Foreword

I have been told I’m a liar: not once, but often. My mother was the first: ‘You’re always telling stories.”  “You like making things up," she would say.

It’s true, believe me.  And then I told lies to get out of trouble, to avoid being hit or punished in some way. It confused my Dad when I said I hadn’t done something that I had.  When I lied to him it confounded him and drained his fury. I told lies to get things I wanted and later to be close to people I liked.  Altogether lying seemed to me, at least, to be a very useful tool. So, to be honest, it might be wise to be sceptical about the stories I’m going to tell you.  Although, they did actually happen or something like them, anyway- Sawn.

A review of Sawn E Danson’s new collection: Telling Stories’ published by Old Orchard Press by Hardiman Lewis

All of Danson’s central themes are here for us to indulge in with this new  collection published by Old Orchard Press: namely, the question of what we should do, feelings of guilt, our constant travail to stay sane, our inability to be sure of who exactly we are and farting.

From pathos to bathos which the seasoned Danson reader will be used to. Danson’s narrative voice has till now see-sawed between the two. Any  reader new to his work, however, might have  found it annoying if not baffling in previous publications of his work.  I think this seesawing of styles has betrayed Danson’s uncertainty about what sort of writer he is: is he light and flippant or profound? 

In this collection of short stories there is something new and surprising. Danson seems to have found  a clearer voice,  fusing the previous unresolved elements into writing which is both thoughtful and humorous. Well worth the read.

Hardiman Lewis, Literary Critic of The Hornet.

I take this opportunity with my tales to send you on a number of strange journeys, ‘though the footing maybe a bit unstable. (Sawn)