the book we learn his motivation for doing so and are lead to feel very deeply for both characters and what they have been through.
On the flip side, I really didn't care for Ayisha. She is rigid and unfeeling at first. Although she lightens up a bit I couldn't bring myself to like her. It may or may not have been the author's intent, but either way I wasn't able to cozy up to her.
My only difficulty (if you can call it that) is that there is nothing happy in this book. It is a tragic story from beginning to end. The saving grace comes in the form of a new life for Shamayal (who desperately needs it). Other than that, this is a great read.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
December 12, 2014
I was very impressed by this book. It's the first I've read by Jane Davis but I will certainly be seeking out more of her work.
Other reviewers have outlined the story so I won't go into that again. For me, the beauty of the book is in the language and in the way it is told. The author holds a microscope (or a pair of binoculars) up to life and describes it in all its detail. There are flashes of brilliance in the descriptions of ordinary events, and acute insights into mundane actions.
The characters are well-drawn, particularly Shamayal with his attitude and vulnerability, and the younger Jim (although at times he seemed older than his years).
This is a book that is often poignant but never maudlin.
Other reviewers have outlined the story so I won't go into that again. For me, the beauty of the book is in the language and in the way it is told. The author holds a microscope (or a pair of binoculars) up to life and describes it in all its detail. There are flashes of brilliance in the descriptions of ordinary events, and acute insights into mundane actions.
The characters are well-drawn, particularly Shamayal with his attitude and vulnerability, and the younger Jim (although at times he seemed older than his years).
This is a book that is often poignant but never maudlin.
March 27, 2016
In reading A Funeral for an Owl, I did something I haven't done in a long time...read into the wee hours because I just couldn't put the book down.
The story opens with the stabbing of a teacher and weaves together the teacher's past and present with that of his student, Shamayal, and his colleague, Aiyisha. I found myself immersed in each of their story threads that together produced a whole cloth blended together to perfection.
I could give a fuller synopsis of Ms Davis' beautifully written and emotionally evocative story, but I believe that it needs to be unwrapped and discovered by each reader for themselves. Her story deserves to be savoured and contemplated. I look forward to reading more by Jane Davis.
The story opens with the stabbing of a teacher and weaves together the teacher's past and present with that of his student, Shamayal, and his colleague, Aiyisha. I found myself immersed in each of their story threads that together produced a whole cloth blended together to perfection.
I could give a fuller synopsis of Ms Davis' beautifully written and emotionally evocative story, but I believe that it needs to be unwrapped and discovered by each reader for themselves. Her story deserves to be savoured and contemplated. I look forward to reading more by Jane Davis.
March 27, 2016
In reading A Funeral for an Owl, I did something I haven't done in a long time...read into the wee hours because I just couldn't put the book down.
The story opens with the stabbing of a teacher and weaves together the teacher's past and present with that of his student, Shamayal, and his colleague, Aiyisha. I found myself immersed in each of their story threads that together produced a whole cloth blended together to perfection.
I could give a fuller synopsis of Ms Davis' beautifully written and emotionally evocative story, but I believe that it needs to be unwrapped and discovered by each reader for themselves. Her story deserves to be savoured and contemplated. I look forward to reading more by Jane Davis.
The story opens with the stabbing of a teacher and weaves together the teacher's past and present with that of his student, Shamayal, and his colleague, Aiyisha. I found myself immersed in each of their story threads that together produced a whole cloth blended together to perfection.
I could give a fuller synopsis of Ms Davis' beautifully written and emotionally evocative story, but I believe that it needs to be unwrapped and discovered by each reader for themselves. Her story deserves to be savoured and contemplated. I look forward to reading more by Jane Davis.
March 4, 2016
Jane Davis offered this as a free download, so I gave it a go, and I'm glad I did. I warmed instantly to the two main characters, teachers Jim and Ayisha, but the one that stole my heart was Shamayal. It's a story told in the present as both teachers come to terms with a terrible incident, and in the past, where Jim tells his story to Shamayal and Ayisha. Davis is at her strongest with character and dialogue. Her characters are rounded and believable. I enjoyed the 'Bins' subplot and the humanity of the various players. My only gripe is that the last third of the book felt rushed as it headed toward completion. I had already committed, so was prepared to manage another fifty pages or so!
March 8, 2016
A story with a part and a present, Jim a history teacher is severely injured during a fight in the school grounds on the last day of term.
The book has many layers and delves deep into Kim's story, his relationships with his mother and family, his childhood friend Aimee, his current relationship with a colleague and also with a young boy at his school.
A fabulous read with many twists and turns. Some that seem natural, many that keep you guessing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it :)
The book has many layers and delves deep into Kim's story, his relationships with his mother and family, his childhood friend Aimee, his current relationship with a colleague and also with a young boy at his school.
A fabulous read with many twists and turns. Some that seem natural, many that keep you guessing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it :)
March 17, 2016
Jane Davis confronts the issues young teens in London are faced with everyday in this book. Gangs, violence, poverty. addictions and runaways make up the day to day life of the characters. Jim, the younger brother of a troubled teenager, Aimee, a girl from the other side of the tracks who has secrets of her own, and Shamayas, an only child abandoned by his mother and left to defend himself against the gangs in the estate. This novel follows these and other characters after a knife attack puts a history teacher in the h hospital.
June 25, 2016
Although the writing and grammar are difficult to read at times, the story is touching. Most of the characters are well-rounded. I love hearing different voices narrate the story, at different points in time. Jim & Ayisha are teachers in a rough school in London. They get themselves involved with a troubled boy, and all struggle to do the right thing - whatever that may be. It shows how our impressions of people may not be who they really are. We choose to hide what we don't want others to see, only allowing a chosen few to see the true person.
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