Aristo's Family [Paperback]

Raymond Nickford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2004

The narrative is set in Cyprus; the main characters being, Aristo, an archaeologist who has turned his Paphos home into a small private museum, and his teenage son, Pavlos, who now live alone together.

Aristo's obsessive need to trace and belong to his family - even though he is told they were all burnt and left unidentifiable in the Turkish invasion of the island - has estranged his English wife, and is gradually distancing his only child, while in turn, Pavlos has an increasing need to belong to a father who will make time for him.

Then Katherine, a colleague of Aristo, arrives to confuse the already-confused and impressionable young man.

As the practices and those assembled at Aristo's late-night museum 'staff meetings' unfold themselves to Pavlos, the boy is led deeper into a sinister confrontation with ancient and unquiet souls.

This novel, with its vivid descriptive passages about the Paphos museum and the Troodos mountains, has a tautness and nervous energy which haunts the reader.

The author, part Greek Cypriot, was raised amongst Greeks in England and has travelled extensively through Cyprus. He has particular admiration for the village people whose company he has enjoyed so much in the Troodos Mountains.

Tags

Cyprus, father and son, belonging, roots, moving, supernatural, romance, Barbara Erskine, Modern Greeks, hypnotism, ancient Greeks, mystery.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first few chapters are atmospheric; intriguing. They made me want to keep reading. The beautifully observed characters and exotic setting have all the makings of a first class novel. 
BARBARA ERSKINE - best selling author of Lady of Hay. 

The promise of the early chapters is more than well-maintained. This novel is a real page-turner, worthy of comparison with the early John Fowles' The Magus - but distinctively Raymond Nickford.
ALLEN J. MILLINGTON SYNGE - author of Bowler Batsman Spy.
 
An atmospheric, vibrant, spooky page-turner.
REAY TANNAHILL - historian, novelist and author of The Seventh Son.

The characters, the settings, the story; emotional, intriguing and full of human interest. Another winning combination

ANDREW WRIGHT - author of Sanctuary's Loss

Raymond Nickford's worlds are claustrophobic - yet read we must. The first paragraph says more than many say in five chapters..... I was soon engrossed.

JANE ALEXANDER - author of Samael

This as other titles by Raymond Nickford, together with his collected stories "Twists in the Tale", his novel Mister Kreasey's Demon" and now "A Child From the Wishing Well," the latter currently on www.authonomy.com and planned for publication towards the end of 2011,comprise a new series of psychological suspense, each balancing the macabre with a strong, poignant theme centering around characters whose lives are driven to extremity and yet each having a strong and satisfying resolution - Haunted Books.

About the Author

Raymond Nickford says that, to him, people are stranger than fiction and in many ways more fascinating. Perhaps this is what first led him to his degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University College of North Wales, leading to searching character studies.


Souls, particularly troubled ones; the outsider, the lonely and any driven to extremity, have been indispensable for his paperback novels, now easily available in amazon.co.uk KINDLE E-books including: Aristo's Family, Mister Kreasey's Demon and Twists in the Tale.


Of his novel based in Cyprus, Aristo's Family, BARBARA ERSKINE, best selling author of Lady of Hay, affirms the beautifully observed characters, intriguing and atmospheric scenes and, above all, the suspense which made her want to read on.


His favourite producer is ALFRED HITCHCOCK, and he admires the authors Patricia Highsmith, Ian McEwan, Ruth Rendell and Henry James. Raymond is a member of The Society of Authors.


He believes his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor has informed his new literary thriller, A Child from the Wishing Well.


This new title will also be published in Kindle in August and, as with all the above book titles, is already available to buy as an Epub-book from smashwords.com.


It features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid, inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter.


The book was selected for the Harper Collins Gold Star Award, May 2010.


Candace Bowen, author of A Knight of Silence, writes of A Child from the Wishing Well :
Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, the first scary movie I remember seeing was the 1965 Bette Davis movie, The Nanny. To this day, that movie has always stuck with me as one of the great psychological thrillers of all time. For me, A Child from the Wishing Well, by Raymond Nickford, is reminiscent of that movie.
Ruth, the eerie music tutor, and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Haunted Books; 2nd edition (April 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0954696301
• ISBN-13: 978-0954696306
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Raymond Nickford has said that to him, people are stranger than fiction and in many ways more fascinating. Perhaps this is what first led him to his degree in Philosophy and Psychology from the University College of North Wales and which has subsequently driven him to produce his searching character studies in his collected stories Twists in The Tale, and novels and contributions to anthologies in the USA.

Souls particularly troubled ones, including the outsider, the lonely and any driven to extremity, have been indispensable for his paperback novels, now available in amazon.co.uk KINDLE E-books including: Aristo's Family, Mister Kreasey's Demon and Twists in the Tale .

Of his novel based in Cyprus, Aristo's Family, BARBARA ERSKINE, best selling author of Lady of Hay has commented on the beautifully observed characters, intriguing and atmospheric scenes and, above all, the suspense which made her want to read on.

His favourite producer is ALFRED HITCHCOCK, and he admires the authors Patricia Highsmith, Ian McEwan, Ruth Rendell and Henry James. Raymond is a member of The Society of Authors.

He believes his teaching of English in colleges and as a private tutor visiting pupils from what he describes as shacks to mansions, and meeting the absolutely delightful to the vaguely Little Lord Fauntleroy, has informed his new literary thriller A Child from the Wishing Well.

This new title will also be published in Kindle in August and, as with the above book titles, is already available to buy as an Epub-book from smashwords.com.

It features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid and inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter.

The book was selected for the Harper Collins Gold Star Award, May 2010.

Candace Bowen, author of A Knight of Silence, has written of A Child from the Wishing Well : Growing up in a suburb of Chicago, the first scary movie I remember seeing was the 1965 Bette Davis movie, The Nanny. To this day, that movie has always stuck with me as one of the great psychological thrillers of all time. For me, A Child from the Wishing Well, by Raymond Nickford, is reminiscent of that movie. Ruth, the eerie music tutor, and Gerard strap you in, and take you on a psychological thrill-ride to the very end.

Raymond confesses to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and says he is moved by the music and life of the composer Edward Elgar, his interest leading him each year to a cottage in the Malvern Hills and to the Three Choirs Festival. He is a member of the Elgar Society.

The author is currently working on another psychological, Prey to Her Madonna. Here, all he will say is that the intrigue moves between Madeira, an eerie French shrine, an English village and London.  

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why is Aristo hypnotising his son ? An poignant and eerie tale on the island of Cyprus., November 29, 2011

By 

Paul Wood - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristo's Family (Kindle Edition)

Aristo's hypnotism of his son through the 'Greek lessons' which he gives his son Pavlos, in the guise of home tuition, is so subtly introduced that I found I had to pull myself up at times to avoid going under the same influence as the teenager himself.

Why is Aristo hypnotising his son? It gradually becomes apparent that the boy has to be 'prepared' to meet a family of an altogether different kind to any he could have otherwise recognised or imagined.

The family turn out to be modern people but possessed by the spirit of their ancient Greek Cypriot ancestors and, more sinister for the teenage Pavlos, the gathering he is being slowly integrated with have a mission - to cleanse Pavlos after he has been discovered to have shamed his father by sleeping with a middle-aged woman who is an English archaeologist working with Aristo in his private museum.

Yes, the book is uncannily creepy in a way I haven't found in other authors and yet, for me, I had to keep reading because I wanted to see if the the boy could come closer to a father who seemed only interested in moulding and controlling his son.

It turns out that Aristo is as much to be pitied as his son their individual needs to be loved by family somehow excluding the possibility of their loving each other as father and son - Aristo needing to feel he belongs to the family he lost in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Pavlos needing to feel he is loved by a father who is totally preoccupied with his creepy search for lost family.

Twists in the Tale

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Greek as a myth yet disturbingly real, December 9, 2011

By 

Salut d'amour - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristo's Family (Kindle Edition)

The time warp that the author takes the reader into, from modern to ancient Cypriots, might make you feel you're reading one of the Greek myths and I suspect the author could be influenced by his own reading of the epic ones. Yet for me it wasn't so much the mystery and atmosphere Nickford conjures but more the powerful irony that impacts.

The irony is that, while the archaeologist Aristo yearns to belong to the family who were all taken from him when burnt in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Aristo's, himself divorced and living alone with his only surviving son, Pavlos, still yearns to belong and mean something to his family again and this makes him so preoccupied that he becomes remote from his own teenage son, Pavlos. In turn, Pavlos yearns to mean more to his father, Aristo, who has started to drive up through the winding roads of the Troodos mountains at night, leaving Pavlos alone, to find his 'family'. Even when he returns home to his son, Aristo seems increasingly distant, not just preoccupied but possessed by people he meets up in mountain dwellings at night and who seem to have some strangely ancient habits.

When Pavlos awakens to the realisation that he can hypnotise his father then, once in trance, he hears his father begin to utter things which reveal a disturbing link to a family who once lived millennia ago and yet who are now returning to "make his son clean" after Aristo found him beneath the beautiful middle-aged archaeologist colleague of his, Katharine.

In places you have to suspend disbelief but in doing so the story becomes both very engaging and original.

Though at times it has the flavour of myth, Aristo's Family is firmly rooted in the realities of modern Cyprus and I found it, more than anything else, a moving portrayal of a father and son alone - remote even from one another in the normal sense of family and yet each with an inner craving to be close.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barbara Erskine's quote "Atmospheric...intriguing" is fair comment, December 7, 2011

By 

Sue Weir (Winslow, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aristo's Family (Kindle Edition)

Having wondered whether a modern Greek 'Aristo' could have any link to an ancient 'Aristotle' - the book description hinting at the ancient link - I began to sample the ebook version of this novel, not least because I'd also noticed from the author notes that Raymond Nickford is himself part Greek Cypriot and knows the island well.

The writing obviously benefits from the author's own connection with his scenes and, indirectly, his distinctly Greek characters. Aristo, Stefanos and the eccentric Spiropoulos seem too ooze with their Ouzo and mischievous island manners, the culture of the village Greek Cypriot almost climbing out of the page. Spiropoulos is described : "The inspector's smile had widened. He looked much like a contented imbecile; as though the world was made of honey and almond blossom," and later "That was the wink, and now Spiropoulos jerking Papas' shoulders into him so hard that some Metaxa had spilt on to the inspector's suit, and he was now so close to Papas he was in danger either of kissing or anaesthetising him with his breath.
'Kopiaste?' Papas turned from the man's breath with a pained smile."

The same loving detail of character is also given to the scenes and settings. I felt I was travelling up into the moonlit mountains alone with Aristo and I felt the haunting presence he feels of the spirits of Ancient Greek islanders lurking behind the crags in the rocks, watching his every move.

For the price this is easily as good a read from beginning to end as other literary thrillers I've paid much more for in paperback and even in ebook over the year.