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BBC LOCAL
RADIO
Scruffy
Chicken, a controversial effort quickly sparked a lot
of interest. Between February and April 2006, Narvel Annable
was interviewed on BBC Local Radio five times:
He
was heard on BBC Radio Derby on February 14th talking
to Sally Pepper.
BBC
Radio Manchester [GMR] invited the author to discuss his
latest work, twice, during March. In 'Gay Talk', Nigel
Soni said -
"Scruffy Chicken was a great read. I know it's the
old cliché but ... really, I just couldn't put
it down!" In the following edition of 'Gay Talk',
Narvel was in conversation with it's producer,
Ashley Byrne.
On
April 3rd, he was the guest of Rony Robinson of BBC Radio
Sheffield. Several phone calls from interested listeners
extended the interview up to one hour.
On
April 24th, Julie Mayer of BBC Radio Leicester asked serious
questions about the darker side of Scruffy Chicken. She
focused on Narvel's life and his encounters with homophobia.
On
June 22nd, Narvel was a special guest on Nottingham Pride
Radio. Author / interviewer Angie Hulme said -
"Scruffy Chicken is really good: a very enjoyable
read."
PRESS
Scruffy Chicken – A ‘Smart’ Read!
By Paul Hunt of SHOUT!
Magazine
Narvel Annable is indubitably, one of the UK’s most
prolific Gay Authors; with his latest book he has
created a masterpiece documenting much of our non
recorded Gay History.
Scruffy Chicken
is his second Gay semi-autobiographical novel, and
captures life in the mid 1960’s, not only here in the UK
but in the USA, a definite first for this type of novel.
Set in both Detroit and Derbyshire the book chronicles the
very ‘misspent’ youth of a Gay young man as he stumbles
toward adulthood. The journey, which is essentially what
it is, features some rather strange people in extremely
bizarre situations. Annable manages to interweave an
ingenious mystery as part of the plot, the disappearance
of ‘Becksitch Betty’ a rather nasty drag Queen cum
washed up stage act. Not surprisingly, most of the
bizarre characters come under some form of suspicion!
To describe the book as ‘ a novel’ is somewhat
disingenuous, it brilliantly documents the homophobia,
fear and clear hatred faced by Gay men in the early to
mid sixties and cleverly manages to transport the reader
to those less tolerant times
The journey of Simeon Hogg – the book’s central
character, and Annable’s alter ego - begins in Detroit
in 1963, and beautifully describes Simeon’s observations
– of both Gay life here and ‘stateside’.
The encounters
with the 60’s Gay underworld will be enlightening for
anyone under forty yet very real to those for whom Queer
life was so different to today. The Derbyshire, Detroit
and Nottinghamshire ‘scenes’ are vividly portrayed
together with the local dialect and it is hard to
imagine that some of the bizarre characters in the story
ever really existed – thankfully, they did!
Scruffy Chicken
depicts a time when homosexuality was illegal and as
such this alone makes for a darker story. If you are
looking for titillation this is not the book for you,
although the life experiences, sexual and other are well
documented.
I can truly say, this is one of the best books I have
ever read and a must for all Gay men, whatever age.
Scruffy Chicken
is a real
tour de force of a read! -
Paul
Hunt
Published by the Author Narvel Annable, Scruffy Chicken
-
A Mystery set in Derbyshire 1965 ISBN 0 9530419 4 8 - is
available from bookshops
or directly from the author by sending a cheque for
£9.95 [this includes P&P]
to Narvel Annable, 44 Dovedale Crescent, Belper,
Derbyshire DE56 1HJ
Phone 01 773 82 44 83 -
narvel@narvelannable.co.
Or Pay Pal
"What
a read! Anguish, enlightenment, amusement, intrigue -
all wrapped up in the lush landscapes of our county. I
was swept along chapter to chapter, each telling its own
fragment of the plot, but merging so beautifully with
the next. There were no sharp cut-off points or changes
of direction. This I think was the 'unputdownable' quality
of the book for me. The cover is a triumph. I just loved
the shaft of light shining down on Simeon, a magical touch,
a guiding light."
Sheila Cullen, Derby Evening Telegraph, Friday,
February 3rd, 2006
"An
epic autobiographical mystery spread over five decades,
starting in 1960s Detroit (where the Derbyshire-based
author lived in the Sixties) but continuing on more familiar
territory.
"Whatever happened to the vanished old queen Becksitch
Betty? Sympathetic hero Simeon Hogg seeks the answers
in this tenderly-told tale, full of vivid East Midlands
characters and magnificent scenery which offers an insight
in what it was like to be gay in a largely suspicious,
disapproving society."
Jeremy Lewis, Features Editor, Nottingham Evening
Post, February 11th, 2006
"Worth
a read for the broad minded"
"I enjoyed Scruffy Chicken. I loved its sense of
place. I loved seeing the Derbyshire vernacular in print
and I loved its juxtaposition of the familiar and the
bizarre and I liked it because it made me feel uncomfortable
...
"And a strange world it is, as this autobiographical
novel takes us into a literary landscape full of gay sex
and populated by strange, twisted and sometimes promiscuous
characters ...
"The novel comes alive emotionally when Simeon reflects
on the landscape of Derbyshire ...
"It is the placement of bizarre characters such as
Jasper the Belper Goblin, Toby Jug and Becksitch Betty,
in this familiar landscape which give the novel its dramatic
tension. At times the author does not make the most of
this dramatic potential... But being able to take the
reader along the line of tension between the strange and
the familiar, and crossing and re-crossing into and out
of the strange for maximum effect is not just the sign
of a great writer, it is the hallmark of great literature.
"The story is superimposed over a murder mystery
which gives the novel a nice kick at the end. The prose
becomes more purposeful and confident as the novel progresses.
"So if you are broadminded, step into the world of
a Scruffy Chicken - it's well worth a read."
Tom Cooper, Belper News, January 25th 2006
"Freak
Show"
"Scruffy Chicken is out now - and it's lovely! ...
an endearing mixture of Derbyshire travelogue and a murder
mystery, set in the countryside that Annable himself knows
only too well - as with his previous novel.
"The journey of Simeon Hogg - the book's central
character, and Annable's alter ego - begins in Detroit
in 1963, and in some ways, this was one of the best bits
of the book - the contrasts between Derbyshire and the
USA in the early 60s are beautifully highlighted by Hogg's
observations - and I felt slightly disappointed when he
returned to Derbyshire.
"But the story picks up pace well, and although there's
plenty of time to observe the freaks and grotesques that
populate the queer underworld of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
in the 60s, Annable never loses sight of the plot.
"Anyone under the age of 40 might find it hard to
believe that a weird collection of grotesques Annable
paints could ever have existed: but this was a time when
homosexuality was still technically illegal and all manner
of bizarre creatures flourished out of sight of the law
and straight society: if for no other reason, Scruffy
Chicken deserves reading because of the light it shines
into this often-forgotten darkness.
"If you've read and enjoyed Lost Lad, you'll love
this; if you read it and didn't enjoy it, then give Scruffy
Chicken a go: Lost Lad was good - but Scruffy Chicken
is better!"
Mark Michalowski, SHOUT! April 2006
"A
gay murder mystery based in pre-1967 Derbyshire, which
includes chapters set in the Derby Turkish Baths, Nottingham's
Flying Horse Inn and references to Canning Circus and
Markeaton Park 'cottages' is obviously not from the pen
of Ruth Rendell or Ian Rankin.
"The 'scruffy chicken' of the title is 19 year old
Simeon Hogg, from Belper. Simeon's experiences are largely
based on the real life of local author Narvel Annable
who writes about characters (some fictional - some real)
and attitudes from the 1960s.
"The book is enjoyable in its own right, but for
people of a certain age or with an interest in local gay
history, it's fascinating to read about the rivalry between
the Nottingham and Derby crowds, about the niceties of
gay social etiquette in the 1960s and about a parade of
what the author describes as Derbyshire 'freaks'."
David Edgley, QB Nottinghamshire's Queer Bulletin,
August 2006
"A
fascinating tale of secrets set in the 1960s"
"Today Blackpool fully embraces its gay residents
and visitors. But, in less enlightened days, such openness
would have been unthinkable. Homosexuals kept their lifestyles
a secret, not least for fear of imprisonment. Scruffy
Chicken, an autobiographical whodunit partially set in
Blackpool, features a character called Becksitch Betty.
He was based on a real-life Derbyshire female impersonator,
Herbert Siddons, who, according to the author, was 'obsessed
with Blackpool', often performing in the resort as Gracie
Fields, Carmen Miranda, Old Mother Riley and as Norman
Evans in his famous 'Over the Garden Wall' sketch.
"The story begins in Detroit on the day before the
assassination of president Kennedy in November 1963 and
concludes just days after the appalling London bombings
of last July 2005. The author, Narvel Annable, assumes
the mantle of teenage narrator Simeon Hogg and discovers
a secret subterranean world, warped by the vicious, homophobic
cruelty and bigotry of the mid 1960s.
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book."
Craig Fleming, The Gazette, Blackpool, February
28th, 2006
"Former
MP's Praise for Thriller"
"A rite of passage, from Derbyshire to Detroit and
confused adolescence to mature self-awareness, is the
theme of controversial author Narvel Annable's new novel
Scruffy Chicken.
"Set among bike rides in the Peak District and Greyhound
bus trips across America, the book is semi-autobiographical
and traces Mr Annable's coming of age as a gay man in
the 1960s, when homosexuality was considered a dark and
dangerous secret.
"In fact, the author found that was still the case
until recently - only last year one Women's Institute
cancelled a talk he was to have given them when members
discovered he was gay!
"Mr Annable describes the book as peoples by characters
which could have been penned by the Brothers Grimm, but
leavened with humour against a background of an era long
gone.
"'These people dealt with the prejudices of mid-Twentieth
Century Britain and coped with homophobic intolerance
in their different ways,' he said.
"Cruelty and bigotry shaped these individuals into
their interesting forms which, in turn, influenced a teenager
on a bicycle who coming to terms with a fundamental new
self-awareness.'
"Scruffy Chicken received praise from fellow gay
writer Matthew Parris, former MP for West Derbyshire,
who said - 'A rare pleasure I never thought I'd see: a
gay thriller set in Derbyshire.'"
John Phillips, Buxton Advertiser, February 2nd,
2006
"Tale
waited to be Told"
"Peppered with local characters all inspired by real
people, Scruffy Chicken is a tale waited to be told. Narvel
Annable feels that attitudes towards homosexuality have
changed enough for his story to be told. This is reflected
in the rise of gay literature in the mainstream, such
as Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty. Narvel makes
it clear that when he writes, his aim is simply to tell
a good story, with plenty of colour and, at the same time,
make important points about the gay community."
Emma Shaw, Derby Evening Telegraph, January 20th,
2006
"Popular
Drag Artiste Remembered"
"One of Matlock's most colourful characters has been
immortalised in the latest book by Belper author Narvel
Annable. Narvel's sometimes explicit book Scruffy Chicken
details the secret life of Derbyshire's homosexual community
in the 1960's, based on his own experiences of the same
period.
"Older Matlock residents may remember Herbert Siddons,
whose drag act entertained audiences at Matlock Lido and
the Picture Palace from the 1930's up to the early 1960's
with impressions of Carmen Miranda, Old Mother Riley and
Gracie Fields.
"Narvel says his character of Becksitch Betty owes
a lot to the character of Herbert Siddons, one of several
odd effeminate men described in this whodunit who introduced
the author to the gay world in 1965. Even Herbert's appearance
was odd, remembers Narvel. He was 'exceedingly ugly' and
had a strange mobile 'writhing' mouth, possibly resulting
from a broken jaw."
Charlotte White, Matlock Mercury, March 16th, 2006
"Gay
Life Insight"
"A former Burton student has returned to town to
launch his new book and 'break down barriers' for the
area's gay community. Narvel Annable who attended Burton
College in 1961 has recently released his sixth novel
entitled Scruffy Chicken - A Mystery set in Derbyshire
1965. Last Saturday he signed copies at Ottakars in Cooper's
Square speaking to fans about his experiences growing
up in Derbyshire and Burton. The book has been described
by The Times critic Matthew Parris as 'a rare pleasure
I never thought I'd see: a gay thriller set in Derbyshire.'"
Gareth Butterfield, Burton Mail, February 24th,
2006
"Mischievous
Postcards from Bridlington"
"Bridlington, Flamborough and Bempton all appear
in a new gay mystery book set in the 1960s. After three
years of work, author Narvel Annable has published Scruffy
Chicken, a fictional story with fictional characters but
based on real people and his own experiences.
"Narvel, of Belper in Derbyshire, said the aim of
the book is 'to educate, break down barriers and combat
homophobia' and describes himself as 'a loss-making-one-man-show
attempting to make life a little better for local gay
people'.
"The book is mainly set in Derbyshire 1965 but it
features a chapter called Mischievous Post Cards from
Bridlington, which mentions the Yorkshire Belle, the Old
Town, the harbour and the chalk cliffs.
"A principal player in Scruffy Chicken is Mr Annable's
long time friend Paul Sharpley, the well known Goole organist
and the inspiration of his character Aubrey Pod also known
as Mr Toad in the gay community.
"'For years Paul had been looking forward to reading
Scruffy Chicken,' said Narvel, 'but died on January 1st,
the very day it was published! Over these 40 years we
shared a great affection for Bridlington. At some point,
alone, I'll return to Bridlington. I'll go on the Yorkshire
Belle. It won't be the same. It'll be a tearful trip.'
"The book has already won praise from The Times critic
Matthew Parris."
John Edwards, Bridlington Free Press, April 27th
2006
"Coming
Out in Derbyshire and Detroit"
"Controversial is not a word that sits easily with
Narvel Annable, in fact, he shifts a little uncomfortably
in his seat as I ask him if he looks for trouble.
"But when you are writing overtly gay fiction in
a small Derbyshire town you have to accept that some people
are going to be upset and Narvel is pragmatic enough to
realise that controversy sells books.
"'I dread it,' he says, 'but if it helps to sell
books I am not going to be hypocritical about it, and,
it does help, and it does sell books.'
"Rather than stirring up trouble, however, he sees
his role as educating and informing.
"'People have to see that gay men are not a threat,'
he says, as we talk in his tidy suburban bungalow with
views across the back garden to the Chevin. 'It's also
very important that I do make this point in the book,
that gay men should be responsible.'
"Narvel's most recent brush with controversy came
in September last year when an invitation to speak to
the Belper WI was withdrawn when they realised the subject
matter of his books. This gave us one of our most striking
News front pages of the year
No Gay Sex Please, We're the Belper WI
But times are changing. 'There is no way we would have
been having this conversation five years ago,' Narvel
explains. There is however still work to be done and his
new book Scruffy Chicken, published this month, 'is going
to push the boundaries a bit more,' he says.
"The autobiographical novel is largely set in the
Ripley / Heanor / Belper / Derby area during 1965, with
19-year-old Simeon Hogg returning to his aunt's house
in Horsley Woodhouse after a two-year sojourn in the United
States.
"Back in Derbyshire Simeon, the scruffy chicken of
the title, encounters a bizarre array of characters as
he finds his way into the local gay scene. All the characters
and events are real, albeit with a little dramatic licence
in timescales and the characters inevitably drawn through
the eyes of the writer.
"'It is exactly as I describe it,' he says, 'but
the characters are caricatures in the way that I see them.'
"And these characters - raving queens, promiscuous
homosexuals and men driven to cruelty and bitchiness through
fear and homophobia - are colourful in the extremes. 'When
I came back to England the experience was incredibly different,'
Narvel says, 'It was like the movie changed from black
and white into colour.'
"To the uninitiated, the events are also a bit of
an eye-opener. This is after all a detailed account of
the 60s gay scene in the area, and some readers are going
to find it difficult to come to terms with. The cottaging,
the pick-ups, the rent boys, the Turkish Baths - Scruffy
Chicken enters a world which few outside the gay community
are ever exposed to.
"'You could have gone to those places and you would
have seen nothing,' Narvel says. 'It's a parallel world
which you don't see unless you know how to look.'"
Tom Cooper, Ripley and Heanor News, January 26th
2006
"Scruffy
Chicken is fascinating - the characters are vivid, the
prose fluent."
Samuel West, Artistic Director, Sheffield Theatres
- Crucible, Studio, Lyceum
"Scruffy
Chicken is about the gay scene in the East Midlands in
the 1960s.
It is that rare achievement, an autobiographical whodunit."
Joan Stephens, Leicester Mercury May 30th 2006
"Scruffy
Chicken is beginning to win critical acclaim."
Will Noble, Bournemouth Daily Echo July 21st 2006
"Anyone
who likes reading fiction set locally will enjoy reading
Scruffy Chicken."
Martin Dawes, Sheffield Star April 18th 2006
"I
couldn't put it down!"
Nigel Soni, BBC Radio Manchester [GMR] 'Gay Talk',
March 19th, 2006
"Scruffy
Chicken is fascinating - the characters are vivid, the
prose fluent. "
Samuel West, Artistic Director, Sheffield Theatres
- Crucible, Studio, Lyceum
Scruffy
Chicken - A Mystery set in Derbyshire 1965 ISBN 0 9530419
4 8
Scruffy Chicken is available from bookshops or directly
from the author by sending a cheque for £9.95 [this
includes P&P] to:
Narvel Annable, 44 Dovedale Crescent, Belper, Derbyshire
DE56 1HJ
Phone 01773 82 44 83 - narvel@narvelannable.co.uk
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