Stewart, Ethan (2 December 2020). "A Look at the '80s and '90s UK Straight Edge Hardcore Scenes" . Retrieved 7 December 2020.

He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize. BENJAMIN: Writing is fun. When I do it, I feel free. Not always, but often. I get to be king of my own kingdom, or at least until the doorbell goes and there’s a parcel to be retrieved from the hedge, or my faithful hound is letting me know that he needs emptying. But inspiration comes from the love of the form, really: if you want to write, ideas will hopefully come. And if they don’t, just log-on to BBC news, buy your local paper or go and sit in a library for a morning: they’re full of endless stories, or at least the seeds of ideas. But through all the changes the one voice that never leaves is that of the saintly Cuthbert who never quite seems to get his wish to be left alone to worship God. The Gallows Pole - Watch the trailer for Shane Meadows' new drama". www.bbc.co.uk. 19 May 2023. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023 . Retrieved 31 May 2023. As a teenager Myers began writing for British weekly Melody Maker. [6] In 1997 he became their staff writer while residing in the Oval Mansions squat for several years. In 2011 he published an article, about his brief time as an intern at News of the World. [6] He has spoken about failing English Literature at A-level and being rejected by "more than a hundred" universities before being accepted by the University of Bedfordshire (formerly Luton University). [7] Work [ edit ] Journalism [ edit ]This is the third work I have read by Benjamin Myers and again this one did not disappoint. It is poetry and prose, fact and fiction, passionate and discursive: a dash through over a thousand years of history. Cuddy is a shortened form of Cuthbert and refers to St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, a seventh century shepherd boy who became a monk and then prior of Melrose Abbey and finally a hermit on the island of Lindisfarne. This is an experimental novel using a variety of forms. There is indeed poetry, prose, the occasional epistle, dramatic dialogue and bibliographical references woven into it stretching from Bede to modern times (Schama). There are strands running through the book and the past haunts and informs the present.

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (St. Cuthbert) is a central character in the book. Which sounds strange when you realise that the book starts on a small island near Lindisfarne with Cuthbert’s death (AD687). This is prose poetry which is the first of several literary forms used through the book (watch out also for stories told through quotes from text books, plays in which a building is a character, a Victorian journal/diary and Myers’ intense prose). Myers, Benjamin (2019). Beastings. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 978-1-5266-1122-2. OCLC 1111949459. Duffy, Kevin (29 December 2016). "The Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award 2016". Bluemoose Books. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. The first part of the novel, Saint Cuddy, is told in the voice of Ediva, an orphan taken in by the monks as a child, now travelling with them as healer, cook and helper as they search for a final resting place for Cuddy’s coffin. Ediva is alive to the rhythms of the landscape in a way that marks her out as different; she also sees visions of the future cathedral – a building “bigger than anything man has ever built, so big it rears up like a mountain, like a great beast” – where the saint will finally be laid to rest.

As the book moves from 687 to 2019 in centuries-long leaps, there are less obvious themes which run throughout. Where does one find inspiration, and why are some sources more powerful than others? Is the distance between the sacred and the profane really so great? When is historical inquiry illuminating, and are there times one should simply "let his story lie" undisturbed? Myers is particularly fascinated by the journey of self-discovery that is the birthright of each person. And his personal love for the natural world allows for some truly vivid scene-setting. In this first story we meet the young cook who is part of the haliwerfolk, feeding the monks with whatever can be found and also tending to their ailments – their aches and pains and even their tooth aches. This is a poem that she utters and which I though is excellent. Benjamin Myers has long made the stories of northern England his own: The Offing (2019) renders the region as a nation, apart and distinct; The Gallows Pole (2017) tells a bleak tale of injustice in 18th-century Yorkshire. Cuddy continues this journey of exploration, but now the form is more experimental and the writing more incantatory, as Myers traces just some of the manifold threads of history to remarkable effect. Neil Hegarty

The problem is, when a book starts with such an extraordinary beginning, it's very easy for the other sections of the book to pale in comparison. And that is sadly what happened. Don't get me wrong, there are no bad sections, but nothing was ever as good as that first part. Myers, Benjamin (2006). System of a Down: right here in Hollywood. Church Stretton: Independent Music. ISBN 978-0-9549704-6-8. OCLC 63136435. Beautifully written in a moving prose, this book recounts the legend of St. Cuthbert, his life, his death and his legacy. Portico Prize For Literature. Gordon Burn Prize. Roger Deakin Award. Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Goldsmiths Prize.The aforementioned AD1827 section provides comic relief in the form of a rather caricatured academic snob from The Other Place (although it neatly twists into an effective Victorian ghost story): I loved how Cuddy was an element of all of the parts which are spread over history from the 900’s through to 2019, but the way he was referenced was unique each time. There are also recurring motifs such as girls with names that start with E, owls and stonemasons which kept things interesting. I found the poetry of Thomas Hardy to be dismal and the prose of DH Lawrence to be overwrought – all those exclamation marks. Expressing this was probably the reason I failed A-level English. But I now recognise both as visionaries who saw far beyond the England they occupied. I particularly admire Lawrence’s novellas, The Fox and The Virgin and the Gypsy.