Kindle Edition Amazon Stuart Ayris - Author Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: Createspace Publishing ISBN-10:  1478326603 Type: Fiction Pages: 226 Copyright: January 4th 2012 ISBN-13: 9781478326601 Simon Anthony, a Beatles-obsessed alcoholic with a diagnosis of schizophrenia attempts to be reunited with the son he hasn't seen for twenty years. The first book in the award winning FRUGALITY Trilogy. Tollesbury Time Nothing is real And there's nothing To get hung about sing the children... In September 2008 I accompanied the police as they entered a house in Tollesbury. I was a psychiatric nurse at the time. The owner of the house was one of my patients. He had not been seen for two weeks - neither had his wife or his son. What I saw that evening will stay with me forever. On the walls of the lounge, in tiny, neat black writing, were thousands and thousands of words. The torch beams picked them out as if they were groups of well-ordered flies. The words continued up the stairway, onto the landing walls and into the main bedroom. I had been in the house before and had seen some of the writing upstairs. Still I was mesmerised. What you are about to read are the words that I saw on those walls... Tollesbury Time Nothing is real And there's nothing To get hung about... Excerpt Have you ever heard of the Hen Harrier? We get them in Tollesbury and they are incredible. They glide over the marshes silent like breath, their V-shaped wings just a little more refined than that of the Marsh Harrier - smaller and slimmer and maybe a little more elegant. The male Hen Harrier is a ghost of a bird, the spirit of the Marsh Harrier, for it is not brown but almost completely white. It shimmers like a wave and is cut from the cloth of the morning mist. The only sign that these birds are of this world is the coal black wing-tips that leave darkening embers smouldering along the wing as they fly. And the markings on their tail go round and round in rings and rings of roses. But that is not all. Suddenly, they fall and go a-tumbling from the sky, rocketing to earth like a parachutist whose chute has failed to open - yet there is no distress! Even in such a descent there is a beauty. And then - wham - the chute opens and the birds roar back up into the heavens - but just for a moment! This tumbling and rising goes on and on until the little Hen Harrier finds its way and wafts into the very firmament upon the breath of angels. I am a man yet I am a Hen Harrier also. I am a drunkard and a dreamer. I am a Beatles fan and a lover of cricket. I am a husband and I am a father. I am all these things and more. And I am a friend of yours. I am the world’s best friend. Just think of me not as a schizophrenic but as a Hen Harrier only. A Hen Harrier. For there is no schizophrenia and there is no depression; no bi-polar disorder, personality disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. There is just life and trying to get through it. That is all. Look past the drugs and past the diagnosis, look deeper than the despair and higher than the highs - and what you have is a soul that needs embracing, a mind that needs cradling and a heart that needs to beat its beat without condemnation. Some weeks ago, I was at the marshes with just darkness on my mind. I was rushing to the depths. Yet now I float and I rise. The earth is the same yet I see with new eyes. I have learned that the world does not change. All that alters is the way we choose to see it. I am not a schizophrenic. I am a Hen Harrier. And I’ll have no more of your injections if that’s ok. Thank you.

A Work of Art
I have been entertained by many a good read, but what I truly enjoy, the reason why I read, is to be emotionally moved. A truly good piece of writing stays with you after the last page has been read and makes an impact on the way you view not only the world around you, but yourself. TOLLESBURY TIME FOREVER is such a story. The product description caught my attention and after reading the sample chapters, I could not buy it fast enough. There are sentences, paragraphs, and passages within, that are better than entire novels I have read. During the course of the read, I had to make the decision to keep moving on rather than re-reading the beautiful prose, because the story was so good, I wanted to finish it. A catch-22 for sure, but I knew I would be revisiting the story again.

Along with the excellent writing and story, there are plenty of twists and turns you will never figure out, and it all builds up to a tremendous ending.

From the first page to the last, I was engaged, entertained, and most of all emotionally invested. As a reader, I could not ask for any more!

Sean Reardon

Tollesbury Time Forever
I don't even know where to start with this novel. To say I was enthralled would be an understatement. The beauty of the writing, the use of the English language in the finest way it can be used and the wonderful phrasing would be enough to recommend this book. But add a compelling and heartwrenching protagonist to a story that moves with grace, charm and wit, and you are soon drawn in.

Often we call a book a "page turner" or say we "just couldn't stop reading it", but in this case it understates the need to keep reading. I read this in one day, taking it with me around the house as I tended to chores and cooked dinner. I didn't want to stop reading for even a minute and when I finished it, I went right back to the beginning and re-read it.

Tollesbury is a small village in England. The kind of place that has been off the beaten path for hundreds of years. A place to grow a family and live a slower life away from the big cities. The town where Simon Anthony goes to live his adult years as battle his personal demons.

As Simon tries to cope with the ever changing emotional battle for his mental health we are privy to the intellectual battle he wages with the music he grew up with and his childhood fears. Or are we? Nothing is quite clear as the plot twists and turns with unanticipated reversals and surprising revelations. Just when you think you have Simon quite within your grasp he turns into a conundrum within an enigma tied with a puzzle of ribbon. Nothing is ever quite what itseems to be. Is it him? Or is it us?

We often hear the term "literary fiction" and think of a book so caught up in the language that it forgets to add a plot. The plot in Tollesbury Time Forever is not lacking in anyway. It is interesting, compelling and emotionally moving. But have no doubt, this is literary fiction at it's best. I am sure this novel is going to win awards and well deserved they will be.


Karen Bryant Doering

Stuart Ayris Forever!
Tollesbury Time Forever," by Stuart Ayris, bedazzles the reader with its range--it's range of wisdom as to the inner life of the human being, as well as the ease in which the author switches narratives and moves from one style of writing to another. (Besides which, any book that makes use of songs by the Beatles is okay by me.) For all the territory of the soul covered by the author, he tells his tale economically. Even when delving into the apparent realm of fantasy, Ayris never overdoes. There's an essential sturdiness to his writing style, which is the mark of one truly meant to be a writer. And he also never loses the reader's attention. His sensitivity for humanity and his skill as a writer seems to tell the reader that everything will come together, as indeed it does. And even at the book's darkest moment the author never loses affection for life and it's many foibles. It never alienates; the authors does not put himself above other people.

Though certainly never short on plot, this is a book that is more character-driven than plot-driven. It is "literary," if you will. Yet I promise you that even of you prefer plot to character you will never be anything less than enthralled by this novel.

Jon P. Bloch
(The Kindle Book Review)