Review by WillB -- That Guy What Kill Topsy
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WillB
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- Latest Review: That Guy What Kill Topsy by Peter Wood Cotterill
Review by WillB -- That Guy What Kill Topsy
[Following is a volunteer review of "That Guy What Kill Topsy" by Peter Wood Cotterill.]
That Guy What Kill Topsy by Peter Wood Cotterill is a 250page collection of the author’s short stories including the opening story of the book title and which includes ‘I ❤ Rhinos’ an account of a ‘marketing opportunity,’ which in reality is MLM multi-level marketing formerly known as ‘pyramid selling,’ in Zimbabwe where the storyteller lived for a number of years before returning to England where he worked in Financial Services.
It seems quite likely that the latter story and ‘Own Your Dream,’ a story in the collection, are based on actual experiences of Mr. Cotterill who earned his living selling insurance products in Zimbabwe and in the UK.
‘Own Your Dream’ starts off quite well with a character, Sam Bacon attending a job interview at the Institute of Directors in London with Tom Renahan, part-owner of R & R, a ‘real-estate’ company which in reality is a Timeshare operation with properties in Florida.
Renahan is looking to hire ‘negotiators,’ a euphemism for Timeshare salesmen.
Up to this point, the story is believable. The Institute of Directors is located in central London close to Piccadilly and office space is available to rent on a daily basis to hold seminars, training sessions, and conduct interviews.
However, on the basis of reading Sam Bacon’s CV which gives details of his IFA, Independent Financial Advisor, experience, and a less than 5-minute ‘interview’ Tom Renahan offers Sam Bacon an all-expenses trip flying Business Class to Florida for “a five-day familiarisation tour.”
The account concludes with Sam Bacon giving an exposé of the Timeshare Business.
Given his worldly experience including that as an IFA, I do think that Mr. Cotterill could have given readers more information about this controversial and speculative ‘investment opportunity.’
In this, as in his other stories, Mr. Cotterill tries too hard to sell ‘originality’ and ‘authenticity’ to his stories by creating characters too numerous and too much ‘larger than life’ which is a pity really because he is obviously an intelligent man with a wealth of experience and stories to tell.
In his opening story That Guy What Kill Topsy in his desire for realism to depict, presumably a ‘Cockney’ Londoner i.e. someone born and bred in the East End of London, he writes the following:
“Yeah. S’pose,” Duggie pauses, then continues, “So, they gives you only seven years? Wiv what they calls ‘good behaviour,’ that’s t’say not killing any uvver pris’ners and not assaultin’ the screws too offen, you’ll be out in free’an’arf then, less the time youse been on remand, o’course.”
In that story and others, Mr. Cotterill engages in that style of writing to depict accents and dialect and if a reader readily understands what is written they will perhaps not find it overdone and tedious.
This is a particular aspect in That Guy What Kill Topsy that I personally found rather off-putting as I had to re-read passages to gain understanding.
In addition to that aspect, I cannot, in all honesty, say that I was particularly ‘grabbed’ by any of the accounts and which I found in instances to be rambling off the track.
I should like to see Mr. Cotterill apply his intellect and wealth of experience in his future work to focus on creating two, or perhaps, three characters each with specific wants and needs and sound reasons which stand in the way of those characters for getting what they want.
There are numerous spelling mistakes in this book if, that is, contractions in speech as illustrated above are considered as mistakes and on page 160 there is one example of swearing. For all of the above reasons, I can, in all honesty, give 1 out of 4.
******
That Guy What Kill Topsy
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
That Guy What Kill Topsy by Peter Wood Cotterill is a 250page collection of the author’s short stories including the opening story of the book title and which includes ‘I ❤ Rhinos’ an account of a ‘marketing opportunity,’ which in reality is MLM multi-level marketing formerly known as ‘pyramid selling,’ in Zimbabwe where the storyteller lived for a number of years before returning to England where he worked in Financial Services.
It seems quite likely that the latter story and ‘Own Your Dream,’ a story in the collection, are based on actual experiences of Mr. Cotterill who earned his living selling insurance products in Zimbabwe and in the UK.
‘Own Your Dream’ starts off quite well with a character, Sam Bacon attending a job interview at the Institute of Directors in London with Tom Renahan, part-owner of R & R, a ‘real-estate’ company which in reality is a Timeshare operation with properties in Florida.
Renahan is looking to hire ‘negotiators,’ a euphemism for Timeshare salesmen.
Up to this point, the story is believable. The Institute of Directors is located in central London close to Piccadilly and office space is available to rent on a daily basis to hold seminars, training sessions, and conduct interviews.
However, on the basis of reading Sam Bacon’s CV which gives details of his IFA, Independent Financial Advisor, experience, and a less than 5-minute ‘interview’ Tom Renahan offers Sam Bacon an all-expenses trip flying Business Class to Florida for “a five-day familiarisation tour.”
The account concludes with Sam Bacon giving an exposé of the Timeshare Business.
Given his worldly experience including that as an IFA, I do think that Mr. Cotterill could have given readers more information about this controversial and speculative ‘investment opportunity.’
In this, as in his other stories, Mr. Cotterill tries too hard to sell ‘originality’ and ‘authenticity’ to his stories by creating characters too numerous and too much ‘larger than life’ which is a pity really because he is obviously an intelligent man with a wealth of experience and stories to tell.
In his opening story That Guy What Kill Topsy in his desire for realism to depict, presumably a ‘Cockney’ Londoner i.e. someone born and bred in the East End of London, he writes the following:
“Yeah. S’pose,” Duggie pauses, then continues, “So, they gives you only seven years? Wiv what they calls ‘good behaviour,’ that’s t’say not killing any uvver pris’ners and not assaultin’ the screws too offen, you’ll be out in free’an’arf then, less the time youse been on remand, o’course.”
In that story and others, Mr. Cotterill engages in that style of writing to depict accents and dialect and if a reader readily understands what is written they will perhaps not find it overdone and tedious.
This is a particular aspect in That Guy What Kill Topsy that I personally found rather off-putting as I had to re-read passages to gain understanding.
In addition to that aspect, I cannot, in all honesty, say that I was particularly ‘grabbed’ by any of the accounts and which I found in instances to be rambling off the track.
I should like to see Mr. Cotterill apply his intellect and wealth of experience in his future work to focus on creating two, or perhaps, three characters each with specific wants and needs and sound reasons which stand in the way of those characters for getting what they want.
There are numerous spelling mistakes in this book if, that is, contractions in speech as illustrated above are considered as mistakes and on page 160 there is one example of swearing. For all of the above reasons, I can, in all honesty, give 1 out of 4.
******
That Guy What Kill Topsy
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: That Guy What Kill Topsy by Peter Wood Cotterill
