r e v i e w s The secret life of oil by Catriona Ross
Rewind four centuries to London in early capitalist times. Heads grimace from spikes as a gruesome warning to those who don’t toe the line. The Thames is alive with commerce, with vessels from turnip barges and eel boats to ever bigger merchant ships plying their trade. Buildings are dimly lit by stinking tallow candles made from animal fat. Meanwhile in the East, brighter lights are waxing as the oil age dawns. Persian bazaars are awash with colour, exotic sights and smells. Suitors woo with poetry and self-torture. Dervishes whirl to beating drums. Pigeons carry love letters and secrets in tiny silk satchels. Mustachioed warriors
gallop on white stallions and revel in cruelty. The world brought to life in Robert Newman’s novel The Trade Secret could at first glance seem remote from today. On the surface this is a riproaring historical adventure, in which the action unfolds at dizzying speed. Underpinning it, however, are themes with a wearily depressing familiarity. This is the fourth book by activist Robert Newman, who made his name as a comedian on TV shows such as The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, and went on to make The History of Oil. His last novel, The Fountain at the Centre of the World, was described by The Guardian as being like ‘bootleg Chomsky’, while The New York Times called it ‘the fictional complement to Naomi Klein’s No Logo’. The pace in this latest work
is relentless. The Trade Secret tells the story of Nat Bramble, a young English servant who forges a friendship with lovestruck stall-holder and poet Darius Nouredini. Nat’s lot in life is a rough one. An orphan who has seen the rest of his family starve back in England, he is bound in miserable servitude to Sir Anthony Sherley, a loathsome mercenary who has inveigled himself into position as English ambassador in Persia and favourite of the vicious Shah. A moment of temptation leads to some rogue currency speculation with his master’s money in which he loses a vast sum. Amidst a backdrop of collapsing currencies and a crippling oil shortage, Darius comes up with a plan to bring oil from secret wells under the abandoned Tower of Mithras. Nat, terrified at the
Beacons fire the imagination ‘Beacons: Stories for Our Not So Distant Future’, ed. Gregory Norminton Beacons can be signs of illumination or signals of danger. The latter best defines this anthology of twenty-one short stories, whose award-winning authors were challenged to devise original responses to the climate crisis – with around half imagining post-apocalyptic scenarios or techno-dystopias. Some are powerful. Liz Jensen (author of eco-thriller The Rapture) generates intense pathos as a young boy, from the island-dwelling, socially stigmatized ‘Zeroes’, comes to terms with his mother’s suicide. Jem Poster vividly depicts soldiers descending on a Welsh smallholding, where a woman lives alone with her animals. Taking precautions against ‘crazies’/‘rebels,’ the soldiers’ activities are set against “olive groves splintered to matchwood beneath lurching tanks, the blazing refineries...” In ‘What is Left to See,’ James Miller’s narrative opens with a whirl of Internet babble, all hash tags, web aliases and live chat, as a young woman describes a helicopter flight over a devastated Miami in 2037. Later the scene shifts to an encounter between a young American (the creator of this ‘girl from the future’) and an African environmental refugee trying to survive on the streets of Athens. Other stories are less successful – Joanne Harris, of Chocolat fame, opens with a whimsical piece. In ‘A is for Acid Rain, B is for Bees,’ the former keeps everyone indoors and the latter are extinct, while the ending hints at the old idea of a cockroachdominated planet. Janice Galloway’s Darwinian parable ‘Fittest’ shows a Loch Ness entity menacing spectators. I was soon reflecting on the influence of Hollywood’s apocalypse industry, and whether these fictions play into audience/readers’ fears that we’re powerless in the face of global forces. And I longed for clever narratives with compelling characters that depict positive change – of the kind that the Transition Movement promotes. Other stories did balance things out – Alasdair Gray’s headmasterly God attempting to create an alternative, utopian universe is deliciously humorous, while Adam Marek’s ‘The Great Consumer’ is a hammy blend of Doctor Who and The Matrix, featuring time travellers and a naked cyborg. Toby Litt’s ‘The Gloop’ is as the title suggests. In his afterword, Mike Robinson from Stop Climate Chaos says: “We need to… develop an inspiring vision which people can rally around… to interpret what the future might look like and take the fear out of behavioural change… We need more positive role models which reflect the values we think are most important.” So where were these beacons? Maria McCann describes a family grappling with whether or not to let their daughter fly to Iceland, but her characters are unconvincing. Only Gregory Norminton’s masterful tale ‘Almost Visible Cities’ makes a serious move in this direction, evoking various scenarios for urban dwelling – ‘Iduba’, a neat parody of Dubai, contrasts with cities such as Miranda, where houses are “topped with meadow grass and sedum”, or Gardenia, a restored wasteland. Perhaps Beacons’ inherent flaw lies with Norminton having commissioned stories from writers who (aside from a few notable exceptions) appear to have at best flirted with green issues. Ecologically visionary work of any kind requires commitment. Royalties from this book will go to the charity Stop Climate Chaos, the UK’s largest group of people dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest communities. Helen Moore (Sustainable Frome) is an ecopoet based in Somerset. Her debut collection, Hedge Fund, And Other Living Margins, was published in 2012 by Shearsman Books.
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prospect of the brutal fate that awaits him when he is caught as a thief, throws his lot in with the dreamy Darius. Their venture cements their friendship and Nat’s fate continues on a tense roller coaster of narrow escapes, hellish situations, espionage, double dealings and occasional glimmers of hope and freedom. Under his downtrodden, scruffy and often surly surface, Nat proves to be a remarkably resilient, nimble and quickwitted character. From being sealed alive in the hell of a burning oil well, to brutally beaten and marched thousands of miles, finding himself at the end of fists, swords, clubs and knives, incredibly he survives, the story unfolds and comes to its climax on the Thames. The breakneck succession of events and adventures is punctuated by occasional reflective moments and comic interludes. Nat’s hardbitten armour is pierced by the kindness of strangers in a London street. The squeamish Darius encounters his lover as he heaves a rancid dead goat from a river. Rulers are foolish and out of touch. Merchants and financiers pull the strings and hold the real power. Behind the mask of trade
lie murky secrets and misery. As The Trade Secret’s layers of intrigue are peeled back, the avarice, corruption and injustice at the heart of society are revealed. Thankfully public flayings and spiked heads are no longer part of our experience – maybe one day greed and inequality will go the same way. The Trade Secret is published by http://www.cargopublishing. com. The author will be touring a new stand up show later this year called Robert Newman’s New Theory of Evolution, which argues that nature tends to select for co-operation over competition. www.robnewman.com Catriona Ross is a freelance journalist and PR consultant from the Scottish Highlands and an active member of Transition Black Isle.
New stories for the age of endings ‘When the cities lie at the monster’s feet, there are left the mountains.’ The Dark Mountain Project is a network of writers, artists and thinkers in search of new stories for troubled times. We promote and curate writing, art, music and culture rooted in place, time and nature. Dark Mountain book 4 - our latest anthology of uncivilised writing and art - is published in July 2013. Find out more, and buy a copy, by visiting our website.
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