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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Mervyn At Sunnybanks
Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77225] Fri, 21 August 2020 15:14 Go to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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Am I the only one happy for another installment in the Sunnybanks series?

It's lovely to have c_m's new story and be back at Sunnybanks Hotel. There's a new twist, as we wonder how Mervyn will sort himself out, and now there appears on the scene a real object of his affection in the form of the gorgeous construction worker with the mass of curly blond hair.

It will likely be complicated with their personal histories, and to make matters more complicated still, the summer internship working at the hotel to gain experience will only last a short time...so how can things possibly reach a satisfactory outcome?

Blonde curls atop "the faintest outline of a six-pack above a pair of cut-off denim shorts and work boots." Yum! 



Bensiamin
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77227 is a reply to message #77225] Sat, 22 August 2020 06:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Talo Segura is currently offline  Talo Segura

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I like recommendations, but never having heard of, or read the sunnybanks series and seeing three shortshort stories and one book with the name, plus this latest story Mervyn, I guess I'd need to know what it's about and where it started, what's the series list.
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77228 is a reply to message #77227] Sat, 22 August 2020 08:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

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Talo - following Ben's generous recommendation, if you are interested in reading the 'Sunnybanks' stories, could I suggest that you start with the main story ('Sunnybanks') which is in 16 parts. This comes chronologically first, and will give you an introduction to the characters and the setting - and also let you decide whether it is a story you actually like and want to read. It may not appeal to you; I hope that it does, but we all have very individual tastes in these things.

If you enjoy it, the next story to read would be 'Sunnybanks revisited' which looks at how things might have gone differently had the main characters reacted differently at a crucial point in the original story.

The logical next story would be 'Damaged Goods', although that and all the other short stories stand alone; they just share the location - and some of the characters in the original story have minor roles to play.
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77229 is a reply to message #77225] Sat, 22 August 2020 20:39 Go to previous messageGo to next message
luvtwinks is currently offline  luvtwinks

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"Bensiamin wrote on Fri, 21 August 2020 15:14"
Am I the only one happy for another installment in the Sunnybanks series?




--
Nope. I love this series too! ❤️
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77232 is a reply to message #77229] Mon, 24 August 2020 12:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
pandareader is currently offline  pandareader

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"luvtwinks wrote on Sat, 22 August 2020 20:39"

"Bensiamin wrote on Fri, 21 August 2020 15:14"
Am I the only one happy for another installment in the Sunnybanks series?





--
Nope. I love this series too! ❤️

--
So do I! Looking forward to reading this one! 
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77247 is a reply to message #77232] Thu, 27 August 2020 15:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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We're not told at the outset how many chapters comprise the Mervyn story, but we certainly know after the close of Chapter 4 that there's at least one more is ahead for this pair of charming young men. 

I'm finding the way this story is written with its freshness and immediacy to be very enjoyable. Add to that the credible exploration by both characters of their sexual identity and relationship makes it very engaging. Even Mervyn, who thinks he knows himself, is discovering new things about himself.

We're left with the cliff hanger now - where will the relationship be going? Must we wait days for the next chapter?!?!



Bensiamin
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77248 is a reply to message #77247] Thu, 27 August 2020 19:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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Pssst... it says 6 chapters.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77249 is a reply to message #77248] Thu, 27 August 2020 19:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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Ahh, you mean on the c_m author page!

Thanks for that, Timmy...now it's clear there's hope after the cliffhanger!



Bensiamin
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77250 is a reply to message #77225] Fri, 28 August 2020 09:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cm is currently offline  cm

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Thanks for the kind comments, Ben.

I don't know whether (or to what extent) the freshness/immediacy you found comes from the fact that I wrote the piece quickly - no more than a week in all (which is not my usual habit) - or the fact that Duncan was inspired by a real-life person who was fresh in my mind. The house opposite us needed its chimneys redoing a month or so ago and the scaffolding for it was put up during the two hottest days of the year so far. The owners weren't there, and around midday this incredibly handsome teenage boy who was part of the team putting the scaffolding up came and knocked on my door asking if he could refill their water bottles. We spoke for barely a couple of minutes, but he was utterly charming - and had this amazing head of golden curly hair. No reason to suppose he was anything other than straight, but he got my mind thinking about a story; I added Sunnybanks as a location for it - and 'Mervyn' is the result.
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77253 is a reply to message #77225] Mon, 31 August 2020 08:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ivor slipper is currently offline  ivor slipper

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No, you definitely weren't the only one.

And I particularly liked this sentence from the final chapter which absolutely summed up my feelings about that programme.

We'll invest amounts of between £25,000 and £250,000 in exchange for a modest stake in their businesses genuinely modest, not like those rapacious Dragons on the TV who insist on virtually owning someone's business before they hand over any money.


Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77255 is a reply to message #77253] Tue, 01 September 2020 00:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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Here, here, Ivor. Besides the comment on the Dragons, the other side of the undertaking, funding young people with demonstrated initiative with small levels of finance, with the aim of a return to keeping the foundation "self-sustaining" rather than turning a huge profit...make it a nole enterprise!

Good for Merv and Dunc, even though Charlie must have been unhappy to have lost him General Manager...unless Merv turns out to be able to do both jobs simultaneously!



Bensiamin
Re: Mervyn At Sunnybanks  [message #77258 is a reply to message #77255] Tue, 01 September 2020 10:36 Go to previous message
cm is currently offline  cm

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...rumour has it that Adam, the assistant manager Mervyn replaced (and a former protege of Charlie's), has been lured back to take on the role...
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