The Offing: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick

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This is a wonderful novel. The only real niggle is that Myers is required to write some poetry written by Romy Landau who was supposedly a poet of genius. Now Myers is a good poet, a very good poet even; but a poet of genius? But that’s a minor point. Yet viewed through the eyes of the young the conflict was an abstraction, a memory once removed and already fading. It wasn’t our war. It wouldn’t ruin our lives before they had even started.” Aside from this, I was disappointed that a book by a northerner about the north gives all the best lines to a stereotyped portrayal of a progressive southern toff. It seemed unnecessary, particularly when North Yorkshire has no shortage of strong characters.

On the plus side: beautiful writing, although there were constant (too many?) references to light and nature/creation. I found the parallel time frames worked well - switching from one place of misery to a different one every chapter or so was a relief in a strange way. The natural world of the island, especially the garden, the river she is forbidden to swim in, and the sea, are also described in visionary and elemental terms that are both beautiful in their simplicity and sensuously poetic: Benjamin Myers’ novel is a richly rendered coming of age. Without limiting his language he evokes this fraught period of time in a vibrant manner. Much of the narrative revolves around the narrator’s relationship to his environment. Myers’ writing style emphasises Robert’s senses and makes for a vivid reading experience. Der Autor erzählt auf sehr feinfühlige Art vom ländlichen Leben in England nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, von Trauer und Tod, aber auch von Hoffnung und Kunst. Vor allem gefallen haben mir die Naturbeschreibungen und die Schilderungen des Essens, das Dulcie für Robert kocht - obwohl ich keinen Fisch mag, hat sich das für mich alles einfach köstlich angehört! (Mein Tipp: nicht hungrig lesen 🥘) Auch die langsam erblühende Freundschaft zwischen Robert und Dulcie sowie Dulcies große Liebe waren so zart und schön beschrieben, dass mir beim Lesen das Herz aufging. The writing is quite poetic and atmospheric when Myers describes nature and the surroundings, sometimes it's a little much, but overall these parts were enjoyable. The writing became more shaky the second Dulcie, the old wise and cursing woman, turns up. The dialogue is forced and reminded me of self-help books, Dulcie as far away from a real person as possible. The relationship between the characters didn't really develop, it was simply there. Now, until then, the book was still okay, however once the poetry-sub plot came about it really went down the drain. You have to be a certain writer to put poems into your novel and describe them as the best poems ever, the collection of which of course sell more copies than poetry ever does. The ending was abrupt and silly, and yes, amateurish.

Selection panel review

There is an air of melancholy and detachedness that runs through this novel. This reflects Madeline's outlook on the world, she has detached herself from the outside world, so long ago now she cannot, or will not remember why. You started your career as a music journalist for Melody Maker. Your first novel was about Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers. How much did this influence your subsequent work?

I experienced frequent and quite unexpected moments of exhilaration at the overwhelming sense of purposelessness that I now had. I could go anywhere, do anything. Be anyone.” The Inheritors by William Golding. That’s been by my bed for years and I knew I would love it and I did. The language, unreliable as it is seen in a Caligariesque way through the eyes of a mental patient, is at once poetic and pungent; you can really smell the farm on the island, Madeline's sensory world is the strongest she inhabits and child-like (and Proust like) it is the smells and tastes that are the most evocative under hypnosis. This novel follows the classic "young boy goes on a journey, meets a Master/wise person and learns what life is really about" structure, only with some weird subplot about publishing poetry. The wise person in this case is an older woman who happens so have a hut for the teenager to live in, and although it's just after world war II she also happens to have a food chamber filled to the brim with exotic food and expensive liquor.Members found both the two main characters intriguing and likeable, and found their friendship and enjoyment of each other’s company believable, despite the difference in their ages. Indeed several members said they would like to end up being Dulcie-like! –perhaps not so surprising given that most of us already live in fairly remote rural locations, and so could easily imagine living in Dulcie’s house on the coast. Although Dulcie seems at first quite hard and secretive, we enjoyed the way we get to see her softer edges as the novel progresses and we learn more of her life story. A gorgeous summer song of a book, quietly and precisely what the world needs, calling friendship and gentleness from people, place and language, The Offing is about the best of us. It is to be treasured and passed on -- HORATIO CLARE You’d never written historical fiction before. Did the success of The Gallows Pole come as a surprise to you?

Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the Benjamin Myers was born in Durham, UK, in 1976. In my work I have always looked towards Walter Pater’s quote “all art constantly aspires to the condition of music.” I have been presenting a radio show on NTS for the past seven years, compiling and programming an hour-long mix every month. I wondered how this format would work with video and sound choreographed in the spaces of a gallery. When planning the exhibition’s structure I likened it to an amusement park Dark Ride, travelling through a loop of changing videos, sounds and lights, with a start and end point that gets repeated throughout the day. Connected to the Dark Ride is a light space exhibiting paintings by Alessandro Raho, who uses the old technology of oil paint to portray the now. Similarly, airbrush artist Darren Horton’s mural captures the seaside legacy of depicting future or hyper-modern fantasies. Tracey Williams’ Lost at Sea Project documents synthetic creatures brought to shore with the tide. A consequence that will abide for a thousand years. I struggled with the book at times. Not because of all the religious connotations, I let these wash over me, but more with the language fourteen year old Madeline uses in her diary entries. This was not the language I would assume, rightly or wrongly, would come easily and naturally to a teenager on the brink of puberty. I found myself more interested in the older Madeline, and how she was responding to treatment than to the younger Madeline and her journey to being institutionalised.

Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.

Myers' prose and poetry makes a celebration of the "new Ondaatje" a far less preposterous mantle than it may seem * CAUGHT BY THE RIVER * The novel is about friendship, the beauty of nature, art, good food, wine and not forgetting a dog called Butler. There is very much a sense of living in the present, close to nature: It was always only a means to an end to writing fiction. But I’ve always had that hardcore punk mentality where you do things for yourself and you don’t wait for anyone to accept it or approve things. The difference is that I’m a hardcore punk who’s now writing about poetry, wild meadows and beekeeping. That’s a central consideration in Benjamin Myers’ moving and hopeful novel The Offing, which, though written before COVID-19 kneecapped the world, reads like an allegory for our times and the months and years ahead when, sanitised fingers crossed, the worst will be over.The Offing – a fat-free, naturally sweetened salve for the soul that is as invigorating as one of Robert’s sea swims – is just what we currently need. Overall we found this book beautifully written and produced, a rewarding read and one with plenty to keep the reader’s interest alive throughout, and with plenty to discuss. Afflicted by a restless desire to lose himself and both to leave behind the constraints of his normal life and to postpone his future as a miner, Robert takes up and travels across the northern countryside. Although drinking in his newfound freedom, Robert’s outlook is still limited by the beliefs drummed into him about what someone like him can expect to achieve. He is therefore unprepared when he meets Dulcie Piper, a wealthy and eccentric older lady living in a rundown cottage above a remote bay. She recognises the potential in the boy and sets about inculcating an appreciation of literature. Amongst other pleasures, including fine cooking and wider thinking, she introduces him to poetry.