The Slap

I like to read. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on, magazines, blogs, cereal packets at breakfast...anything really which can be a tad annoying for my nearest and dearest. I’m definitely a member of #teamrealbooks so a Kindle is NOT on my wish list, I love taking books in the bath and that just seems like a risk too far. I like a lot of different genres. I’ve had my teen years full of romance novels, bonk busters (aahh Jackie Collins) and chick lit; now I prefer real life situations, complex characters, plausible dialogue.

A book I read at the end of last year, ‘The Slap’ by Christos Tsiolkas has all of that and then some. The books blurb pretty much sums up the premise: ‘At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy. It’s a single act of violence. But this event reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.’ This one act strongly divides moral opinion among the BBQ attendees, shatters relationships and continues to cause waves for months. It’s an international best seller and recently been dramatised by the BBC, starring Melissa George and Sophie Okonedo, so obviously I’m not the only one who thought so, but here’s a few reasons why I loved the book:

The narrative structure is not unique but is rarely executed so well. Each chapter is told by a different character, all of whom were present at the BBQ when the slap took place and continues over the following months as the aftermath ripples through the group. The BBQ provides the perfect setting to showcase the interconnectedness of a number of relationships; family, friends and work colleagues spanning three generations and one of Tsiolkas’ strengths lies in providing authentic voices for both men and women of different races and ages. Cultural, age specific references help ensure the voice is just as strong and believable for 17 year old Richie ( Lily Allen, The Streets, drugs, university pressure and unrequited gay love) as for Manolis in his sixties (Greek words and phrases, thoughts of mortality and memories of his migration to Australia from Greece).   

Every single character is flawed. Every one. And not a ‘oh she’s always later or a bit bitchy or a shit cook’ kind of flawed, seriously flawed. A bit like most of us then. None of the characters are all bad and none are all good, there are no out and out heroes or villains here. They are plagued with vanity, selfishness and lie frequently, they are unfaithful and scheming and yet they all seem so very, very normal. The people most closely involved in the slapping incident – Harry and the parents of the kid/brat (depending on how you view it) – are ironically the least likeable characters, presumably so that the reader sides with neither and actually has to decide their opinion based on just the act itself. Harry, who hit the child, is deplorable in a lot of ways; he is masculine to the point of Neanderthal, racist towards both white Australians and the Aborigines, misogynistic, violent – but he is hard working, fair to his employees, enterprising and family orientated. The boy’s mother, while being a sort of hippy Earth mother lumbered with an alcoholic, work shy husband, detracts from her victim status because of her unwillingness to discipline her child, her jealousy of her friends and her refusal to see other points of view or accept blame.

Tsiolka’s exploration of female friendship really struck a chord with me. Aisha, Anouk and Rosie have been friends since their teens and the trio have the bond of history but they often hold opposing views on things such as children and family, so the slapping incident brings these underlying tensions to the fore. Rosie is so steadfast in her belief that she takes Harry to court while Anouk believes the slap was justified and so an apology should suffice. Aisha’s character was completely caught in the conflict; having witnessed Harry’s violent side before when he attacked his wife, breaking her jaw, she finds the slapping of the child disgusting but feels pressured by her husband Hector, Harry’s cousin, to support her family. These tensions simmered beneath every meeting of the friends, but were symptoms of other issues at play between the women and the majority of female friendships. Rosie adores and admires Aisha, cherishes their friendship and yet at the same time is tortured by jealousy at her financial standing and seemingly perfect home life. I think most females, as proud as they are of their friends sometimes experience feelings of jealousy and this was dealt with realistically; subtle hints over the months the book spanned. Anouk and Rosie, while often sharing moments of genuine affection towards each other due to their shared history, had outgrown each other and both knew it; Anouk found Rosie judgemental and weak, Rosie thought Anouk abrasive and cold. The friendship only remained because of Aisha. Yeah, I’ve been there...

The last thing I liked was that the book was set in suburban Australia. I can’t say I’ve read or watched much set down under; I’m not counting the pre-watershed, family fun of ‘Neighbours’ and ‘Home and Away’ here, obviously. Tsiolka’s writing is rich and highly detailed and so the images he paints of both the Australian coast and the suburbs are undeniably strong. He is able to perfectly capture a slice of society. The issues between white Australia and the Aborigines are well documented, but several of the characters are of Greek origin. The racial separations between the characters were so ingrained but also typical of ‘modern racism’ – everybody was civil, courteous even, on the surface, but the individual chapters allow the reader to digest their real thoughts. While I was relatively unsurprised by the white characters intimidation by or fear of the Aborigines, I was taken aback that some of the Greek characters felt the same and looked down on them, calling them derogatory names like ‘wogs’. I’m not entirely sure why I was surprised, perhaps it was the absolute vehemence of Harry and the fact that he was instilling his beliefs into his young son that shocked me. I was even more shocked that both the Greek and Aborigine characters looked at the white Australians as ‘trash’. The references to them as alcoholics with no morals were so casual it was almost a given, and maybe I’m ignorant but I wasn’t aware of the stereotype so it was an eye opener.  

Oh yeah, and all of the adult characters lamented the lost generation with their rudeness, lack of respect, desire to look like sluts and spoilt behaviour. Ah, good to see it’s the same for the youth over there as it is over here.



Christos Tsiolkas





New Year, New You?

What's your New Years Resolution? So many people have become cynical about New Years and say they don't believe in resolutions because we all give up by the second week of January anyway, or go off on one about not needing it to be the start of the new year to do something. I agree with the 'why wait?' school of thought in that if you want to try something or change something you should go for it, be it August 1st or Jnauary 1st.

But.

I think there's something quite beautiful about us all wanting our next year to be better than our last and making that extra effort, even if only for a little while has got to be better than making no effort at all, which quite frankly will probably be the case for many.

I started 2012 in Thailand with friends and just after midnight, the fireworks and champagne, we sent hand written notes with our hopes, dreams and wishes for the year ahead up to the sky in burning lanterns. I like to think some of them will come true...

Thrifty

Do you remember back in school days when wearing second hand clothes was worse than being seen with a Primark carrier bag? Oh how times have changed! Now I wear my Primarni with pride and everyone wants a bit of second hand, we just rename it vintage. I love going vintage shopping, Camden is great for it and I've got some fabulous bits down in Brighton too. 

Knowing you have a unique piece that you won't see 3 other girls wearing on Friday night is a great feeling, and one I don't mind paying a bit for but if I'm honest, I'm my mothers daughter and I love a bargain. You can get some great bits down at a car boot sale for a fraction of the price you would pay in Camden or Portobello Road markets, so when a good friend of mine showed me this great car boot sale in Chiswick, I fell in love! Every few months I go along for some amazing goodies and the snap above is just a few of the bits I picked up on my last trip. For those of you who rejoice in a good deal, I got T-shirts and blouses for 30p, jumpers for £2 (one I only had £1.80 so I made my best offer and he accepted) and that 90's looking jacket in the pic was £9...less than a tenner! The stall owners let you haggle a bit although I'm quite crap at that, I make my friends do it for me. I've even tried getting rid of some of my own junk there but you have to get there at like 3am to get a good spot and it's real cold in the winter...much better to shop!

Lady Of The Manor

So this shoot was cut short as we were thrown off private property for trespassing... ooops! All very dramatic (shout out to the crazy park warden). To Be Continued!

Photography: Paolo Casseb
Styling: Juan Arias
Make up: Mariella Amodeo
Hair: Simon John-Lewis

Exquisite Torture

I turn through the smiles and chatter and there you are.

You don’t make everything slow down around me, but there is a sharpness and clarity to what I see there that is missing everywhere else.

A delicious secret from the masses, but if they looked up then – the intensity has a colour, a smell, a sound. It moves, dances back and forth, bounces off the walls, caresses our skin.

It is alive.

I’ve never known passion such as this; I writhe in the throes of ecstasy and collapse into midnight misery. Exquisite torture.

Extricating myself has proven futile. I am here, at your mercy, terrified yet exhilarated.

Wet

Just a few snaps taken by Paolo Casseb. You can check out more of his photography here: http://www.paolocasseb.blogspot.com/
Rocking my hair curly for a change, trying to grow out of GHD abuse!

Top Boy

This week, Channel 4 aired the four part drama Top Boy. There had been billboards all over London and adverts in all the papers (well the Metro and Evening Standard anyway). The programme was met with a split reaction, from the media, which was to be expected, but also from its target audience and was the topic of numerous Twitter and Facebook debates. It got me thinking. I love to throw out my views on Twitter, often without thinking, but I couldn’t fit how I felt into a few 140 character tweets this time.

Before the first episode had even been shown there had been stories in the press; Hackney borough had declined to let the production be shot there despite the story being set there and residents had gone on record denouncing the programme, claiming the area was nothing like the Baltimore projects in ‘The Wire’ and expressing fears of how the programme would damage perceptions of the neighbourhood and be bad for local business. So far, so standard.

As the hype built for the first episode and the guest list grew for the packed live premiere, I personally couldn’t wait to tune in. I knew a number of the actors, either from working with them or just through industry events (please forgive that phrase, I am fully aware of how wanky it sounds) and I’m always keen to support ‘urban’ programmes, and for this to be shown on prime time terrestrial TV, I wanted viewing figures as high as they could be. I usually have a problem with the ‘urban’ tag because people often equate it with ‘black’. Urban is the opposite of rural, not white, so this grates on me. A lot. But Top Boy was definitely an urban drama, set in the inner-city, on the estates of Hackney, and while the majority of the cast were black, there were key white characters and minor characters of other races. I think it is vital that our ‘urban’ experiences are told on television and film, for our culture to be depicted, our music, our slang, or clothes – especially because it is still a rare occurrence. And I don’t mean black culture exclusively, although that clearly has a huge influence on the inner city youth of today.

I’m not going to rehash the storyline; the reviews have done that and better than I could. We know that the programme was drugs and violence heavy and that two of the main characters DuShane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kano) were big dealers on the estate. This is where audience opinion split. Reading my Twitter timeline, as the tweets flooded in hash tagging TopBoyC4 while the programme was on and more importantly after people had a chance to reflect when the first episode finished, the people I follow seemed to fall into two camps. Some praised the authenticity of the characters and the situations that were played out, others were disappointed to see another programme perpetuating negative stereotypes of black men. The latter thought the story had been told countless times before, that the drugs, violence and criminality were glamourised and that the message the programme was sending was irresponsible.

Myself – I’m on both sides. No, not sitting on the fence, more one foot firmly on each side. As a mixed race actor, a lot of the scripts that I’m sent and some of the projects I’ve done would be deemed ‘urban’. It can be tiresome. A lot of the scripts and plots can seem samey or just over the top and embarrassing. I would love to see black actors playing more varied parts; as barristers, doctors, middle class families, storylines that do not feature drugs and violence and yet still have them in the main roles. I would love to play these parts myself! I can see myself playing a high-flying business woman or some upper class snooty bitch, can’t you? I didn’t grow up on an estate or date drug dealers and although I am proudly working class I have lots of black middle class friends in London. Their experience isn’t being depicted and if it is, it is commented on extensively because it is so rare. I would love to see this become a little bit more, well, normal, on our screens.

However, I don’t think these two feelings are mutually exclusive and I think a lot of the people criticising the programme for being negative lost sight of the fact this kind of life is a reality for some people. People I know. People you know. Put all the positive representations of black people you like on screen and it still won’t stop it being real. Some of these same people would have loved ‘The Wire’, have the box set and all sorts, but this felt a bit...close to home. I saw a tweet the next day: '@AbukJoseph people don’t like to look in the mirror when something ugly is looking back. Top Boy is a mirror of our society.' Some of the scenes in Top Boy made me so uncomfortable I could barely watch. Not just the violence and killing (RIP Sway’s fingers) but some of the smaller moments. Seeing young Ra’Nell (Malcolm Kamulete) resist joining the dealers on the estate only to be manipulated by his mums’ pregnant friend (Heather played by Kierston Wareing)  into helping her with her weed farm because he wanted to help her get her better life, his mum suffering a break with reality in the market that led to her being hospitalised (Lisa played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster), young Chantelle ( Letitia Wright) teaching Gem (Giacomo Mancini) how to hold a rock of crack in his mouth and still be able to speak or Gem holding his dead dog for hours after it had been killed because Sully thought he was a snitch. That shit broke my heart. And sometimes people don’t want to see that.

Top Boy was a gripping programme; it was more than just ‘hood’. The cinematography was beautiful, saturated with colour, wide scenery shots that showed the juxtaposition of the grimey estates and the luxury of The City. The programme touched on lots of issues; mental health, broken families, treatment of women. The throwaway line from Chantelle when one of the boys she was looking out with told her to ‘Fuck Off’, that he was already acting like a boyfriend was so telling of what she had seen and expected in life. Trust and tested loyalty between DuShane and Sully, between Ra’Nell and Gem. We saw the drug dealers with their mothers, their babymothers, their children. We saw them a little more as people and not just villains. We saw how a kid without a strong family unit might look up to the dealers for protection, for a feeling of family. Post riots, maybe some people watching the show might have got a glimpse at the experiences some of these kids have and stop calling them ‘mindless criminals’ long enough to think about why they got sucked in.

 The writing (Ronan Bennett) was strong. The acting was on point. Ashley never disappoints, Kano made an impressive debut and the youngsters, Malcolm Kamulete, Letitia Wright and Giacomo Mancini were inspiring.

 One criticism that I do agree with was there seemed to be a lack of consequence, considering there were quite a few deaths here. But the bad guy sometimes does get away with things doesn’t he? I’m hoping they didn’t wrap it all up neatly because that would mean we wouldn’t get a second series....

 I’m not naive enough to think that it is easy to get other kinds of programmes or films about black people made because often the powers that be will only back certain things. I think the fact that Top Boy pulled in heaps of viewers and trended worldwide on Twitter shows that as an audience, we want to watch things we relate to, things about our experiences, our people and so it makes sense that we would want some diversity in the storylines, and I think we should still fight to get these made. But we don’t have to stop showing the dark side of things, especially not when it is done as well as Top Boy was.