Recommended retail price :
R 100.00

ISBN:
978-0-9814036-0-1

General information :
80 pages
Fiction - short stories

Link to www.tonyridgway.co.za

Links:

KKNK Photos

Top Songwriter turns author

One of South Africa's top songwriters-to-the-stars, Tony Ridgway, has just had a remarkable little book of short fiction published by Griffel Media, and the book is now available.

Ridgway has penned or produced hits for artists like Patricia Lewis, Kurt Darren, Juanita Du Plessis, Cheree, Wynand Strydom, Jurie Els, Christo en Cobus, Nic Stevens, Ray Dylan, Anke, Thys Die Bosveldklong, Gas, Judith Sephuma and Jonathan Butler, to mention some. His latest production, ‘Country Girl’ by Cheree, is an official SAMA nomination for this year.

Ridgway’s legendary band ROCKING HORSE are also set to make a return to the stage after a long sleep; Tony is their lead singer and songwriter.

Last year Tony collaborated with poet Francis Grobler and singer Wynand Strydom to produce a ‘soundtrack’ to Grobler’s poems titled ‘Pyltjies Innie Sand’ (also Griffel) – a package worthy of anyone’s collection and exceptionally well-received by the critics.

And now sees the release of his peculiarly titled short story collection: The Disenfranchised Goldfish& Other Fairy Tails.

THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR THE FEINT-HEARTED.

Tony Ridgway’s debut collection of short stories “The Disenfranchised Goldfish and other fairy tails” promises as unusual and delectable a reading experience as the title so evocatively captures. I mean, why “tails” and “do fairies even have tails?”, initiates the vertiginous mindswing that this man is able to take you on. You will certainly be captivated and captured as you first hold this esoterically pretty book in your hands. The beautiful paintings by Tony’s late brother, Greg, is an excellent choice that not only enhances and adds to the stories, but stands as works of art by as talented a Ridgway as the author. But not only does this book delight visually, the 26 “tails” belong to magic fairies that will titillate all of your senses.

Perhaps the esoteric property of the stories is a natural outflow of Ridgway’s poetry. Published in 1987 in ‘Upstream Magazine’, Alan James writes of these poems and their poet: “…There is an apparent ‘coolness’, an easiness with which you move through the urban landscape, defining it by name and small detail and making little effort to analyse it or theorise about it or force it to yield metaphors or symbols. What is there is there.”

Indeed. Bravo to Griffel Media for going with their gutfeeling to publish this extraordinary book. Treat yourself to an immersion of Ridgway’s bubbly tales that are always entertaining and deeply empathic even while employing scathing social commentary rooted in the South Africa and her many peoples that Ridgway loves so deeply.

ILSE KRIEGLER