Phoenix Court
4 primary works
Book 1
Mark is tattooed all over, so he looks blue. He is married to Samantha and they live with their little girl, Sally (named after Sally Bowles). But Mark is haunted by a spectre in the shape of Tony, his ex-lover, who menaces Mark and finally kidnaps Sally. The story of the rescue - which involves Sam's mother, Peggy, and her lover Iris - is hilarious, touching and (occasionally) surreal. MARKED FOR LIFE is a very fresh and original first novel. It is instantly engaging, and curiously compelling. Like a mixture of Alan Bennett and Angela Carter, MARKED FOR LIFE brings together suburban comedy with a heady, lyrical prose and concocts something new and very, very appealing.
Book 2
When Liz and her daughter Penny move into Phoenix Court, they find themselves caught up in a web of gossip and intrigue. But Liz seems determined to transform the lives of the women who surround her, and revelations emerge with startling consequences. By the author of Marked for Life
Book 3
Andy dreams of leopards. When he has unprotected sex with a man tattooed from head to foot with animals, he believes he may be pregnant. Meanwhile Penny, the young woman whose council house he shares, has started an affair with a club-footed body builder whom Andy believes is beneath her. Their street, Phoenix Court, abounds with secrets and suspicion. All the while, Penny's mother, the transvestite Liz, lies in a coma in Bishop Auckland hospital. While the street waits to see her wake and hear what it is like on the other side, Andy runs away to Edinburgh to sample the wicked delights of the city and to give birth to Jep, his leopard child. Paul Magrs blends acute observation of the humdrum with an exceptional understanding of the foibles and aspirations of his characters, creating a unique world in which the arrival of milkmen and buses may be predictable, but life isn't.
Book 4
"Meet: Wendy, who grows up the youngest of three brash sisters in Blackpool and who leaves home when her mother dies. She moves to Edinburgh under the wing of her vulgar Aunty Anne - whose sights are set on the millions her ex-husband has recently won on the lottery. Wendy spends a happy summer finding herself amongst her new family - Uncle Pat, frail cousin Colin, Captain Simon and Belinda, who believes herself to be an alien abductee. Wendy is intent on finding her elusive fancy man but gets drawn into a series of adventures involving amputees and death cults, Marlene Dietrich and doppelgangers in a city where everybody seems to be writing novels about everybody else... in this queer relocating of Henry James' 'Portrait of a Lady' to the apparently Cool Britannia of the 1990s"--Back cover.