The Young Accomplice

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Benjamin Wood i s in the prime of his writing life, yet few people outside the literary world have heard of this 41-year-old writer from Merseyside.In his thirties he produced three richly layered novels that deftly combined complex ideas with psychological suspense. He has earned comparisons to Donna Tartt and John Fowles, but when it comes to literary prizes he is often the shortlistee and rarely the winner. Perhaps it’s because his fiction has a maturity and restraint that feels a little old-fashioned compared with his brasher contemporaries. His fourth novel, The Young Accomplice, set in the 1950s, is his most original yet ...Wood is a master of enchantment and unease...With its themes of fatalism and revenge, The Young Accomplicehas already been compared to Thomas Hardy novels and there are echoes of Tess of the d’Urbervilles in the story of a vulnerable young woman whose past catches up with her. Wood is also wonderful on the intricacies of love and architecture as a means of enriching people’s lives. It’s a novel that feels as if it has been imagined with slow and tender care — and I suspect it will be cherished by readers for a long time. Johanna Thomas-Corr, Sunday Times

Benjamin Wood's tender fourth novel is about nature and idealism, but it also examines responsibility and the fragility of inspiration. New Statesman In the summer of 1952, Joyce and Charlie Savigear are waiting on a railway platform in the quiet English countryside. The siblings have just been released from borstal to start a new life as apprentices at Leventree, an architecture practice with a difference. Siblings Joyce and Charlie Savigear are 'rescued' from their Borstal sentences by married architects Arthur and Florence Mayhood, who run their architectural practice from a Surrey farm, which they plan to be self-sufficient - and they also seek a couple of apprentices to work with them, both on the farm and in their architectural practice. The Mayhoods are both keen followers of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his Taliesin community in Arizona and Arthur, having ended up in Borstal himself when he was a teenager, wishes to give Joyce and Charlie the chance to make something of themselves. Both have been selected following a drawing competition run in conjunction with the various Borstals by Arthur and Florence, where they both showed promise. When a star dies it swells to a shimmering mass, collapses in on itself, and eventually bursts outward. That is an apt metaphor for my brain while reading THE ECLIPTIC. A treat . . . Wood's daring narrative decisions show he hasn't lost the old spark, but has just added to it with his new repertoire. What, it asks, are the opportunities available to somoen who wants to leap clear of their wrong beginnings, when everything that hurts has already been cut? John Self, Critic, Fiction Books of the YearArtists at Portmantle live there all expenses paid, though not in luxury, until they finish a new work. It is an insular existence framed by strict rules while putting no time limit on any given artist to produce something he or she feels good about sending out into the world. But when that happens, the artist must leave. Benjamin Wood knows how to generate tension, makes lively characters you can see and hear, and writes about rural England in a sensitive, considered way that doesn't stray into the nostalgic. A huge talent Hilary Mantel Enter Joyce and Charlie Savigear – siblings in their late teens – who win the Mayhoods’ drawing competition for borstal kids with an eye for design.

As a portrait of youthful mistakes and adult blindness, THE YOUNG ACCOMPLICE is both tender and cutting..." - The GuardianA novel about architecture, ambition, crime and guilt. It takes place in the early 1950s, and is set mainly on the Surrey farm where Arthur and Florence Mayhood are attempting to set up both an architect’s practice and a self-sufficient commune. Their inspiration is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Wisconsin, but their community has only two members, brother and sister Joyce and Charlie Savigear, young offenders recently released. Through dramatic time jumps and a sure ear for dialogue, Wood builds up convincing levels of psychological depth in all the main characters. Arthur is saintly in his determination to see good in everyone, and to rise above a major disability. Florence is his loyal, pragmatic companion, prepared to act also as driver and mechanic. Charlie is determined to overcome all obstacles to make it as an architect, and such is his practicality and willingness to learn, that we suspect he will. His older sister Joyce, six foot tall and immensely strong, has however come to the commune with hidden motives. Does it spoil your enjoyment of a novel when you predict the outcome of The Big Twist? It does for me. And I'm sorry to say I figured out the secret that The Ecliptic hides long before its eye-catching finale. But there is still plenty to admire in this ambitious, intricate and intelligent novel. Claire sits by her bedside looking sinister as she tells her to have sweet dreams — while she still can. No doubt, it seems she wants to kill Nikki, but she has other plans first. This storyline is getting good. The truth is revealed sparingly, until we suddenly find ourselves no longer reading a psychological thriller but an action thriller, reminiscent of old British films. Wood writes with superb attention to detail and authenticity. My only question is why the Mayhoods are shown to have a diesel-powered ‘wagon’ at a time when all but the heaviest goods vehicles would have used petrol engines. Exhilarating, earthy, cerebral, frank and unflinching . . . A masterfully paced and suspenseful read Independent, on The Ecliptic

Elsewhere, Daniel Romalotti (Michael Graziadei) discusses something new with his ex, Heather Stevens (Vail Bloom). There’s a chance that he offers for her to bunk with him until she gets a new place. With deceptive ease, the books weaves elements of crime, mystery, love story and coming of age . . . a well-wrought novel whose pleasure is in each careful scene, moment and sentence Irish Times An involving tale of revenge and responsibility, which, while it devastates, also tells us that new lives can be built among the ashes' FT Blown away by A Station On The Path To Somewhere Better . . . Dark and disturbing, but wise, moving and beautifully written. Am immediately going to seek out his other books now. What a writer Richard Osman on A Station On The Path To Somewhere BetterFirst, let’s get this out of the way: what is the ecliptic? Briefly, it’s the way we imagine the stars attached to a giant invisible sphere surrounding the earth. “It’s a total fiction, really – just a construction we came up with to help us get our heads around the complexity of it all.”