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WATCHING SWIFTS [Kindle Edition]

R. J. Askew (Author)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Kindle Purchase Price:	�1.92
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Length: 160 pages (estimated)

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Product Description

Jaded war photographer Emma Saywell wanders through the dappled beauty of London's Kew Gardens, 'Broken', her hack-about old Nikon, hanging around her neck.

Her second book, 'THE EYES OF WAR', is selling well. Yet after a decade looking into hollow eyes, capturing men at their worst, her personal focus is a micron out.

She watches a woman with two young girls. One, the younger, trips, falls, screws up her tiny face, crys silently. Then she sees him. 'Broken' glides to her eye in one instinctive movement.

Click, click. Nailed him. Click.

Why is he smiling so inanely? Why smile like that, selling ice-cream to tourists from a cafe with a few tables? And what's with all the glancing at the sky?'

She looks up herself, half expecting to see an American drone stooging around. Nothing but fat dreamliners heading for Heathrow. She's drawn to the ice-cream seller, has to find out...

Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 316 KB
Print Length: 160 pages
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.� r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B006AXFPEM
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray: Not Enabled

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #174,590 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Real depths 3 May 2012

By Ignite TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition

This book tells the story of a relationship which takes place over a few summer months. A woman who is a war photographer meets a man selling ice-cream in Kew Gardens and he starts to draw her. Over the months she returns and he continues. As he draws, he talks, initially about the swifts he constantly watches. Most of the book is his words and a scattering of poems as his own life story comes out. He also tell us about some of the other workers and some of the visitors.

If you love creative language you will warm to this book very quickly. Tom, known to his fellow workers as Leonardo because of his drawings, gradually lets his own story come through and we see how he has coped with a life full of problems. He has become a rounded person unlike some of those he tells us about. The gardener, Parker, an angry and dissatisfied person, finds an equilibrium in a surprising manner.

There are real depths to ponder here; redemption after disastrous failings; the difference between 'real' and 'perfect' love, for example. It is a book that will stay with me and I loved reading it. It's one of those you don't want to finish.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Heady 22 Dec 2011

By ana

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Heady writing for lovers of language. A genre-slipping prose poem. From a swift's point of view publishers are ants scrabbling for the next sleb bestsellaz. This book sits above them in an unpolluted ether. You won't read it, you'll dance with it.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting 8 Mar 2012

By JULES

Format:Kindle Edition

I find this small gem of a novella energising and compelling. The lilting rhythm of the language sweeps me up
and carries me along with it, until I am no longer able to take my eyes from the screen. I am thus addicted.
All summer long, in Kew Gardens, London, Leonardo - ice-cream seller, artist, ex-jailbird and savant- watches swifts from the small square window of his vending van. During this particular summer he is drawing Emma, a war photographer, back from Afghanistan. And through his side of their conversation and relationship the reader discovers truths of Leonardo's life, of the Londoners and tourists who pass daily through his patch of the great park, and of the swifts. Soar with the swifts and breathe the oxygen. This allegory, along with its accompanying sonnets, will aerate your mind. I mean it. It's wonderful!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderfully Poetic Creative Story 29 Sep 2012

By E.P. Scott

Format:Kindle Edition

This book is well worth reading, but as I said before, in my review that this one is replacing, you will have to open your heart and soul to truly enjoy the experience of Watching Swifts. Read it slowly, savor every word, feel every emotion.

The setting is in Kew Garden in London, a place overrun by the Swift, a sleek winged bird that makes the sky come alive with their antics and theatrical ballet from the time they arrive in May until they fly away to Africa in the fall. Leonardo, the main character, loves the Swift and uses the bird to relate to Emma, a war photographer, the joy of watching and exploring what the Swift shows about the thrill of the moment, the freedom of movement and the sweet experience of love.

Leonardo is a man who sees what others don't. A simple ice cream vendor with a love for drawing and a savant ability to know more about the people around him then they do about themselves. He speaks through himself, a man tortured, hurting from within at what his life was, trying to find some redemption and trying to help those he meets explore and open up their souls to what they are trying to hold hostage deep inside of themselves. Leonardo is a very alluring character, and, as rough as he is around the edges, I was driven to continue to read in order to pull back the multiple layers of the onion that is his personality.

The book is told entirely from his POV (with this exception - I liked how the author used the prologue and epilogue to allow the reader to see Leonardo through Emma's eyes and give a glimpse of who she is). There is no dialogue except when he talks with Mr. Parker, the Kew Garden tree keeper. Leonardo and Mr.... Parker clash throughout the entire book, their exchange to me, almost a metaphor for the battle between good and evil within us all; that precipice called life that we teeter on, that at times, threatens to drag us over while at others we comfortably peer into the abyss knowing we are safe.

I like how Leonardo deals with Mr. Parker's cruelty with a comical sarcasm that not only drives Mr. Parker to try harder to unhinge him but also drives Leonardo to purposely aggravate the man at any opportunity.

His life saving Emma who, with the simple click of a camera changed a man forever was also changed herself. Each of them helping the other to discover something genuinely beautiful about their lives. As the end of the book drew to a close... as Leonardo faces and confronts demons both within and without he grows inside at an exponential rate. Emma also grows and discovers things about herself and her life as the story progresses but we only ever catch glimpses of her growth through the eyes of Leonardo.

I realized that the character of Leonardo portrays that desire or need that we have as human beings to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. That deep love that we all strive to give and get. Not the physicality of sexual love but the deep sweet taste of beautiful passion that doesn't require touch.

This book drove home how important many things in life are and although I do take the time to enjoy what's around me, to see the beauty in people and nature, I admit that my technological world catches me and keeps me hostage in my office writing when I should maybe take the time to not just look out my window and imagine what the day is like but to push myself away from my computer and experience it first hand. Reading this book also validated what I knew ... or perhaps never really knew or ... took to heart anyway; how a singular moment in time can change a person forever, how a step left or a step right determines the outcome and how we sometimes deny the change when we should instead be embracing and enjoying it. But I digress, every reader would decide for themselves how this book makes them feel.

It was a hard book to put away and leave for the next day. Although my time commitments prevented it, I could easily have spent a Saturday afternoon curled up on the couch, afghan keeping me cozy, glass of red wine in hand reading this book. I was so enthralled by Leonardo and what he had to say about life, love, hate, pain, remorse, etc that I didn't want to stop reading for fear of the emotion roller coaster ride ending. Even when I was brought to tears, which happened on more than one occasion, I didn't want to stop reading this creative poetic piece of writing.

The author neatly ties up the loose ends of the lives of all of the characters in this book and left me with a bittersweet sense that even though they may not have gotten what they wanted in the end, they got what was needed in order to move their lives along.

There are a few grammatical errors in this self-published book, but they were quite easy to cast aside and forget once Leonardo captured me and dragged me into his world. One thing that took a bit to sort out was the style of writing. Leonardo answers questions without the other character (Emma) asking them and at the beginning it was a bit confusing ... but once I understood the authors writing style, I comfortably eased into the flow of the story. One other thing I would like to mention is that some of the poetry was lost on me, but in saying that, poetry speaks and moves every person in their own way. Some I very much enjoyed but some.. not so much.

This is a wonderfully romantic poetic journey between two souls searching for the answer to one of those important question in life ... "Why am I?"

The author creates a world of intriguing characters and that world drew out a myriad of emotions in this reader. Through his characters he managed to open up this readers soul to, perhaps, what she is trying to hold hostage deep inside of herself.

All in all it was a beautiful story, very creative, very enjoyable and soulfully moving. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend you read it. Read more ›

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Magic Of An Author's Mind 28 Jun 2012

By Vic Heaney

Format:Kindle Edition

I read most of Ron Askew's book on my Kindle, sitting in the courtyard of our home here in the French Pyrenees, with swifts zooming and screaming around the house - there seem to have been more of these amazing aeronauts around this year than ever.

The book is a poetic tour de force. There is plenty of verse breaking up the narrative, but the prose itself is of a poetic bent. Excellent use of words and rhythm.

Most of those words issue from the mouth of one person, but they reveal plenty about his relationship with his listener, also with characters from his troubled past and his current life. We learn about the people he works with and their relationships, about others more tangential but who impact on his soul and his and interests. We learn about the birds he loves. We see into his heart and those of the people around him.

We wonder, or at least I do, where stuff like this comes from, to land in an author's mind. But we admire the product greatly and we look forward to Ron's next voyage into print.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Won Over 19 Jun 2012

By Dm Fletcher

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was a little sceptical as to whether I would enjoy this. The plot is summarised in other reviews,so I'll keep quiet about it.
As a veteran reader of all sorts of writers,from Henty to Haggard to Chekhov, I think I know a good thing when I see it. This is a good thing.
It is a poem,a thriller and a comedy all in one. The main character is a collection of birds-the swifts of the title, but there is human interest,too.
The book is a delight and the most notable piece of work I've read in years. It stands above most,and I recommend it to all who love great writing.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and Deeply Moving

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