Paul Symonloe appreciation

Paul Symonloe

Paul Symonloe is what I call a daring writer. He’s published two books with TSL, one a novel, Castletown, amd the other a play called The Edge. While the latter is more conventional, there is an edge to the tale which takes climate change as its theme.
More daring is Castletown, a parody of living in a town in which resides a monarch. Written when Queen Elizabeth was alive, the monarch in this story is a queen, although she’s not named in Castletown. It is not clear where Paul sits on the royalty spectrum given the somewhat irreverent takes on the monarch, but I’m not sure that matters, as on one side he’s considering a human aspect to a being some put on an almost god-like pedestal and on the other, a group who see an economic opportunity to exploit the fame of the person.
Set in a fictitious town, Castletown, the book tells the story of a young lad residing in the town trying to make his way in the world. Tenacity and ignorance dominate descriptors of his actions – how many ordinary people are reflected in the trials and tribulations of our lead character? I leave you to decide but you’ll have to read this carefully constructed narrative in order to do so.
It’s the clever and careful construction of the plots and Paul’s observations of a range of personalities that appeals to me. See what you make of both books – I dare you…