<div class="content"> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div style="margin-bottom: 0.5em;"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top">&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div class="tiny" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><strong>Sarah James: Into the Yell</strong></div> <p>From its intriguing title to its extraordinary depth and accessibility, this collection of poems is a delight. Sarah confidently leads the reader from suburban England to France, the Caribbean, and beyond, through a fantasy world of an Inuit in stilettos to the harsh reality of prostitution and terminal disease, all with a touch which is simultaneously as daring as a pink flamingo feather and as delicate as goose down. I predict we'll be reading a lot more of Sarah's poetry very soon. I certainly hope so.</p> </div>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">As a serial expatriate, and having read two glowing Amazon reviews of Mark Trenowden&rsquo;s &lsquo;Expatriate Games&rsquo;, I bought this book hoping to gain some insight into Bangladesh, its culture, and its people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I was disappointed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Yes, the book contains a couple of amusing anecdotes, such as the author&rsquo;s participation in a cricket match,&nbsp;and his hapless attempt to install a satellite dish on his roof, but these are rare.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">Trenowden places himself firmly in an impervious expatriate bubble in the centre of his book, and seems determined not to make the slightest effort to understand his host country or anything that is going on around him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One is left with the impression that he spends the better part of almost two years (what a missed opportunity!) mixing with other like-minded expats, searching for booze, and complaining. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">Some references made me cringe: he consistently refers to Bangladesh as &lsquo;a third world country.&rsquo; On one occasion, he meets a business contact from Hong-Kong and remarks &lsquo;I was pleased to have this link with civilisation&rsquo;, implying that the culture surrounding him is less than civilized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">And, leaving aside the content, I do not think it would be harsh to say that the writing is execrable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Somehow I persevered to the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I have never read a book so much in need of editing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is filled with spelling mistakes ('vitals' for 'victuals, 'exited' for 'excited', 'loose' for 'lose'&hellip;), wrongly used words ('comprehensibly' for 'comprehensively', 'reigned' for 'reined'&hellip;) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>misplaced apostrophes, and clich&eacute;s ('a sight for sore eyes', 'the crowning glory', 'the inner sanctum', 'come hell or high water'&hellip;). The language is pretentious:&nbsp;describing the importance of settling in, Trenowden writes &lsquo;The geographic location of our possessions would dictate when this point would be reached&rsquo;.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Why not say &lsquo;We would feel settled once our shipment arrived&rsquo; or something similar?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This is only one of dozens of examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>On every page there are examples of &lsquo;sentences&rsquo; which simply do not hang together, for example &lsquo;Once the overpowering smell of fly spray that Masum had blasted the interior with to deter stray mosquitoes had dispersed and one acclimatized to the dampness.&rsquo;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Here&rsquo;s another: &lsquo;The heat of the night exaggerated having left the cool of air conditioning I leant on the rail.&rsquo; </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">Having finished the book&nbsp;I felt I had learnt nothing, apart from how not to live an expat life - which I probably knew already.</span></p>