Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE:
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1950?
WEBSITE:
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1950.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, and carpenter.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Tim Orchard is a carpenter who works in London, England. Orchard is also a writer whose novel, Stickle Island, was published when Orchard was sixty-seven years old. Set in the 1980s, the novel revolves around the residents of Stickle Island, who gather together to save their ferry, which is threatened by then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It’s the spring of 1980 and the British weather has become even more unpredictable than usual. Snow, hail, floods, and drought all come raging through, causing widespread damage, from overturned vehicles and closed highways to uprooted trees and ruined crops.
Stickler Island is a mile offshore from the coastal village of Dymchurch in County Kent, England. The weather has finally improved, but the residents get even a greater gift or so they think. Six bales of high-grade marijuana has washed up on the island’s shore, discovered by the local Detective Constable (DC), who is an aging hippie, and a young farmhand named Si Newman. It is DC’s daughter, Petal, who quickly realizes the true value of the find and that it could save the island and their way of life. Soon a town meeting is called to discuss the matter.
Considering the marijuana’s monetary value and the fact that someone is likely to be looking for their lost crop, the bales are hidden while the townspeople try to come up with a plan. The people realize the sale of the marijuana would give them enough funds to counter the effects of Thatcher’s Tory government closing the ferry as part of budgetary cuts. The ferry represents their lifeline to the mainland because without it how could they remain living on the island.
Since many of the island’s populace has moved on over the last decade in search of work and the remainder are largely on the dole, the people could never afford raise the money to keep the ferry operational. The townspeople are ready to make a drug deal but know they must stand together when the drug smugglers show up to claim their bales. The plan finally agreed upon, although there are dissenters, is to form a co-op to sell the marijuana. As expected, the drug dealers eventually do arrive. “This is a satire,” wrote Library Thing website contributor Laurie Brown, adding: “If you’re into British comedy, you can pretty much picture the cast and setting.”
Among the novel’s many eccentric characters are an oversexed postmistress who is sleeping with an already disgraced vicar. Meanwhile the vicar’s bitter rival is Henry Stick, who is usually drunk. There is also the old fashioned DC who has temper issues, and the teen punks who are ready to smoke some marijuana and deal whatever comes their way. When a dangerous drug lord from the mainland named Carter shows up along with his henchman, Simp, the duo find getting their goods back will not be easy. They have to deal with a united populace who have willingly set aside their differences, some of them decades old, in order to save ferry.
Eventually Carter’s daughter, Amber, shows up on the island to try and ferret out a way to get her father’s contraband returned to him. Soon she becomes involved with Petal’s boyfriend, Dick Stick. As a result, Petal seeks comfort by going to Si. “Soon the island is embroiled not only in a mammoth drug deal, but also the melodrama of teenage romance,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor, who also wrote that Orchard’s debut indicated “promise” as well as showing “a first-time author testing his abilities.” A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that Orchard reveals some of the “seedy underbelly” of British village life and went on to write: “This mashup of The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine is recommended for fans of British pastorals.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2017, review of Stickle Island.
Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2018, review of Stickle Island, p. 35.
ONLINE
LibraryThing, https://www.librarything.com/ (March 27, 2018), Laurie Brown, review of Stickle Island.
Tim Orchard
Author
Tim Orchard is a 67-year-old London-based carpenter formerly from England’s second most unhappy district. Stickle Island is his first novel.
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Print Marked Items
Stickle Island
Publishers Weekly.
265.1 (Jan. 1, 2018): p35+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Stickle Island
Tim Orchard. Unnamed (PGW, dist.), $17 trade paper (180p) ISBN 978-1-944700-52-2
Orchard looks past the quaint eccentricity associated with village life in Great Britain and exposes some of
its seedy underbelly in his droll debut novel, set during the Thatcher years. The eccentricity remains, but in
1980, Stickle Island's inhabitants aren't quaint. The postmistress, for instance, is sleeping with the vicar,
who disgraced himself in his previous parish, and many of the locals and "blowins" more recently settled on
the small island (it doesn't even have a pub) are on the dole. When the funding for the island's ferry is set to
be cut, the locals face being forced to move back to the mainland. Bales of marijuana that wash up on the
shore after a storm may provide the answer in the form of a co-op to sell the drugs. Meanwhile, a colorful
and dangerous duo of dealers track their pot to the island, intent on reclaiming it, but must bargain with the
local anarchist holding it for ransom. Pairings, romantic and otherwise, abound, but those featuring younger
characters are little more than clever plot devices. Older, saltier characters are much more satisfyingly
rendered, though all are described with wit. This mashup of The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine is
recommended for fans of British pastorals. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Stickle Island." Publishers Weekly, 1 Jan. 2018, p. 35+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522124955/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0f5251e6.
Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522124955
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Orchard, Tim: STICKLE ISLAND
Kirkus Reviews.
(Dec. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Orchard, Tim STICKLE ISLAND Unnamed Press (Adult Fiction) $17.00 2, 6 ISBN: 978-1-944700-52-2
When government cuts threaten isolated Stickle Island, locals get creative to preserve their way of life.
A community of longtime residents and "blowins" from the mainland living on a small, underdeveloped
English Channel island find themselves in dire straits when Margaret Thatcher's Tory government cuts
funds for the ferry that connects them to mainland England. But after volatile aging hippie DC and innocent
young farmhand Si Newman discover bales of marijuana washed up on the shore after a storm, DC's
teenage daughter, Petal, realizes that the island could be saved after all. Though hardly a veteran socialist,
Petal suggests forming a co-op to sell the drugs to save the ferry--and Stickle. Things get complicated when
Carter and Simp, two hardened drug dealers, show up from the mainland looking for their waylaid product
and find themselves bargaining with an unruffled DC to reclaim their haul. When Carter's daughter, Amber,
arrives to try to find out where DC is hiding the grass, she gets caught up with Dick Stick, Petal's erstwhile
boyfriend, driving Petal into Si's eager arms. Soon the island is embroiled not only in a mammoth drug deal,
but also the melodrama of teenage romance. This debut novel from Orchard, a 67-year-old London-based
carpenter, shows both promise and clear signs of a first-time author testing his abilities: the plot and
characters remain thin and underdeveloped, and hints of sharp social commentary and small-town satire
never fully materialize. The conceit of remote islanders using marijuana to save their home from
government cuts is potentially ingenious, but the government's presence quickly fades from the novel,
leaving in its wake the novel's less-than-compelling romantic entanglements and larger-than-life mobsters.
An English social comedy that begins with promise but fails to develop into a fully satisfying novel.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Orchard, Tim: STICKLE ISLAND." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A518491503/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2dd458d0.
Accessed 4 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A518491503
LibraryThing
Stickle Island is a tiny bit of earth in the ocean, a mile off the south east shore of England. The population is small; most people have long since moved away in search of jobs. A few back-to-the-landers have moved there. The entire population can fit into one meeting hall at the same time. The story takes place during Thatcher’s term of rule; the twice daily ferry that is their life line to the mainland is something that will be cut. How will they survive on the island without this service?
Their salvation arrives after a terrible storm; six bales of high grade marijuana have washed up on shore. Realizing the value of these, and that there is apt to be someone who expected their arrival out looking for them, they are promptly hidden by a small group of enterprising teens, who call a general meeting of the entire populace. Together they will stand against the dealers when they arrive. And arrive they do, with fancy cars and armed muscle.
This is a satire, and it reminds me of lots of British sit-coms. If you’re into British comedy, you can pretty much picture the cast and setting. It’s not deep, and the characters are not well developed, but it’s great fun. Four stars for this first novel. ( )
lauriebrown54 | Mar 27, 2018 |