JONATHAN FALLA is an English writer now based in Scotland, the author of three published novels, ethnography, essays, short stories and drama. The pages of this site provide information on all JF’s work, with reviews, a brief biography and contact details. Please have a look through the pages – and thank you for your interest.
NEWS
A New Novel:
THE WHITE PORCUPINE
This novel draws partly on my own time living in Java (see my biography page), and partly on the true story of Ponke Princen, a Dutch soldier who in 1947 defected to fight for the Indonesian nationalists against their Dutch colonial masters. Here is the cover blurb:
“THE WHITE PORCUPINE is a virtuoso novel, a mystery and a profound exploration of loyalities: father and daughter, lovers and friends, soldiers and nations. Set in Java in the 1940s and the Netherlands in the 1970s, it tells the peculiar story of Ben Pinksterbloem, a military radio expert caught up in post-colonial wars. Ben is brave, ruthless and cunning, but in Java he commits the soldeir’s ultimate betrayal.
Thirty years later, loyalties are tested again. The children of Ben’s former comrades launch a despairing act of terrorism, hijacking a train and a school full of children, demanding that past wrongs be righted. Ben attempts to intercede – but the tragi-comedy may be beyond his control… “
THE NEW BOOK is just now being prepared for e-publication, or can be had direct from me: see “contact”.
TWENTY ONE POEMS by Ramon Lopez Velarde, translated by JF.
Velarde (who died in 1921) was a founder of modernist poetry in Mexico. He died very young, having spent his short life in trying to come to terms with the country’s revolution, and his own love for three beautiful and remote women. This little book of translations has drawings by my old friend Chris Chapman. I’ll be giving a reading of the poems at StAnza, the festival of poetry in St Andrews, Fife (Scotland). Please see the special ‘Velarde’ page for details of the book.
Velarde at StAnza
I shall be presenting the Velarde translations at StAnza, Scotland’s foremost poetry festival, at the Town Hall in St Andrews on Thursday 15th March at 11.00 a.m. This will be part of the ‘Past & Present’ series in which contemporary writers present a writer who has made a particular impact on them.
See the StAnza website for more details of the festival and this event: www.stanzapoetry.org.
E-BOOKS : I have had several e-books appear recently.
“Blue Poppies” , “Poor Mercy” and “Glenfarron” are all now available from their original publishers as e-editions from Amazon and elsewhere.
“Topokana Martyrs’ Day” was the play that began my professional writing career back in 1982. At the prompting of a former colleague now teaching at Brandeis University, who needed an edition for teaching, the play is now available as a Stupor Mundi e-book from Amazon.
“A Petite Serenande & other stories” is a collection of twenty years of short story writing. Many of these have been published in magazines or read on the radio, but have not been collected elsewhere. These also can now be had as a Stupor Mundi e-book from Amazon.
ALSO PUBLISHED IN 2011 :
THE CRAFT OF FICTION: How to become a novelist.
A guide to the major techniques of fiction writing, based on my experience teaching for the Open University, St Andrews and the Arvon Foundation. The book looks at examples ranging from Chaucer (1385) to Orhan Pamuk (2010), by way of narrative poems, film, and even paintings. It is published in the “Aber” series (www.aber-publishing.co.uk.). An extensive comparison of Craft of Fiction with another writing handbook recently appeared in the Scottish Review of Books. Please see the ‘Reviews’ page, and the special ‘Craft’ page above.
THE LUCK OF THE DEVIL – My father, Robert Le Page, later became a distinguished sociolinguist, but as a young man he served in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, from 1941-45. This is a newly edited memoir, a vivid account of the dangerous life of the FAA’s Swordfish squadrons. It is generously illustrated by Robert’s own photographs, and is published by Pen & Sword (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk.)
