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Test Signal
We are the North. This is Test Signal.
With groundbreaking new authors and a thriving independent publishing scene, the North is driving a revolution in new literature. This anthology showcases the best of its talent, from every corner of the region and across all its vibrant genres.
bridges over the Tyne / crumbling coastlines / influencers' online worlds / asylum applications / packed train carriages / forgotten village social clubs / family in Nigeria / holidays in Greece / shining university campuses / ghosts in city cemeteries / jobs in London / teenage explorations / suburban woodland
With groundbreaking new authors and a thriving independent publishing scene, the North is driving a revolution in new literature. This anthology showcases the best of its talent, from every corner of the region and across all its vibrant genres.
bridges over the Tyne / crumbling coastlines / influencers' online worlds / asylum applications / packed train carriages / forgotten village social clubs / family in Nigeria / holidays in Greece / shining university campuses / ghosts in city cemeteries / jobs in London / teenage explorations / suburban woodland
342 pages, Paperback
First published July 8, 2021
3 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 1, 2021
Hailing from the north east, I am always interested in the writing talent from my neck of the woods, and this short story compendium is compelling and richly varied with some original tales and smooth writing throughout. Of course, how much each of the narratives will resonate with you will depend on each reader and their predispositions, but there is something here for everyone to enjoy.
August 3, 2025
This anthology wasn’t as good as I thought it would be unfortunately.
Out of the 22 short stories in this collection, I only really liked six of them – the rest were a bit meh.
The best one in my opinion was definitely ‘How You Find Yourself’ by Sara Sherwood, however I also really liked:
• ‘Wabbit’ by Matt Wesolowski
• ‘Transplant’ by Jenna Isherwood
• ‘The Mary House’ by Crista Ermiya
• ‘We’re Made of Electricity’ by Jane Claire Bradley
• ‘God Hates Withernsea’ by Adam Farrer
Out of the 22 short stories in this collection, I only really liked six of them – the rest were a bit meh.
The best one in my opinion was definitely ‘How You Find Yourself’ by Sara Sherwood, however I also really liked:
• ‘Wabbit’ by Matt Wesolowski
• ‘Transplant’ by Jenna Isherwood
• ‘The Mary House’ by Crista Ermiya
• ‘We’re Made of Electricity’ by Jane Claire Bradley
• ‘God Hates Withernsea’ by Adam Farrer
December 19, 2024
Let me begin by saying I'm a Northerner and will always class myself as such. I'm proud of the fact and proud of our Northern literary talent (god blimey I feel like Jon Snow!)
Saying that however, this Northern collection is a very mixed bag.
I can count on one hand the number of "good" stories in the bunch. Naomi Booth's offering was very good and kept me fascinated throughout.
A lot of the storytelling was mediocre however. Some of the ideas felt half developed and thrown together. Wabbit was pointless. Cuckoo felt like a story from a Jamaican anthology.
Altogether, this was a pretty poor show. I mean I'm kind of disappointed that this is what represents writers from the North. And let me add that Dead Ink publish some great books and I've read a lot of their previous offerings, but this anthology is not one of their shining moments I have to say.
Dissatisfying 2 stars.
Saying that however, this Northern collection is a very mixed bag.
I can count on one hand the number of "good" stories in the bunch. Naomi Booth's offering was very good and kept me fascinated throughout.
A lot of the storytelling was mediocre however. Some of the ideas felt half developed and thrown together. Wabbit was pointless. Cuckoo felt like a story from a Jamaican anthology.
Altogether, this was a pretty poor show. I mean I'm kind of disappointed that this is what represents writers from the North. And let me add that Dead Ink publish some great books and I've read a lot of their previous offerings, but this anthology is not one of their shining moments I have to say.
Dissatisfying 2 stars.
July 8, 2021
Test Signal is an anthology of contemporary writing from the North of England, spanning a range of genres and styles, in a collaboration between Dead Ink and Bloomsbury. As the introduction makes clear, this is not an anthology looking at ideas of 'the North', but one containing work by writers based in the North, meaning that it has a wide range of themes and topics within.
The introduction also raises the point that not every piece in the book may be to a reader's liking, especially as there is no unifying genre or theme, but actually, as someone who finds that a lot with most anthologies and even collections by the same author, I found this anthology had a lot of pieces of writing that really drew me in. The second piece, 'Making Monsters', was unusual and intriguing, the third, 'Birdie in the Big Smoke', told a strangely emotional story of a trip to London, and then the fourth, 'Angel of the North', was a powerful look at grief and moving on told by an author (Kit Fan) whose recent novel Diamond Hill I really enjoyed. These three pieces really engaged me with their variety, emotion, and sense of being a complete story.
The rest of the anthology continued to have plenty of pieces I enjoyed (I actually read most of it on a train back to the North from East Anglia, which felt very fitting). I liked the innovative formats of 'How You Find Yourself' and 'Asylum Decision' and the stories of 'Wabbit' and 'Not My Usual Practice' in particular. There was a lot of slightly uncanny looks at things, or exploration of lives outside of what might usually be represented in literature set in England (read: mostly in London).
The only thing I did think, as someone who writes and reads poetry, was that it would be good to have an anthology like this, without theme and acting as a showcase of both establishing and emerging writers, that also included some poetry within it, especially seeing as some of the prose was more experimental.
Test Signal is an invigorating anthology that is weird and clever, giving space to explore writing from a range of perspectives and proving that the literary world is not just centred around London (though probably a lot of people picking up this anthology will already know that). I found it an ideal book to read on a train (especially up the east coast maybe) as the stories are short and engrossing, so maybe one for summer travelling.
The introduction also raises the point that not every piece in the book may be to a reader's liking, especially as there is no unifying genre or theme, but actually, as someone who finds that a lot with most anthologies and even collections by the same author, I found this anthology had a lot of pieces of writing that really drew me in. The second piece, 'Making Monsters', was unusual and intriguing, the third, 'Birdie in the Big Smoke', told a strangely emotional story of a trip to London, and then the fourth, 'Angel of the North', was a powerful look at grief and moving on told by an author (Kit Fan) whose recent novel Diamond Hill I really enjoyed. These three pieces really engaged me with their variety, emotion, and sense of being a complete story.
The rest of the anthology continued to have plenty of pieces I enjoyed (I actually read most of it on a train back to the North from East Anglia, which felt very fitting). I liked the innovative formats of 'How You Find Yourself' and 'Asylum Decision' and the stories of 'Wabbit' and 'Not My Usual Practice' in particular. There was a lot of slightly uncanny looks at things, or exploration of lives outside of what might usually be represented in literature set in England (read: mostly in London).
The only thing I did think, as someone who writes and reads poetry, was that it would be good to have an anthology like this, without theme and acting as a showcase of both establishing and emerging writers, that also included some poetry within it, especially seeing as some of the prose was more experimental.
Test Signal is an invigorating anthology that is weird and clever, giving space to explore writing from a range of perspectives and proving that the literary world is not just centred around London (though probably a lot of people picking up this anthology will already know that). I found it an ideal book to read on a train (especially up the east coast maybe) as the stories are short and engrossing, so maybe one for summer travelling.
August 29, 2021
I loved this collection of short stories! I had so many favourites, too many to list. It was especially refreshing to read stories written in northern dialect (without being gratingly so). Test Signal really does showcase the wealth of literary talent in the North and I’ll be recommending it to everyone I know!
May 29, 2022
'Test Signal' is an anthology of short fiction from 'Northern' writers. There is no unifying theme to the work other than the location of the writer and not all stories are set in the North of England. Nevertheless, throughout the book I can hear our Northern voices and also the diversity and richness of who 'Northern' people are.
As with most works of this nature it's a bit of a mixed bag but the good outweighs the less so and there are more than a few stories that really stuck with me. There was very little that made me feel I was reading filler. I guess when an anthology tries to do 'something for everyone' as a conscious design choice it inevitably leads to 'a proportion of the book may not be for you', but even with themed anthologies we see works we may not be overly keen on so I see the broad brush taken here as a positive.
Not that I think anyone is familiar with my reviews but I am also keen to read working class voices and perspectives and it would be very hard to have an anthology of Northern writers without having them in abundance.
I'm not going to review every single piece in the book but perhaps shall draw out some of my favourites or other things I found interesting.
The book opens with 'Clavicle Wood' by Andrew Michael Hurley and I guess he is the most well known author (to me anyway) in the collection. Hurley is the author of 'The Loney' set in Morecambe Bay and has been on my reading list for years (as a total aside I have a huge desire to start a reading challenge of folkloric or folk realism fiction which I will add to the list of 'projects I think about but never start'). It's a strange start to the book because it's not really a short story, it's more of a memoir piece reflecting on COVID-19, outdoor space, common land and gentrification. It's rather beautiful, quite sad, but also poignant both managing to reflect back to a 'property-less' state and also reflecting on family, time passing and how the spaces we use are not ours forever if we are not careful.
There are two things that really touched me about this story. First of all, I know the wood he is referring to in his story, although I probably didn't ever walk exactly where he described. About thirty years ago I lived quite close to where Hurley is writing from. The land he describes forms part of land where a golf course once was and now a property developer is putting up houses everywhere transforming a reclaimed wild space into structured park land and lots of houses. It is still very contentious in the community about how this has happened. I probably only lived nearby for a couple of years in my teens (it feels longer) and the place was still a golf course, but I have really distinct memories of walking through on hot summer days, using the paths and cut throughs. I remember the stickiness of the heat, the sense of trespass even then avoiding golfers. I connect the space with a magical summer with my girlfriend of the time, of walking down dark unlit paths after reading MR James. The space is transformed now even as Hurley writes.
The second is during the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic outside space was truly valued. There are some woods behind my home and the summer of 2020 was spent with my kids walking those wild paths on hot days, exploring the space, enjoying the air and being safe. A housing development was being built nearby at the time. A year later when the weather was nicer I was in the space using a known shortcut through a meadow which took me through the new houses. Alas more houses had been built, the space closed and barred. I felt sad, not just for the space, but the closing off of a throughfare, our spaces to explore continually being closed. So, I loved this piece, it connected me so closely to both my past and my present and yet I am mindful that for most readers all this will be irrelevant!
I loved the second piece too - Amy Stewart's 'Making Monsters'. It's set on a Greek island and is about the story of three sisters who have gone there to heal. One of the sisters has suffered sexual violence and trauma and the story is quite harrowing in places. The story has stayed with me and despite the story and subject matter I think about the main character and think she is healing and recovering from her trauma. There is a very clear nod to Medusa and the three gorgons and the 'hatred of mortal men'. I connected with her deeply and it's stayed with me long after reading. An excellent piece.
A number of stories in the collection play with form a little. These include 'Birdie in the Big Smoke', 'How To Find Yourself' and 'Asylum Decision'. Reading the reviews it seems 'Asylum Decision' was in a sampler and it's one where the narrative is constructed via a letter or report to the outcome of an asylum decision, the author being an immigration lawyer. It hit all the right notes and the form was interesting. It did what it was supposed to do - the piece read like an 'outcome letter' but the language and structure didn't really engage with me. I get that was the point really, that this was written from a perspective of one unfeeling and insensitive to human trauma.
'How to Find Yourself' by Sara Sherwood is brilliant and is written like a step-by-step guide or even a blog post about the transition from adolescence to adult hood, the trajectory of a Northern working class girl engaging with social mobility and a move 'down South'. It's something I have wrestled with often in my later adult life, how even if we are a little more financially comfortable or we have a job title that doesn't denote a working class background I am unsure if we can ever truly leave our working class roots. I reflect on it often that my young children's life is materially different from my own but I can never say that I am not or am no longer working class. The middle class is somewhere where you think you may be but for many never really belong and you can never be one of them. I was getting definite 'teenage girl vibes and first crushes' transitioning to 'unfulfilled career aspirations' and wanting what once we walked away from.
Moving away from the North and travelling back is a theme in many stories, not just the aforementioned 'How to Find Yourself' but also 'Birdie in the Big Smoke' (a nice tale about being skint visiting friends and another about how working class Northern kids can never truly fit in with middle class uni kids) and 'Angel of the North'.
As well as the aforementioned 'Asylum Decision' we have a number of stories which consider immigration and perspectives of non-white Northerners, both those born here and those who call the North home ('Good Morning, Vietnam' and 'Transplant'). 'Transplant' again touches on that early adulthood and living with people who are 'not like us'. I guess when writing this review I am thinking about all the times the theme of mobility comes up for us - the times we move socially or to or from the North and what that means.
There are a few horror or ghost stories in here too, 'The Coorie' by Carmen Marcus is a bit of a post-apocalyptic folkloric story that feels ambitious but I couldn't really connect to despite loving the ideas. '7.43' didn't quite click with me as a ghost story about a likely suicide off a bridge but maybe I wasn't in a great place.
'Wabbit' by Matt Wesolowski is an amazing, visceral horror story (research 'black rabbit Newcastle Cathedral' for the inspiration). I loved the language in this, the rawness of a man clearly living with alcohol and drug issues, past trauma and the vividness of a Newcastle weekend night. I've only been to Newcastle a handful of times but I recognise the streets, the sounds and the smells. There is a constant undercurrent of violence in the story and a nod to past family trauma that just hurts to read. Loved it and I hope to read more of his work.
'The Mary House' by Crista Ermiya is another favourite of mine. Like many other stories in the book it has a theme of adolescence and family trauma. I love abandoned spaces and they make great horror stories. As someone who would love to wander around a long abandoned school I loved this one. There is a real sense of danger and foreboding throughout. I think I'd really enjoy more of her work if she turns to longer fiction. A real highlight in the book.
Seeing as I am jumping about a fair bit I suppose I want to mention 'We're Made of Electricity' by Jane Claire Bradley. I first read her work in Lumpen https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... and picked up her recent chapbook 'Truth or Dare' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5.... Over the last few months I have really enjoyed her writing and bought this on the strength of her appearance in this. It's another brilliant story, again with a centre on the transition from childhood through adolescence into early womanhood. Being a middle aged man I'll never truly understand the perspective of a teenage girl but I love this writing so much it really clicks with me. The voices are so authentic and real. This story is set against the backdrop of the disappearance of two children and the community trauma on a working class estate. The parallels to more well known child abduction and murder cases are there but there is something in this that really resonated with me. This is a horrible thing to say but when I was 11 I lived a few doors away from a child who was abducted, raped and murdered. So much of this piece of fiction resonated with my feelings as a child. There is a line in here, 'the air tasted like tin' and I can still taste the air when I left the house around then, how we were not allowed to go where we used to, how the streets that were full of kids playing were deserted. How the children interpreted what was happening with the adults. It was surreal, it was harrowing, life paused but it still carried on. That's two pieces that have grabbed my past, thrust it to the present and put a marker down for me as a person of the North.
A couple of other themes that jumped out were those of 'home life'. 'Clean Work' by Naomi Booth got to me, especially thinking about some of the housing I have lived in (Over the years I've had ants, cockroaches, mice and rats sharing where I call home). It got to me that sense of trying to keep a place healthy and clean with a young baby and not a lot of money. 'Cuckoo' by Desiree Reynolds was really good but quite unpleasant to read. The work I am doing is adjacent to people who work with vulnerable people victims of cuckooing. Stayed with me a while this one.
Good anthology, something for everyone and I kind of now wish I had written about everything in the book but alas time presses....
As with most works of this nature it's a bit of a mixed bag but the good outweighs the less so and there are more than a few stories that really stuck with me. There was very little that made me feel I was reading filler. I guess when an anthology tries to do 'something for everyone' as a conscious design choice it inevitably leads to 'a proportion of the book may not be for you', but even with themed anthologies we see works we may not be overly keen on so I see the broad brush taken here as a positive.
Not that I think anyone is familiar with my reviews but I am also keen to read working class voices and perspectives and it would be very hard to have an anthology of Northern writers without having them in abundance.
I'm not going to review every single piece in the book but perhaps shall draw out some of my favourites or other things I found interesting.
The book opens with 'Clavicle Wood' by Andrew Michael Hurley and I guess he is the most well known author (to me anyway) in the collection. Hurley is the author of 'The Loney' set in Morecambe Bay and has been on my reading list for years (as a total aside I have a huge desire to start a reading challenge of folkloric or folk realism fiction which I will add to the list of 'projects I think about but never start'). It's a strange start to the book because it's not really a short story, it's more of a memoir piece reflecting on COVID-19, outdoor space, common land and gentrification. It's rather beautiful, quite sad, but also poignant both managing to reflect back to a 'property-less' state and also reflecting on family, time passing and how the spaces we use are not ours forever if we are not careful.
There are two things that really touched me about this story. First of all, I know the wood he is referring to in his story, although I probably didn't ever walk exactly where he described. About thirty years ago I lived quite close to where Hurley is writing from. The land he describes forms part of land where a golf course once was and now a property developer is putting up houses everywhere transforming a reclaimed wild space into structured park land and lots of houses. It is still very contentious in the community about how this has happened. I probably only lived nearby for a couple of years in my teens (it feels longer) and the place was still a golf course, but I have really distinct memories of walking through on hot summer days, using the paths and cut throughs. I remember the stickiness of the heat, the sense of trespass even then avoiding golfers. I connect the space with a magical summer with my girlfriend of the time, of walking down dark unlit paths after reading MR James. The space is transformed now even as Hurley writes.
The second is during the first lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic outside space was truly valued. There are some woods behind my home and the summer of 2020 was spent with my kids walking those wild paths on hot days, exploring the space, enjoying the air and being safe. A housing development was being built nearby at the time. A year later when the weather was nicer I was in the space using a known shortcut through a meadow which took me through the new houses. Alas more houses had been built, the space closed and barred. I felt sad, not just for the space, but the closing off of a throughfare, our spaces to explore continually being closed. So, I loved this piece, it connected me so closely to both my past and my present and yet I am mindful that for most readers all this will be irrelevant!
I loved the second piece too - Amy Stewart's 'Making Monsters'. It's set on a Greek island and is about the story of three sisters who have gone there to heal. One of the sisters has suffered sexual violence and trauma and the story is quite harrowing in places. The story has stayed with me and despite the story and subject matter I think about the main character and think she is healing and recovering from her trauma. There is a very clear nod to Medusa and the three gorgons and the 'hatred of mortal men'. I connected with her deeply and it's stayed with me long after reading. An excellent piece.
A number of stories in the collection play with form a little. These include 'Birdie in the Big Smoke', 'How To Find Yourself' and 'Asylum Decision'. Reading the reviews it seems 'Asylum Decision' was in a sampler and it's one where the narrative is constructed via a letter or report to the outcome of an asylum decision, the author being an immigration lawyer. It hit all the right notes and the form was interesting. It did what it was supposed to do - the piece read like an 'outcome letter' but the language and structure didn't really engage with me. I get that was the point really, that this was written from a perspective of one unfeeling and insensitive to human trauma.
'How to Find Yourself' by Sara Sherwood is brilliant and is written like a step-by-step guide or even a blog post about the transition from adolescence to adult hood, the trajectory of a Northern working class girl engaging with social mobility and a move 'down South'. It's something I have wrestled with often in my later adult life, how even if we are a little more financially comfortable or we have a job title that doesn't denote a working class background I am unsure if we can ever truly leave our working class roots. I reflect on it often that my young children's life is materially different from my own but I can never say that I am not or am no longer working class. The middle class is somewhere where you think you may be but for many never really belong and you can never be one of them. I was getting definite 'teenage girl vibes and first crushes' transitioning to 'unfulfilled career aspirations' and wanting what once we walked away from.
Moving away from the North and travelling back is a theme in many stories, not just the aforementioned 'How to Find Yourself' but also 'Birdie in the Big Smoke' (a nice tale about being skint visiting friends and another about how working class Northern kids can never truly fit in with middle class uni kids) and 'Angel of the North'.
As well as the aforementioned 'Asylum Decision' we have a number of stories which consider immigration and perspectives of non-white Northerners, both those born here and those who call the North home ('Good Morning, Vietnam' and 'Transplant'). 'Transplant' again touches on that early adulthood and living with people who are 'not like us'. I guess when writing this review I am thinking about all the times the theme of mobility comes up for us - the times we move socially or to or from the North and what that means.
There are a few horror or ghost stories in here too, 'The Coorie' by Carmen Marcus is a bit of a post-apocalyptic folkloric story that feels ambitious but I couldn't really connect to despite loving the ideas. '7.43' didn't quite click with me as a ghost story about a likely suicide off a bridge but maybe I wasn't in a great place.
'Wabbit' by Matt Wesolowski is an amazing, visceral horror story (research 'black rabbit Newcastle Cathedral' for the inspiration). I loved the language in this, the rawness of a man clearly living with alcohol and drug issues, past trauma and the vividness of a Newcastle weekend night. I've only been to Newcastle a handful of times but I recognise the streets, the sounds and the smells. There is a constant undercurrent of violence in the story and a nod to past family trauma that just hurts to read. Loved it and I hope to read more of his work.
'The Mary House' by Crista Ermiya is another favourite of mine. Like many other stories in the book it has a theme of adolescence and family trauma. I love abandoned spaces and they make great horror stories. As someone who would love to wander around a long abandoned school I loved this one. There is a real sense of danger and foreboding throughout. I think I'd really enjoy more of her work if she turns to longer fiction. A real highlight in the book.
Seeing as I am jumping about a fair bit I suppose I want to mention 'We're Made of Electricity' by Jane Claire Bradley. I first read her work in Lumpen https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... and picked up her recent chapbook 'Truth or Dare' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5.... Over the last few months I have really enjoyed her writing and bought this on the strength of her appearance in this. It's another brilliant story, again with a centre on the transition from childhood through adolescence into early womanhood. Being a middle aged man I'll never truly understand the perspective of a teenage girl but I love this writing so much it really clicks with me. The voices are so authentic and real. This story is set against the backdrop of the disappearance of two children and the community trauma on a working class estate. The parallels to more well known child abduction and murder cases are there but there is something in this that really resonated with me. This is a horrible thing to say but when I was 11 I lived a few doors away from a child who was abducted, raped and murdered. So much of this piece of fiction resonated with my feelings as a child. There is a line in here, 'the air tasted like tin' and I can still taste the air when I left the house around then, how we were not allowed to go where we used to, how the streets that were full of kids playing were deserted. How the children interpreted what was happening with the adults. It was surreal, it was harrowing, life paused but it still carried on. That's two pieces that have grabbed my past, thrust it to the present and put a marker down for me as a person of the North.
A couple of other themes that jumped out were those of 'home life'. 'Clean Work' by Naomi Booth got to me, especially thinking about some of the housing I have lived in (Over the years I've had ants, cockroaches, mice and rats sharing where I call home). It got to me that sense of trying to keep a place healthy and clean with a young baby and not a lot of money. 'Cuckoo' by Desiree Reynolds was really good but quite unpleasant to read. The work I am doing is adjacent to people who work with vulnerable people victims of cuckooing. Stayed with me a while this one.
Good anthology, something for everyone and I kind of now wish I had written about everything in the book but alas time presses....
June 1, 2021
I've had a sample of 4 stories from this anthology. I am afraid that not one of them was to my liking. If I were to base by decision of reading(buying) this anthology on what I've read, then needless to say I wouldn't be very willing. The good part is that not everything is doom and gloom. Firstly I've only read 60 pages out of 360 so maybe the sample was not necessary representative of the rest of the book. And secondly, the stories I've read have potential but I think they need a little bit more work. I've enjoyed the touch of mystery/strangeness of Influencer and Good Morning Vietnam. Good Morning Vietnam in particular has a playful, rather interesting take on the fine line between science and the supranatural, but sadly it jumps so much from one thing to another to the point of confusion. I would really like to see this one being refined. Also interesting to see other forms being explored like the epistolary story Asylum Decision, but again, the content could be improved!
*Book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher.
*Book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher.
May 6, 2021
I received the sampler on NetGalley which included four stories: 'Good Morning Vietnam'; 'Asylum Decision' by Tawseef Khan; 'Cuckoo' by Désirée Reynolds; 'Influencer' by Lara Williams.
I understand that the idea of the book is to put together writing by promising northern writers but I really felt that a unifying theme was missing. I was expecting different exploration of what it meant to be from the north, or what culture means to each writer.
I think I was knocked off base by the first story 'Good Morning Vietnam' which isn't set in the UK and I found difficult to figure out what was going on. Maybe if the sampler had started with one of the other stories I wouldn't have been so off-kilter. My favourite story was 'Asylum Decision' which was told in a really innovative way - I will definitely be looking for more work from this author.
I understand that the idea of the book is to put together writing by promising northern writers but I really felt that a unifying theme was missing. I was expecting different exploration of what it meant to be from the north, or what culture means to each writer.
I think I was knocked off base by the first story 'Good Morning Vietnam' which isn't set in the UK and I found difficult to figure out what was going on. Maybe if the sampler had started with one of the other stories I wouldn't have been so off-kilter. My favourite story was 'Asylum Decision' which was told in a really innovative way - I will definitely be looking for more work from this author.
October 3, 2024
“During lockdown, it wasn’t only how far we could go that changed but how we moved too. In taking our allotted daily dose of fresh air, we were urged not to linger but to simply exercise and return home. The wood was then a place to pass through; now, there is a certain freedom to be still and loiter. Which I do. When all man-made noise ceases, I stand and close my eyes and try to listen only to what’s here, what this space and no other contains. If the wood offers us meditative seclusion, then it seems proper to accept. As Thoreau says, ‘What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?’”
—
“A life lived among nothing but what is man-made, and therefore shaped in order to shape us in return, feels limited and futile, whereas if we experience life happening in wild, unmanaged places, it can feel expansive, even transcendental, no matter how small the physical space.”
—
“‘Love never ends,’ Marilynne Robinson writes. ‘Projected forward it is hope.’ Love itself doesn’t die the moment someone we love does. When they go, hope is the only action we have left in expressing our love for that person: I hope you left loved and in peace, I hope you’re okay.”
—
“It’s unfair of me to expect people to look around at everything they know and love, then admit that none of it is permanent and everything is doomed. It’s much easier for them to consider lost undersea villages while they watch in real time as the buildings crumble into the waters.”
—
“A life lived among nothing but what is man-made, and therefore shaped in order to shape us in return, feels limited and futile, whereas if we experience life happening in wild, unmanaged places, it can feel expansive, even transcendental, no matter how small the physical space.”
—
“‘Love never ends,’ Marilynne Robinson writes. ‘Projected forward it is hope.’ Love itself doesn’t die the moment someone we love does. When they go, hope is the only action we have left in expressing our love for that person: I hope you left loved and in peace, I hope you’re okay.”
—
“It’s unfair of me to expect people to look around at everything they know and love, then admit that none of it is permanent and everything is doomed. It’s much easier for them to consider lost undersea villages while they watch in real time as the buildings crumble into the waters.”
July 30, 2021
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to and review a copy of this title. I didn't receive this audiobook until the publication date so was unable to review then. I have started listening to it and I am enjoying the stories and the voices in this anthology of Northern writing. But I do not like reading or listening to short stories one after the other. This is therefore a review based on just three of the twenty(ish) included in this book. They have been interesting and engaging and well read. The Northern accents of the narrators I have heard so far are easily understandable; this was one of the things that concerned me about requesting this title as my father-in-law was a Geordie and I rarely understood what he was saying! So, so far it's a four star listen.
June 27, 2021
Test Signal is an anthology of new writing of short stories by writers from the North. This is only a sampler so this wasn't the whole book but a selection of stories from the book.
If there was an underlying theme, it wasn't apparent from the sample but I don't believe that dimishes this at Asylum Decision I think is the best story of the sampler and is told as an immigration officer turning down an application for asylum. This perfectly illustrates how the immigration system has become so cold and unfeeling. With all the stories, I found myself wanting to know more about what happened to each of the characters after the end of the stories which is the mark to me of a good short story.
If there was an underlying theme, it wasn't apparent from the sample but I don't believe that dimishes this at Asylum Decision I think is the best story of the sampler and is told as an immigration officer turning down an application for asylum. This perfectly illustrates how the immigration system has become so cold and unfeeling. With all the stories, I found myself wanting to know more about what happened to each of the characters after the end of the stories which is the mark to me of a good short story.
June 27, 2021
I enjoyed this well written collection of stories, in particular how diverse yet unsettling they were, particularly "cuckoo" and "asylum decision" which were more rooted in reality than the other two. Although I appreciate not every story can have a conclusion where the ends are tied up nicely, I would have liked to read more of each one and their characters and felt unclear whether being a "sampler" meant they were a sample of a longer narrative or they were just a sample of the short stories which would be included in the final book. I really hope it's the former.
Thank you to netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book
Thank you to netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book
September 20, 2024
Anyone who's disappointed that there wasn't a unifying theme clearly didn't read the introduction where it says that there wouldn't BE one and that sometimes you may not love all of the stories. Regardless of that, I loved all the stories. Lots of different styles of writing that came together very well. Wabbit was a particular favourite, as well as Influencer. My first anthology I've properly read and it's opened a whole new world!
December 13, 2022
Some excellent Writing in this sometimes offbeat Anthology of short pieces by up and coming writers from the North of England. One or two not so good, but nothing I couldn't enjoy. Do something hood today, abd buy this to support up abd coming writers.
April 18, 2022
An enthralling anthology of northern fiction.
March 26, 2023
Was a library book so handed back in, really enjoyed the first few chapters the most
August 7, 2021
I enjoyed this anthology of new Northern writing. I was waiting for my copy of the book to arrive when I noticed I could request the audiobook on NetGalley. This intrigued me to request and listen to the stories being told in the northern accent.
As a Northerner myself, I am from Sunderland, I really enjoyed listening to the stories. Not all stories were for me, as the anthology showcased so much talent, but overall I loved the collection. I was taken to a sunny beech in Greece and back home to again, visiting amazing characters and places in between. Some of these characters I am still wondering back and meeting again in my mind now.
Plus all of this put together during lockdown. Amazing work. I do hope to see another anthology soon.
Thank you NetGalley and Dead Ink for a copy of the audiobook
As a Northerner myself, I am from Sunderland, I really enjoyed listening to the stories. Not all stories were for me, as the anthology showcased so much talent, but overall I loved the collection. I was taken to a sunny beech in Greece and back home to again, visiting amazing characters and places in between. Some of these characters I am still wondering back and meeting again in my mind now.
Plus all of this put together during lockdown. Amazing work. I do hope to see another anthology soon.
Thank you NetGalley and Dead Ink for a copy of the audiobook
August 3, 2021
My first review on a sampler of a book. Not just a sampler of any book but an anthology of stories from Northern authors.
Coming in at 60 pages, this was a very quick read. It took me half an hour for was it.
There are four stories here, all about very different types of people. Three are about ethnic minorities and one is about an influencer with a mysterious leak.
I liked this anthology, some of the stories (the first and the last) didn’t make much sense to me and I feel they could have been a bit longer but the middle two were well formed and I liked those.
Would happily read the full book.
Coming in at 60 pages, this was a very quick read. It took me half an hour for was it.
There are four stories here, all about very different types of people. Three are about ethnic minorities and one is about an influencer with a mysterious leak.
I liked this anthology, some of the stories (the first and the last) didn’t make much sense to me and I feel they could have been a bit longer but the middle two were well formed and I liked those.
Would happily read the full book.
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