“Thomas Flett relies upon the ebb tide for a living, but he knows the end is nigh”

THE flap quotes the Sunday Times as saying that Benjamin Wood is ‘Britain’s answer to Donna Tart’. Except he writes better and Seascape is a mere 163 pages where Tart aspires to a thousand pages. The similarity perhaps is that Tart’s Goldfish also has a young boy hero.

Seascraper is long listed for the Booker Prizer this year. It is set in a similar era as another contender the The Land in Winter. Temporarily they almost overlap. Perry Como is on the radio. Lawrence of Oliver is playing at the Broughton cinema, which you might guess is on the Mersey estuary.

Thomas is a teenage seacraper, a shrimp gatherer with horse and cart, the last of his family sticking to the old ways.

His ma ‘potters around unthinkingly, the way a clockwork mouse will skitter till it needs rewinding, humming to herself’”.

He has hopes of playing guitar at Fishers later. He has eyes for his friend Harry’s sister who is a thousand times prettier. He cringes at the thought of her listening to him strangling the chords of the guitar he swapped for his grandfather’s watch. He likes a book, but that was not something Pop approved.

The writing is very much of the now, the present, the everyday with its fears, and little tensions, he is late, the horse is sweating, the fog is thick, little familiar worries set beneath the grander scope of the shore and sand. The tide is coming in. The characters have zip, even the unnamed horse has some brio. And his daily trudge is going to be interrupted…

Ma is still in her ‘30s and not without admirers, Harry has still to make an appearance, Mrs A is auditioning to be Miss Havisham. They could all dance a few more tunes.  

The aspects are here for a grand novel but the format is short story. Everyone could do with more time, more ageing, more to do. The narrative clothes that do not quite fit, a bit on the small size to win the Booker, I suspect. But its weakness as a novel is also its potential to be a very filmable Play for Today (to be revived by Channel 5) with actors fleshing out its full potential. Great expectations…