A wonderfully evocative and engaging narrative that unfolds at a cracking pace. A great read whatever your age.

AH

PIGS MIGHT FLY

A comedy for teenagers of all ages

James Watson
A tall tale about a time when milk was delivered by horse and cart and TV sets were a rarity even on snob hill. A time when cinema was the beating heart of communities. This is the valiant account of Clark Gable Stevens (Curlew to his friends) to save his Dads cinema from demolition.

A story brimful of characters

Theres Councillor Morgan who knows the price of everything (and, yes, the value of nothing) intent on razing the local Ritz to the ground and replacing it with a supermarket. Theres his nice son Nigel, young businessman on the make, who wants to pinch Curlews girl Susan (but then so does every other boy in Fetterton). Theres Leonard Lamont Stevens, Curlews Dad, his body hospitalised for the foreseeable future, but his mind up there on the screen with heroes, villains and femmes fatales. Theres Aunt Annie living in a dream world of Pictish and Viking remains and who cant remember where she hid the legacy left her by Curlews Grandad. The three stodges, mountains of muscle, who dont play by the Queensbury Rules and threaten the pulverisation of Curlew and his Save the Ritz Committee.

 Curlews school head and chemistry master Mr. Dakkers (Dracula) wholl never forgive the boy for refusing to cooperate with his distilled water experiment (How do I know its not poison, Sir?) Fettertons local aristo, Lady Birtwhistle, who has made the same word-for-word speech of thanks at openings, closings, sales of work and charity events for thirty years and for even longer been an adoring admirer of silent cinema heartthrob Rudolph Valentino. Can Curlew win her over to his cause by promising her a programme of Valentino movies? Finally there is that unlikely hero, Clark Gable Stevens himself, suddenly wrenched from a life dedicated to wandering lonely as a cloud through hill and dale and plunged in to the wilds of publicity, desperate campaigning and feverish fund-raising in the teeth of cunning opposition. Overlooking all the strivings of Curlew, Sue and the Ritz Campaign Committee is Fossits Folly, a 32 metre high stone tower built a century ago atop the Winter Hill by a man who never ceased to believe that pigs might fly; will Curlew prove Fossits faith well-placed or will his old haunt one day deserve to be re-named Curlews Folly?

Pigs Might Fly: synopsis

16 year old Clark Gable Stevens (nicknamed Curlew because one of his few talents is being able to imitate that wild bird of the moors) is suddenly faced with a crisis that of having to give up his layabout existence and grow up. His father, owner of Fettertons Ritz Cinema, already in grave peril as the developers wish to flatten it in the name of commercial progress, has taken a fall. With a number of significant bones broken, he will be holed up in a hospital bed for days, weeks or even for ever. Who but his son Curlew can rescue the Ritz? Councillor Morgan and his son Nigel are at the head of the queue to bulldoze the Ritz; after all, argue the Morgans and they are not far from the truth the cinema is dilapidated and crumbling. Its an eyesore in their view, a fleapit. On most nights it draws an audience insufficient in number to make up one football team, never mind two. But for Leonard Lamont Stevens, film fanatic, dreamer, the Ritz is his life, the place where miracles happen.

Curlew knows all about the shaking of heads; knows that most people think Dad is as much a weaver of dreams as his sister, and Curlews aunt. Our Annie is an eccentric with only a fingernails grip on the real world (the rest of her i nhabits the lives of Picts and Vikings). On the other hand, Curlew doesnt like being told what to do by the Morgans of this life, especially as Nigel fancies the lovely Susan, Curlews step-cousin, and the girl of his dreams. True, Curlew would much prefer to continue to idle away his days in a hay meadow staring at the clouds, but the Ritz is more than just a building: it is a cause. So what if Curlews plan to mastermind a Save the Ritz campaign is as likely to succeed as, in the words of Chippy Bulmers dad, pigs might fly? Battle commences. David sets forth against so many Goliaths. First, Curlew must unite and inspire his friends to stop shaking their heads and muttering about lost causes; second, with his comrades and hopefully sweet Susan at his side he must turn entrepreneur and persuade town and countryside to flock, pockets laden, to the Ritz Grand Carnival. With such vision, with so many brilliant ideas the first ever Ugliest Pet in the World Competition, for example could anything possibly go wrong? How come, then, that suddenly Curlew is accused of setting fire to the school sports pavilion, and the proof empty petrol cans is found in Dads shed among Our Annies collection of Pictish potsherds? Surely Curlews enemies would not stoop, on the very day of the Carnival, to kidnap? Finally, in a packed Ritz, with international tortoise and snail races still in progress, who has turned off the lights, and who is about to direct the Ritzs newly -refurbished hosepipe on Fettertons most distinguished citizen, Lady Birtwhistle? Will catastrophe get the better of Curlew Stevens, or might he have just that little bit of luck; what on earth could that be, soaring over the housetops of Fetterton? It couldnt be: impossible! James Watsons TALKING IN WHISPERS was a winner of The Other Award, Highly Commended in the Carnegie Awards and winner of The Buxtehuder Bulle Prize for Teen Fiction. His JUSTICE OF THE DAGGER was a Waterstones Book of the Month. He has also had published a number of books on the media, including MEDIA COMMUNICATION: AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORY & PROCESS (Palgrave/ Macmillan). Also available on Kindle: THE FREEDOM TREE, TALKING IN WHISPERS, TICKET TO PRAGUE, JUSTICE OF THE DAGGER and FAIR GAME: THE STEPS OF ODESSA.

For further information, please see the authors combined website and blog at Watsonworksblog.blogspot.com