LAST YEAR THE STATION MASTER WON ADVENTURES IN FICTION'S SPOTLIGHT COMPETITION FOR DEBUT NOVELISTS
The prize? a full manuscript appraisal & a profile of book and author on the Adventures in Fiction website
THE STATION MASTER explores our responses to the refugee crisis. Set in contemporary Bulgaria, it traces the personal journey of railwayman Nikolay Georgiev and his encounters with migrants heading for Western Europe.
See below for an account of our trip to Bulgaria in spring 2016 - almost two years ago now! Since then I've met Dimiter Georgiev of Neophron BIrd Tours who promises me an excellent autumn visit this year for the migration of raptors and other big birds, and also Chris Bailey, whose extensive knowledge of Bulgaria in general and its railways in particular is proving invaluable.
Not surprisingly perhaps I've had to put The Station Master on hold for the time being whilst the crowd-funding for Parkinson's & the Tango Effect runs its course but I hope to pick up the threads again soon.
See below for an account of our trip to Bulgaria in spring 2016 - almost two years ago now! Since then I've met Dimiter Georgiev of Neophron BIrd Tours who promises me an excellent autumn visit this year for the migration of raptors and other big birds, and also Chris Bailey, whose extensive knowledge of Bulgaria in general and its railways in particular is proving invaluable.
Not surprisingly perhaps I've had to put The Station Master on hold for the time being whilst the crowd-funding for Parkinson's & the Tango Effect runs its course but I hope to pick up the threads again soon.
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HARMANLI
ELHOVO Elhovo is situated in a river valley between two mountainous areas, 36 kilometres from the border crossing at Lesovo, at the end of the old branch line from Yambol 40 kilometres to the north. Passenger trains stopped running in 2005, and the line closed completely a few years later. I came across Veselin Malinov’s wonderfully atmospheric photos of the derelict station when I first began work on the novel so I’m familiar with the look of the place – or as familiar as you can be in a virtual world – but I’m excited to see the town and the remains of its railway station for real. 
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'If you find the bridge with the large Soviet woman statue, the refugee camp is on the side of the road…’ Almost a year ago, May 2016, the novel is beginning to take shape and I head for a two-week trip to Bulgaria for a first-hand taste of its setting. I’d read pretty much everything I could find about the country, its history and geography, its politics and its people but there’s no substitute for the real thing. As well as exploring the capital and Bulgaria’s second city, Plovdiv, my long-suffering driver delivers me safely to Harmanli Refugee Camp where I’ve arranged to meet Sadie and Gil, the two Cambridge women whose imagination, hard work and creativity help to transform the lives of traumatised children in its Play School. I spend an amazing morning listening to their stories and sitting with the children as they work and play. One small boy in an Arsenal shirt, one of four brothers, sits beside me copying the days of the week – in English – in careful capitals before donning a multi-coloured wig and heading for the mini-pool table. Another shows me a book which is helping him learn Welsh – he hopes to join his uncle in Wales. I come away excited, moved – and exhausted! Then we set off for the Black Sea coast, stopping on the way to visit Elhovo, where most of the action of The Station Master takes place... It’s bigger than I expected, a sprawl of a place whose centre is difficult to locate. It’s also the first place where we’ve been aware of foreign (that is, British) incursions: the group at the next table are loudly English, their bare limbs reddened by the sun, and we pass a bar which advertises English food. The railway proves more elusive: try asking for a disused station when you don’t know the language – No, no trains now. But the waiter in the café eventually points vaguely down the road opposite and he’s right. Six years since Veselin’s pictures were taken and the buildings have fallen further into disrepair. The weeds have grown, hiding the tracks almost completely in places, but it’s all still there. I feel that tremor of recognition which has been missing as we’ve walked through the town, although our return to the car through the back streets is more promising, and I realise that tourism or second home ownership is perhaps simply another form of migration to be considered. And then we’re off: another 100 miles to go before we’re finished travelling for the day… Back in the UK, I work on the novel, taking myself off to Norfolk for the summer where I complete the first draft. I stay in touch with the Cambridge Refugee Support networks and spend another weekend helping sort donations in the Calais warehouse for refugees living in the camps in Calais and Dunkirk. During the coming months I edit and revise, taking on board suggestions from three writer friends. But really at this point I'm stuck: how finished is the book, really? Is it good enough to send out? What I need is a full manuscript appraisal from an expert... so thank goodness for the Adventures in Fiction Spotlight competition for debut novelists and the expert attention of writer and director Marion Urch (see top of page)! |
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THE REFUGEE CRISIS: AN UPDATE
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Calais violence leaves four teenage refugees in critical state as smuggling gangs 'exploit growing desperation'
Sixteen-year-old boy among three others in intensive care after being shot in back of neck during clashes - as people smugglers 'pit groups against each other' amid rising tensions.
Sixteen-year-old boy among three others in intensive care after being shot in back of neck during clashes - as people smugglers 'pit groups against each other' amid rising tensions.
- May Bulman Social Affairs Correspondent Friday 2 February 2018 15:38 GMT
- Four teenage refugees are in critical condition and more than a dozen others injured after violence broke out in Calais amid an increasingly desperate situation that has seen smuggling gangs, according to one charity, “pitting communities against each other”.
A word on context and location:
A year on, and the refugee crisis shows no sign of diminishing. The situation is Syria is worsening. Air strikes by the Syrian government on a rebel-held enclave have continued despite a ceasefire resolution passed by the UN Security Council on Saturday. Hundreds of people have died in a week of bombardment of the Eastern Ghouta enclave near the capital, Damascus.
Asylum seekers in the UK are vulnerable to abuse and the fate of unaccompanied children remains a cause for particular concern.
The setting for THE STATION MASTER is chosen for its strategic position. Linked to an old Silk Road, Bulgaria has emerged more recently as one of the land routes which migrants from Africa and the Middle East have followed as they head for Western Europe. This ‘Via Balcanica’ is also a major migration route for soaring birds and raptors, the apparent effortlessness of their flight providing a striking contrast to the travails of their earthbound counterparts. Bulgaria’s years under the yoke of Soviet domination and its reputation for repression of Turkish and Roma minorities provide a historical context for its present-day attitudes to refugees whilst the rise and fall in the fortunes of its railway industry act as a mirror of the success and failure, hope and despair inherent in the human condition.
Asylum seekers in the UK are vulnerable to abuse and the fate of unaccompanied children remains a cause for particular concern.
The setting for THE STATION MASTER is chosen for its strategic position. Linked to an old Silk Road, Bulgaria has emerged more recently as one of the land routes which migrants from Africa and the Middle East have followed as they head for Western Europe. This ‘Via Balcanica’ is also a major migration route for soaring birds and raptors, the apparent effortlessness of their flight providing a striking contrast to the travails of their earthbound counterparts. Bulgaria’s years under the yoke of Soviet domination and its reputation for repression of Turkish and Roma minorities provide a historical context for its present-day attitudes to refugees whilst the rise and fall in the fortunes of its railway industry act as a mirror of the success and failure, hope and despair inherent in the human condition.
