Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
Novella is well worth the wait
Good things come to they who wait, according to the old adage – and that is certainly true of author Malcolm Beadle, whose debut novella has taken twenty years to come to fruition.
Malcolm, known as Mally, aged 65 and from Darlington, County Durham, has written Koki, which tells the story of an American sniper operating alone in the jungles of the Vietnam War. However, Trent Blane is no ordinary sniper. Having left behind his family and abandoned the only job he has ever known, working as a jobbing clown called Koki in Rodeo shows across the United States, he paints his face as a clown in the steamy jungles of Vietnam.
The story can be traced back twenty years to when Malcolm, who works in a recycling centre, took screenwriting classes at Darlington Arts Centre, which led him to taking writing classes run at the centre by crime writer John Dean, now a best-selling crime novelist living in Dumfries and Galloway, South West Scotland.
Malcom, pictured here, said: “I found myself amongst a mixture of people, some of whom were accomplished writers, others who had very little experience of writing, like me.
“I loved the way that John used to get us thinking. He would give us a topic or a situation and then we had twenty minutes to write something or cobble together a bunch of ideas. My ideas came faster than I could write them down. My head was full of them.
“Eventually, I had to select one of the many ideas to focus on and the story of a sniper who wears a clown mask was the one that won out.
“I cannot type, I am a ‘search and peck’ kind of writer, so it takes me longer to do stuff. I learnt quite a bit from taking BBC Maestro courses, which encourage people to explore their creativity, and also from reading Lee Child, my favourite novelist.
“It was only after a stroke in May 2023 that I decided to get Koki finished and now I’m ready for other people to experience it.”
John Dean, a regular in the Amazon best-seller charts, said: “The main thing I recall from Mally in those early days was the sheer number of ideas that he came up with. I had never encountered someone so creative – it was like someone had taken the top off his head and stirred up his brain! I am delighted that Koki has finally come to fruition. It’s certainly worth the wait.”
Koki can be purchased in ebook and paperback formats on Amazon.
About the book
Trent Blane has been a hunter since he was aged just eight. Now an adult, he has moved on from hunting animals to hunting human beings, having joined the American Army and signed up for the Vietnam War as a sniper.
However, Trent Blane is no ordinary sniper. Having left behind his family and abandoned the only job he has ever known, working as a jobbing clown called Koki in Rodeo shows across the United States, he has taken a clown mask with him to the steamy jungles of Vietnam.
He operates on his own in the jungle and that’s how he likes it; Trent Blane is a loner, a man for whom the solitary existence of the sniper appeals to something deep within him as he stealthily tracks down his unsuspecting victims. He would have liked it more if it rained less, and if there weren’t so many booby traps.
Then everything changes as Blane tries to come to terms with the murder of his family while also trying to help two CIA agents who enter his part of the jungle and ask for his assistance in tracking down a couple of collaborators. Blane is perfectly prepared to help out on two conditions. One is simple, the other will affect him for the rest of his life as the murder of his family changes everything.
Koki is a remarkable debut novella which took the author twenty years to finish. The end result, with its claustrophobic depiction of life in the fetid jungle and the compelling character of its main protagonist, means that it is definitely worth the wait.
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Comment by Tom Benson on April 29, 2025 at 11:28pm
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I was delighted to see Mally's book, and having critiqued his early efforts with the story I was eager to read the finished item. Here is a link to my review. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/R1CZDGC1EFSAF3/
About
DfC
The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.
Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.
DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.
Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org
Publications
Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.
Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com
The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from
The Inkerman Writers’ latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows
The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.
Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.
Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.
The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:
“Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.
“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.
“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.
“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”
The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3
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