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Temperance Town
Take three guys. Mikey's a shoplifter. That's when he's not working on his true vocation as a ladies man. The Colonel's a man of leisure. Well, these days he is. Back in the day, though, he was a player. Deryck's a copper. And he's back in the last place he ever wanted to be. That's Cardiff, Wales. Used to be a docks town, used to be a steel town, used to have a place called Temperance Town. Not any more. Now it's a 24 hour non-stop party town. Mikey loves it that way. The Colonel liked it better before. Deryck never liked it either way. In turn funny and poignant, brutal and tender, Temperance Town follows three guys, their lovers, their kids and their mates, all trying to make sense of their lives in a world that makes less sense every day.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2004
14 people want to read
About the author
John Williams
17 books13 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John L. Williams was born, lives and works in his hometown of Cardiff. He writes novels, short stories and screenplays set in a Cardiff that is changing fast. Williams celebrates the lives lived beneath the radar, the hustlers and grifters, hookers and guitar players, drug dealers and shoplifters, looking to make a crust or catch a break, looking for love. They are crime novels turned inside out. The police tried (unsuccessfully) to ban his Bloody Valentine (Harper Collins, 1994).
John has also published a number of non-fiction titles including his biographies of Black Power leader Michael X and Shirley Bassey. He currently writes for the Mail on Sunday and the Independent and is co-organiser of the Laugharne Festival. John has also worked for the NME and The Sunday Times, and has been a contributing editor of GQ magazine.
Selected Publications:
Non–fiction:
Into the Badlands (Paladin, 1991)
Bloody Valentine (HarperCollins, 1994)
Michael X: A Life in Black and White (Century, 2008)
Miss Shirley Bassey (Quercus, 2010)
Fiction:
Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub (Bloomsbury, 1999)
Cardiff Dead (Bloomsbury, 2000)
The Prince of Wales (Bloomsbury 2003)
Temperance Town (Bloomsbury, 2004)
The Cardiff Trilogy (Bloomsbury, 2006)
[http://www.literaturewales.org/writer...]
John L. Williams was born, lives and works in his hometown of Cardiff. He writes novels, short stories and screenplays set in a Cardiff that is changing fast. Williams celebrates the lives lived beneath the radar, the hustlers and grifters, hookers and guitar players, drug dealers and shoplifters, looking to make a crust or catch a break, looking for love. They are crime novels turned inside out. The police tried (unsuccessfully) to ban his Bloody Valentine (Harper Collins, 1994).
John has also published a number of non-fiction titles including his biographies of Black Power leader Michael X and Shirley Bassey. He currently writes for the Mail on Sunday and the Independent and is co-organiser of the Laugharne Festival. John has also worked for the NME and The Sunday Times, and has been a contributing editor of GQ magazine.
Selected Publications:
Non–fiction:
Into the Badlands (Paladin, 1991)
Bloody Valentine (HarperCollins, 1994)
Michael X: A Life in Black and White (Century, 2008)
Miss Shirley Bassey (Quercus, 2010)
Fiction:
Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub (Bloomsbury, 1999)
Cardiff Dead (Bloomsbury, 2000)
The Prince of Wales (Bloomsbury 2003)
Temperance Town (Bloomsbury, 2004)
The Cardiff Trilogy (Bloomsbury, 2006)
[http://www.literaturewales.org/writer...]
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 8, 2018
Over the course of several books John Williams has managed to turn the Welsh port city of Cardiff into a brilliant setting for stories of everyday workers, schemers, grifters, grafters, dreamers, pimps, musicians, and criminals. Unfortunately, his work never seems to have caught on in the US, since this latest collection (following Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub,Cardiff Dead, and The Prince of Wales) wasn't distributed in here. And that's a real shame, because the seven stories and one novella collected here are a fine addition to his already rich body of work.
The first six stories revolve around Mikey, a family man who makes his living shoplifting items to order, and never misses a chance to chat up a fine-looking lady. Here, we follow him through a series of comic misadventures -- from his usual shoplifting, to caddying for local gangster Kenny Ibdullah, to trying to pitch a reality TV show, to trying to put together a girl band, to a Christmas "shopping trip" with his son. He's a really fun character, and the various scrapes he gets into provide plenty of opportunities to paint a picture of everyday life. The last short story features "The Colonel," a former football player since gone to semi-seed, as he buses it across town to try to talk some sense into his pregnant teenage niece.
The second half of the book is a novella featuring Deryck Davies, a rising star in the Welsh police, just arrived on a new assignment in Cardiff. The problem is that he hates Cardiff, and can't stand the thought of possibly running into his long estranged father Cyril (who makes appearances in several of Williams' earlier book, and in the Colonel's story in this one). Eager to make his mark, Deryck is ordered to investigate a shady import-export firm suspected of smuggling. At the same time, he struggles to deal with his dark side and with the unsettling possibility that he might have found a woman who's compatible with that dark side. Saturated with corruption and violence, the novella is a stark contrast to the fun stories that precede it.
The first six stories revolve around Mikey, a family man who makes his living shoplifting items to order, and never misses a chance to chat up a fine-looking lady. Here, we follow him through a series of comic misadventures -- from his usual shoplifting, to caddying for local gangster Kenny Ibdullah, to trying to pitch a reality TV show, to trying to put together a girl band, to a Christmas "shopping trip" with his son. He's a really fun character, and the various scrapes he gets into provide plenty of opportunities to paint a picture of everyday life. The last short story features "The Colonel," a former football player since gone to semi-seed, as he buses it across town to try to talk some sense into his pregnant teenage niece.
The second half of the book is a novella featuring Deryck Davies, a rising star in the Welsh police, just arrived on a new assignment in Cardiff. The problem is that he hates Cardiff, and can't stand the thought of possibly running into his long estranged father Cyril (who makes appearances in several of Williams' earlier book, and in the Colonel's story in this one). Eager to make his mark, Deryck is ordered to investigate a shady import-export firm suspected of smuggling. At the same time, he struggles to deal with his dark side and with the unsettling possibility that he might have found a woman who's compatible with that dark side. Saturated with corruption and violence, the novella is a stark contrast to the fun stories that precede it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review