Kirjahaku

Works of Wildfire won the 2022 Grayson Books Chapbook Contest. Poet Eleanor Berry survived the Beachie Creek Fire in Oregon, but lost her home and most of her belongings as a result of the fire. The riveting poems in this collection reflect reenact that event, and then reflect on it.

In the continuing tales of Natalie Klein, our heroine is prevailed upon to help a friend in need, whose son is in a poor state and has not yet made peace with his late father who lies in The Valley of the Blessed in Israel. We follow Natalie to Israel with the mother and son, and then back to her London life as a medical secretary in the capital’s largest hospital. Along the way we meet the various characters such as Natalie’s appalling colleague who tries to get her sacked, her vindictive boss and a secretary who challenges her – but what will be Natalie’s revenge? However, these are just precursors to Natalie’s final act of devastating revenge against the printer who plagued her father’s newspaper, whom she spies at a crowded fancy dress party in Hampstead dressed up as Hitler…

Daughter of newspaper baron Michael Berry, later Lord Hartwell, and grand daughter of F E Smith Eleanor was born into a life of privilege, but joined the Communist Party, going to Moscow alone at the age of 17, against her parents' wishes. She taught herself fluent Russian, and later befriended rival newspaper proprietor, Robert Maxwell, and became privy to his household causing problems at home. Anecdote after anecdote comes from her pen, transporting us to her surreal and often absurd world. There are many 'laugh out loud' moments in this book, but it also has a serious side. Eleanor has written numerous books and specialises in gallows humour.

Here we see the benevolent, unknown side of Robert Maxwell. He was a surrogate father to Eleanor on a platonic basis. He saved her life by charging into an operating theatre (not scrubbed up) and shouting, "Turn that fucking machine off!" He was referring to the deadly E.C.T (electroconvulsive therapy) now banned, which she did not need. Maxwell was always kind and generous to Eleanor although he and her Michael, who owned The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, were very jealous of each other. Eleanor is proud to have been his friend. The Gutter press have only informed us about Maxwell's faults. Shortage of Oxygen to his brain in later life destroyed his thinking process and caused him to be autocratic and irritable. It was then that the Mirror pensions funds `Scandal' took place. He was no longer capable and it was thought to be the "bankers" who transferred the funds, adversely affecting the pensioners. Due to this impoverished childhood, Maxwell was incapable of robbing the poor. He had saint-like qualities, before his mental decline and was an exceptionally courageous war hero.

Daughter of newspaper baron Michael Berry, later Lord Hartwell, Eleanor was born into a life of privilege, but joined the Communist Party, going to Moscow alone at the age of 17, against her parents' wishes. She taught herself fluent Russian, and later befriended rival newspaper proprietor, Robert Maxwell, and became privy to his household.

The latest episode in the life of Natalie Klein, about whom Eleanor Berry has frequently written - this time her lust for one of her many psychiatrists. This tale takes us through the doors of Harley Street and beyond. We follow the life of Natalie Klein, fearless predator in the name of lust, as she attempts to entrap her prey in her tangled web, causing scandal from the hairdressers of Mayfair to the consulting rooms of Harley Street. A woman who likes to have a stalwart stock of doctors, Natalie sets her sights at Ted Curruthers, with black humour. But does she succeed...?

This is the continuing lurid story of Natalie Klein and her eccentric collection of associates, namely the clergyman next door, who can’t stand any noise and whose children turn to crime and drugs, the Frenchman who knocks out the clergyman’s two front teeth, the twin brothers who fight in the hall, while Natalie pops amphetamines and talks at length about Russian literature when she is doing so, and her sister, Hilary, who goes to great lengths to stop her taking amphetamines. In Too Much Bloody Noise we meet more unforgettable characters through the clergyman, such as the Rocker who never uses the definite article, and who can’t stop making rock ‘n’ roll movements as he talks; the beauty the clergyman falls in love with; and her foul-tempered, crazy Irish undertaker father, McManus, who tries to bring him into the business.